[conradj]

The upside to the price of the gear of course is how much i've saved in film, chemicals and paper in the last 18yrs, not to mention all the fumes i didn't breathe nor how much toxicity i didn't flush into the water system. And, how much time i didn't spend cooped up in a dark little room.

---------- Post added 05-13-18 at 10:46 PM ----------

--My next question would be: how does the K-01 handle? Compared to a K-3-5-7? Compared to the crop of mirrorless IL cams? Anything that slows you down?

How does that LCD fare in the sun?

edit: i've never seen a K-01 IRL, not even at the camera store. Played with the Nex's and Alpha's at the big chain stores so have a clue abt those.

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Last edited by conradj; 05-13-2018 at 07:56 PM.

[surfar]

How does that LCD fare in the sun?

Like lots of LCDs...not great when the suns intense.

Do you have a budget,lots of suggestions so far are not cheap.If we knew how much you wanted to spend then that would help a lot.

---------- Post added 05-14-18 at 02:08 PM ----------

KP is 131x101x76

K-01 is 121x79x59.

KP is 140gms heavier...

Not a huge size/weight difference.

You could just adapt to the KP,you are familiar with it...focus peaking helps.

[conradj]

For me it's not making do with 1 camera body, but having a second one for different uses. My P&S cams are used where its size and form makes it less obtrusive than a dSLR, plus it looks more informal in use. City streets, cafes at night, summer fests, etc. The G1X absolutely fails at this because i find myself fiddling with it way too much, and holding it is awkward.

Some situations you want to just focus, snap and move on, not hold it up at shoulder height while it powers up from sleep and the lens motors out, then mess with this or that dial, zoom it around a bit, wait for it to focus, hit a few more buttons to get it into close focus mode then reframe if the subject's too close for regular focusing, grab a few shots.

Handling and how much fiddling the cam needs is a big factor in some scenarios.

i find when i pull out my dSLR people take notice, stiffen up, turn away or move off.

Price-wise i'm already sucking on fumes, so partly it's a matter of just minimizing it or else figuring out what i can't live without and then saving until i can afford the features. This is where you folks here and your experience with these cams help a lot.

i know how my M42 lenses handle and how comfortable i am with them, since i've had most of them for decades. Just a matter of adding the practice of pushing the Auto/Man switch a lot. i can guesstimate focus, exposure, where to place myself from subject, pretty well with those lenses.

[D1N0]

Dropping the built in image stabilisation requirement would make things easier. You could just get the excellent but very affordable Sony A6000. For situations in which you really need it you could carry a lightweight mono pod.

[JohnBee]

You are wrong. K-01 is 650 USD less!

I've never owned one, though I was under the impression that it used a k-mount?
If so, then it won't likely be the most versatile in terms of lens compatibility. ie, since I moved to mirrorless, my MF lens choices have completely opened-up. Be it, k-mount, m42, m39, f-mount, Canon etc. - anything goes type thing

I've never owned one, though I was under the impression that it used a k-mount?
If so, then it won't likely be the most versatile in terms of lens compatibility. ie, since I moved to mirrorless, my MF lens choices have completely opened-up. Be it, k-mount, m42, m39, f-mount, Canon etc. - anything goes type thing

Original post:

"i've got a bunch of old M42 lenses, as i'm sure many of you do as well, and they don't get much attention. Was wondering if there are relatively cheap, stabilized (i'm pretty shaky), mirrorless bodies for which i could get M42 adapters and put these dusty hunks of glass to good use.
i was looking at the Canon EOS M100, except it isn't stabilized. It's nice and small tho with a good sensor.
You know, something with a liveview screen that has focus peaking. Don't really want to go M4/3 because then i'll have a bunch of even more telephoto glass. "

I'm always amazed at threads where commenters completely ignore the original premise.

Yes, the K-01 uses a K-mount, it is a different sort of camera, it is not for everyone, but it does take M42 lenses with an adapter (that adds no bulk), is cheap, with in-body stabilization, is mirrorless, with liveview, has focus peaking, and is not M4/3.

In terms of battery life, construction quality, and its Pentax system menus, it is superlative to other mirrorless options. It will operate in greater extremes of temperature than most of the others. It is also a good match with the 18-55 kit lens (about $60 used!) and is a natural with the 40mm pancake.

The K-01 at least deserves a mention, if not consideration.

[conradj]

i don't use it much, but i actually have an excellent sample of the 18-55mm WR kit lens that's able to use the resolving power of the K-P ... at least in the center of the frame. Just finished testing the thing. Guess i'll add that to the list of glass i can use with that body. That lens also works well with the K-P AF.

