[richardwong]

Monochrome - you're too neutral

I like to think of Pentax as a lot like Blackberry, the smartphone maker. Right now Blackberry will be lucky to survive yet its new line of phones are very decent and just like the K3 won an award as the best smartphone this year. In today's world of smartphones full of all touch screen phones Blackberry still makes ones with combination of keyboards and touch screens. For those people who like to use keyboards on phones it's probably not because they're nicer looking but they can do certain functions better with the keyboard.

With the K-01 I found myself learned how to use it faster than my K5 and it ended up being very functional too the point I just liked it more than my K5. Its functional, especially for the price, just like my Blackberry and I just upgraded to a K3 for the faster autofocus and the focus peaking being available. I've seen plenty of excellent photos by K-01 owners so the camera can't be that bad then if that's the case.

In the end I listen to reviewers, mostly neutral ones, and Chris, just a suggestion, you might think it's a piece of garbage, but you'll get more respect from viewers if you leave those type of comments to yourself. Just say it wasn't designed well for these reasons and that's it.

You are overly objective and not nearly opinionated enough to write a proper camera review.

[monochrome]

Monochrome - you're too neutral

Had you been here in the spring and summer of 2012 you wouldn't have said that. I might even have have had a timeout - can't recall for certain.

I think I'll just depart this conversation now. I'm doing that more and more often lately. None of this really matters. I just want to enjoy my cameras and lenses and images and let well enough alone.

The issue I fear is that if this unwarranted knee-jerk Pentax-bashing continues (in the face of some really, really good, well-reviewed products) the general camera buyer won't ever get the chance to use a Pentax. Don't think for even one minute that potential Dealers are any better educated on product than the general buying public. They often aren't. Don't think for a minute that even if a Dealer is aware of Pentax's qualities, the negative reviews don't play into the decision not to stock Pentax. They're not going to stock things they're afraid people won't buy because they get (wrongly) panned - or ignored - in the review press.

If Ricoh started to put effort behind the brand image in North America RIGHT NOW it would STILL take years to undo the damage Hoya did.

[konraDarnok]

Hey Everyone

It's Chris Niccolls here from The Camera Store using Jordan's account (he wanted me to make that clear). Let me preface this reply by saying that I'd like to think we try to stay quite objective when it comes to our camera reviews including those from Pentax, and that we have a great relationship with Pentax Canada and they have always appreciated our honest opinions on their products. As well we really enjoy our relationship with pentaxforums.com in particular and the support from all of you over the years. Now of course the K-01 has an excellent sensor, and the versatility of its full K mount lens range, but at the same time it has some very poor design elements like a lack of functional buttons, no viewfinder despite the body size, poor autofocus, and terrible rubber doors and is in my opinion (and I feel I'm entitled to have an opinion) a bad case of form over function. I truly dislike it as a camera and as a work of art. A company like Pentax is capable of making some excellent gear and yet is also capable of making very poor and very unmarketable choices as well. Still lets keep in mind that I'm not trying to insult or attack anyone personally except maybe Marc Newson. I'm not going to apologize for expressing my honest opinion and if it upsets some users, well so be it, but I do very much appreciate that Pentax has always supported our videos fully and that the Pentax community is vibrant and loyal to their products.

Also in order to satisfy another forum users curiosity, I actually cut my own hair and don't spend much time on it at all so it really doesn't cost me much money or time, but if it looks like I spent a ton on it I'll take that as a compliment. We should talk about the K3 sometime and then we can all be friends again. Thanks as always for your comments and opinions. Whether they agree with our choices or not we do truly value them.

Chris @ TCS TV

Who asked you to apologize? Try not to be so defensive. This just happens to be (the only?) forum on the internet that disagrees with your "critique" of the camera. My only real wish would be a tilt screen. Otherwise, it's a fine camera. It's Ergonomic (if you don't hold it like a traditional SLR). The rubber door has never had any issues. The AF is pretty good with the new firmware, and it's very lightweight. The shutter is absolutely fantastic.

But something about it makes camera geeks irrationally hateful. Frankly, that's kinda why I like it too. And when I show the K-01to non-camera-geeks. . .you know, regular ol' people who just want to take photographs, they think it's delightful. "This is the kind of camera I was looking for!" Well, the camera press disagrees, so too bad I guess.