Re: monopods. i use one adapted from a hiking pole (by adding a simple ball head to it, and a large rubber foot from a walking stick), and i highly recommend this kind of contraption over a photo gear monopod. The hiking pole is quite tough and takes body weight which few photo monopods do. Many monopods have max load ratings of a few lbs. The hiking pole doesn't need to be babied: you can really lean on the pole and it doesn't collapse. Also carbon fibre hiking poles are cheap compared to carbon fibre monopods.

edit: i made mine after using my K-7 in the rain with a monopod, and found that the rain made the joint fasteners useless on the monopod. When wet they stopped gripping the tube sections.

But the hiking pole is willowy and vibrates, you say. 1) just hold the foam grip and lean on the pole a bit, and 2) leave the SR on in the camera. It'll be fine.

Make sure you get a hiking pole that extends to the height you want for using with a camera and which has a 1/4" screw on top on which you can install a ball head.

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Last edited by conradj; 05-14-2018 at 08:50 AM.

[JohnBee]

I'm always amazed at threads where commenters completely ignore the original premise.

Based on what I've read, it would appear that all of the criteria's are met.

With that said, I think it's worth considering as much versatility as possible with a new body. ie, with a K-01, a shooter would be limited to K-mount. Which is not to say that it can't do M42, that it will do just fine. And so the question as to whether or not the OP could benefit from mounting pretty much any MF lens in existence may be worth considering as well.

PS. as mentioned previously, this is what motivated me to invest in a mirrorless system. To which I'd add, was the best move I ever did personally in terms of cross-system compatibility. The idea we can pick-up and use any lens, from pretty much any system with focus peaking and image stabilization often seems too good to be true

[conradj]

I'm always amazed at threads where commenters completely ignore the original premise.

i'm thankful some folks such as you actually take my points into consideration. i'm pretty laissez faire abt it myself, and am grateful that people voice their opinions and experience, as you have. Thanks to you and lytrytyr now i'm looking at the K-01 seriously.

When it comes to gear i've come to realize that one's own preferences often puts one in a narrow little box which is never a good thing to be forever stuck in.

Yes, the K-01 uses a K-mount, it is a different sort of camera, it is not for everyone, but it does take M42 lenses with an adapter (that adds no bulk), is cheap, with in-body stabilization, is mirrorless, with liveview, has focus peaking, and is not M4/3.

In terms of battery life, construction quality, and its Pentax system menus, it is superlative to other mirrorless options. It will operate in greater extremes of temperature than most of the others. It is also a good match with the 18-55 kit lens (about $60 used!) and is a natural with the 40mm pancake.

The K-01 at least deserves a mention, if not consideration.

How does the K-01 handle generally? Is it a slow and measured kindo camera, can it be handled off the cuff and quickly and still produce good shots? i read the shutter's louder than the top tier Pentax bodies. Does the shutter noise carry?

i tend towards turtle speed with the dSLR, but like to work fast and unobtrusively with a P&S type cam. Move myself into position first before even lifting up the camera for a peek, and put it down and reposition myself, or walk away, if it doesn't look right.

i'm thankful some folks such as you actually take my points into consideration. i'm pretty laissez faire abt it myself, and am grateful that people voice their opinions and experience, as you have. Thanks to you and lytrytyr now i'm looking at the K-01 seriously.

When it comes to gear i've come to realize that one's own preferences often puts one in a narrow little box which is never a good thing to be forever stuck in.


How does the K-01 handle generally? Is it a slow and measured kindo camera, can it be handled off the cuff and quickly and still produce good shots? i read the shutter's louder than the top tier Pentax bodies. Does the shutter noise carry?

i tend towards turtle speed with the dSLR, but like to work fast and unobtrusively with a P&S type cam. Move myself into position first before even lifting up the camera for a peek, and put it down and reposition myself, or walk away, if it doesn't look right.

I like the way it handles, I'm Point & Shoot style shooter as well, I usually shoot from the chest or waist if I can.

The controls are widely spaced, but there is no front dial (you would be setting your f/stop on the lens, I assume).

I use mine with a wrist strap on the left side. It is a little less noisy than my K-30 (which is noisier than top of the line Pentaxes).

There are no Custom user modes, although the green and red buttons can be programmed. The live view works better than the live view on the K-30, it is always on, of course, and doesn't seem to drain the battery as much and doesn't overheat.

I don't have any M42 lenses, so I don't know how convenient it would be to stop them down before shooting. I do use an enlarging lens in manual mode, the screen will compensate brightness when the lens is stopped down to a certain degree.

For $250 the K-01 is hard to beat. It is an orphan, but most cheap mirrorless cameras have been discontinued as well.