[LaurenOE]

Hey Everyone

It's Chris Niccolls here from The Camera Store using Jordan's account (he wanted me to make that clear). Let me preface this reply by saying that I'd like to think we try to stay quite objective when it comes to our camera reviews including those from Pentax, and that we have a great relationship with Pentax Canada and they have always appreciated our honest opinions on their products. As well we really enjoy our relationship with pentaxforums.com in particular and the support from all of you over the years. Now of course the K-01 has an excellent sensor, and the versatility of its full K mount lens range, but at the same time it has some very poor design elements like a lack of functional buttons, no viewfinder despite the body size, poor autofocus, and terrible rubber doors and is in my opinion (and I feel I'm entitled to have an opinion) a bad case of form over function. I truly dislike it as a camera and as a work of art. A company like Pentax is capable of making some excellent gear and yet is also capable of making very poor and very unmarketable choices as well. Still lets keep in mind that I'm not trying to insult or attack anyone personally except maybe Marc Newson. I'm not going to apologize for expressing my honest opinion and if it upsets some users, well so be it, but I do very much appreciate that Pentax has always supported our videos fully and that the Pentax community is vibrant and loyal to their products.

Also in order to satisfy another forum users curiosity, I actually cut my own hair and don't spend much time on it at all so it really doesn't cost me much money or time, but if it looks like I spent a ton on it I'll take that as a compliment. We should talk about the K3 sometime and then we can all be friends again. Thanks as always for your comments and opinions. Whether they agree with our choices or not we do truly value them.

Chris @ TCS TV

You're awesome, we know you're a Pentax fan.
You get a free pass on that little dig.
The K-01, first I hated it, now that I own one, it's become one of my favorite quirks.

Granted, I pretty much own anything that says Pentax, but hey.

[monochrome]

Credentialed Elites don't like it when the unwashed don't agree with what they deem 'a good decision'.

In the pretentious. un-Credentialed pseudo-Elite sub-group, individual behavior elicits an emotional virulent form of 'Othering', such as calling an object of derision An Absolute Piece of Garbage.

TCS probably won't miss me. They surely won't miss the smell of garbage.

[LeRolls]

As a fairly hardcore K-01 power user I was feeling the need to participate in this thread and toss in my own 2 cents.

When I first watched the video on YouTube I really was quite pissed when Chris straight up called the K-01 "An Absolute Piece of Garbage" since that seemed an awfully severe stance to take. I feel that a camera would have to be quite terrible in almost every conceivable way to deserve that kind of extreme admonishment especially from someone who up to this point has reviewed camera gear in what I considered to be a fairly professional manner. My brother was also taken aback by the statement and suggested that I leave a comment on the video defending the K-01 and recommending that Chris Nicholls actually take the time to look at some of the fine images that have been taken with this so called train wreck of camera but I figured that the Canikon Nazis trolls would jump out of the woodwork and use my comment to attack Pentax in general so I refrained. If you were to agree with his assessment then I guess you might have to consider K-01 owners to be some of the most amazing photographers in the world to be able to take the photos that we do with such an abomination of a camera.

I've owned a K-01 since the end of 2012 and I would probably still choose it over any other MILC option currently available that is under $600. The reasons being that it offers great image quality and it lets me use the wonderful Pentax prime lenses that I have come to love in large part because of this fun and quirky camera.

[Rondec]

I think the K-01 could use quite a bit of improvement -- particularly when compared to current mirrorless cameras (remember it is two years old). If Pentax released it now, with an EVF, auto focus points on the sensor, faster frame rate and better buffer and sold it for, say, 400 dollars, it would be a hot seller. The problem initially was that Pentax popped it out and priced it at 800 dollars. I guess it was a camera for hipsters. Oh well, I got one when it dropped to 250 and I really like it. Stick a DA 15 or DA 40 on it and you have a small, but highly capable camera. I use mine mainly for landscape and portaiture, so nothing that require too zippy an auto focus module.

I just wish people weren't so anti-K-01 because I think Pentax has given up on the line, when I would have continued development on it.

[Na Horuk]

I was just thinking about how many of my photos were ruined by the rubber flap door... oh wait, none, ever

[konraDarnok]

I think the K-01 could use quite a bit of improvement -- particularly when compared to current mirrorless cameras (remember it is two years old). If Pentax released it now, with an EVF, auto focus points on the sensor, faster frame rate and better buffer and sold it for, say, 400 dollars, it would be a hot seller. The problem initially was that Pentax popped it out and priced it at 800 dollars. I guess it was a camera for hipsters. Oh well, I got one when it dropped to 250 and I really like it. Stick a DA 15 or DA 40 on it and you have a small, but highly capable camera. I use mine mainly for landscape and portaiture, so nothing that require too zippy an auto focus module.

I just wish people weren't so anti-K-01 because I think Pentax has given up on the line, when I would have continued development on it.

There's no doubt the specs could use an update compared to modern cameras, but what of modern mirrorless cameras? Have you used a Sony Nex? I bought one used on ebay to play with. There are some things I really like about the camera, mostly the tilt screen. Awesome. Better than an electronic viewfinder. The yellow peaking is better than the K-01s, but you know what really hobbles the whole camera? The interface. The menu system on Sony cameras really is garbage. It's truly a feat of bad design.