I think the nicer mirrorless cameras mentioned in this thread are great, but at 3x the price I can't afford one, and I really doubt they can take any better pictures, and I understood that you didn't want to buy new lenses.

For a really quiet and compact camera, a Pentax Q7 is hard to beat, but then you would have to get new lenses-your 28mm would be a telephoto on them! And you already have a P&S.

[conradj]

The nice thing abt the M42 Taks is that most of them have an Auto/Manual switch, which basically opens the aperture on Auto and shuts it down to the set f stop on Manual, so it's fairly easy to set the f stop, then switch to Man to take a reading. Back to Auto to focus, and back to Man to grab the shot.

That's on a dSLR when the light path is optical and one's using one's eye to focus. Generally one just takes the occasional light reading that way and mostly move that switch back and forth to focus and shoot.

On Auto the pin on the back of the lens shuts down the aperture to the set value, and there's a metal flap in a screw mount body mirror box that comes up to actuate it upon the shutter being tripped.

Dunno if electronic viewfinders and focus peaking will make all that A/M switching unnecessary.

---------- Post added 05-15-18 at 12:45 AM ----------

i guess one reason i like the M42 Taks is that my father had a black SV when i was a kid, and using the Taks often takes me back. i used that SV a lot when i was starting out with cameras. Its 55mm f/1.8 was so-so; think that unit wasn't the height of assembly precision.

i've now got a small bunch of screw mount lenses that're optically good, and would like to put them to regular use. Missing an 8 element 50mm tho.

[david94903]

--My next question would be: how does the K-01 handle? Compared to a K-3-5-7? Compared to the crop of mirrorless IL cams? Anything that slows you down?
How does that LCD fare in the sun?

I have both the K-5IIs and K-3, and the K-01 performs just fine. Sensor wise, it's on par with the K-5 series at 16MP vs the K-3 series at 24MP. Truthfully, I don't notice any IQ issues with the K-01. I'm always impressed with the quality of the images that come from this little camera. As for features, he K-01 does not have as many features as you'll find on the K-5's or K-3's, so there are some limits there. I'd say my only real complaint about the K-01 is that ergonomically, it's not up to Pentax standards. It's a bit clunky to use, so I have to stop and think and look before taking a shot. Not a bad thing just a bit annoying.

I can't comment in regards to the K-01 verses other mirrorless IL cameras, as I don't have any experience with them.

As for the LCD in the full sun, it sucks. That is the nature of an LCD in full sun. But it's never presented a real issue for me. I can see enough to compose my scene, typically the AF has been spot on with the K-01, so I trust it to get the shot right. And if I'm using MF, the focus peaking is seeable on the LCD, so that works too.

[conradj]

Wow, that's great. Thank you david94903, and thank you everyone for all your input and your time.

Now i sit and mull things over. Well, more accurately i walk around testing my lenses on the K-P while mulling things over.

Curious that, that when just testing a camera and lenses, one doesn't engage the full range of one's faculties as one does when on an actual photo project or assignment. One's abilities for manual handling and precision, and sense of light and shadow, are switched on, but oddly not the creative decision making bits, and one's mind can wander and think abt other wonderful things. Like in my case what it'll be like using a mirrorless body with manual lenses.

My latest finding with my lens testing is that the K-P is still bedding in, as the AF fine adjustments keep needing to be shifted. Either that or light source and ambient temp make a bigger difference than i'd thot: i've moved into daylight testing of the lenses i'd actually use during the day. Can't seem to nail down the microfocus of the D-FA 28-105mm.

[Tony Belding]

BTW for whatever it's worth, I got a used (via eBay) Sony A7 to use with all my old M42 and K-mount lenses, and it has worked very well. The EVF with focus peaking and magnification is superb when working with manual lenses. Also, it's nice to have a full frame sensor and the field of view that these lenses were designed to produce. However… It does not have stabilization. I would have to step up to the A7 II for that. Thus far I haven't felt compelled to, but I guess it's nice to know the option is there.


I did own a K-01 for a while, and I liked it in many ways. However, I didn't find it great for manual focusing with adapted lenses. Aside from the obvious crop factor, focusing on the K-01's rather dim LCD screen was often difficult (especially out in the Texas sun!), and its focus peaking was not as effective as the Sony.

[reh321]

I did own a K-01 for a while, and I liked it in many ways. However, I didn't find it great for manual focusing with adapted lenses. Aside from the obvious crop factor, focusing on the K-01's rather dim LCD screen was often difficult (especially out in the Texas sun!), and its focus peaking was not as effective as the Sony.

Before I got my Q-7 3-1/2 years ago, guys tried to convince me that the right hat would make it useable in the sun. They were wrong. A Hoodman does make it useable, adding to the size {but not to the weight}