Pentax cameras have only gotten better in this regard. The very first menu screen has all the important camera controls right in front of you -- all are easily changed with the thumb wheel. The Nex is nothing like this. It hides important stuff in 6 sub menus. Shoot mode, camera, image size, brightness color, playback, and setup. Where is the auto ISO setting? Camera? Setup? Brightness and color of course! Enter sub menu. Click on ISO, go to another sub menu, scroll through the choices, click on the auto setting. Ridiculous. I want to take pictures, not explore menus.

The interface of a camera is nearly as important as its specs, yet the camera press really doesn't critique it very much.

The K-01 is a better camera than all its NEX contemporaries . . .and even 2 years later, has far more lens choices.


And I'm tired of hearing about size. With the exception one lens, every available lens for the NEX system is just as un-pocketable as an SLR. The camera press really needs to lose this irrational talking point. "Mirrorless is for smaller size!" Absolute nonsense. It's one of these truisms people regurgitate without considering the design goals of the camera -- it's like when cell phones kept getting smaller because people assumed they should. . .now the hottest cell phone on the market has a 5" screen. It's nearly a tablet computer. So much for smallness. But the camera press hasn't figured this ergonomic question yet. They're stuck on "smallness" for smallness sake.

[RonHendriks1966]

I think the K-01 could use quite a bit of improvement -- particularly when compared to current mirrorless cameras (remember it is two years old). If Pentax released it now, with an EVF, auto focus points on the sensor, faster frame rate and better buffer and sold it for, say, 400 dollars, it would be a hot seller. The problem initially was that Pentax popped it out and priced it at 800 dollars. I guess it was a camera for hipsters.

There's no doubt the specs could use an update compared to modern cameras, ...The K-01 is a better camera than all its NEX contemporaries . . .and even 2 years later, has far more lens choices.

And I'm tired of hearing about size. The camera press really needs to lose this irrational talking point. "Mirrorless is for smaller size!" Absolute nonsense. It's one of these truisms people regurgitate without considering the design goals of the camera -- it's like when cell phones kept getting smaller because people assumed they should. . .now the hottest cell phone on the market as a 5" screen. It's nearly a tablet computer. So much for smallness. But the camera press hasn't figured this ergonomic question yet. They're stuck on "smallness" for smallness sake.

Well I would like an upgraded K-02 with aps-c or even a Full Frame one. For me, I don't need the viewfinder, I would like the articulated screen, but even that is not of the biggest issue. So if they make one with and one without viewfinder, that would be great. Modern AF could do a lot better I know that. I also would want from tiem to time that the K-01 would be faster and larger buffer and everything, but to be honest coming home with just 30-40 images instead of 300-400 is also something that I value. We do get so lazy in taking images with all these technics that we forget that it isn't about NOT missing any shot, photography is all about the one shot that makes a difference.

[richardwong]

RonHendriks1966 - "we forget that it isn't about NOT missing any shot, photography is all about the one shot that makes a difference."

Here, here, exactly!

Well I would like an upgraded K-02 with aps-c or even a Full Frame one. For me, I don't need the viewfinder, I would like the articulated screen, but even that is not of the biggest issue. So if they make one with and one without viewfinder, that would be great. Modern AF could do a lot better I know that. I also would want from tiem to time that the K-01 would be faster and larger buffer and everything, but to be honest coming home with just 30-40 images instead of 300-400 is also something that I value. We do get so lazy in taking images with all these technics that we forget that it isn't about NOT missing any shot, photography is all about the one shot that makes a difference.

[luftfluss]

Funny how an offhand comment in a 13 minute video rankles Pentax Nation.

[monochrome]

It is the offhandedness itself of the dismissive code-phrase - as if K-01 is a fully-understood failure among the camera cognoscenti - that is so rankling.

[luftfluss]

But why should we even give a flying f**k? The K-01 is the funnest camera I've ever used. It's idiosyncratic, like me. The fact that the "camera cognoscenti" dismiss it makes it endearing.

The fact that it's "garbage" makes me chuckle, rather than rage.

What rankles me is the consideration that there may not be a K-mount K-01 successor. I'd like a K-02 with the K-5 IIs's sensor, EVF and/or articulating LCD, and a slightly better grip... merely evolutionary changes.

[Doundounba]

But why should we even give a flying f**k?

Well, I agree it's not worth getting super upset about, especially coming from a source that pays attention to what Pentax does and has been generally pretty positive towards the brand, AFAICT. In fact, because of that, I'm keeping The Camera Store in mind for my next body purchase. If they're at all competitive on price, I'm more likely to buy from them because I've mostly enjoyed their reviews. And frankly, a certain level of "outspoken-ness" also helps me feel that their reviews aren't just disguised advertising... I still love my K-01s though.