[kh1234567890]

I'll demo with this example; one of my first shots after pulling the K1 out of box a week ago Friday, and it was the first shot taken with FA31... I didn't choose this one because it's special from a technical standpoint, but because it reminds me so well of my first experience impression of the camera... I put the FA31 on, lifted up the camera and shot, without even really thinking about it, and I got this, in relatively low light (F1.8, 1/20s, ISO200). I did play with it a little in post, but to me the IQ improvement is recognizable. The focus is much closer than I would have obtained that easily with the K3 in this circumstance... The whole experience is just... satisfying. Ahhh!!!

Now we are getting somewhere. That's the sort of an example I'm after. Nice one !

[monochrome]

i'm a mediocre photographer, at best. That's why I rarely post images here. What I like to do is stick an old Pentax lens on a camera and go take pictures. Weird? Yeah, Maybe.

Yesterday I filled a backpack with old lenses, including a K400/5.6 and watched the last lacrosse game of the season for the team my son coaches. I put the K-1 on a monopod, K400 on the camera, set the aperture to f/11 and - focused! The K400 is a preset lens, meaning you either focus wide open, count clicks, meter and shoot - or you set the aperture, meter, focus stopped down and shoot.

Here's the thing. Open or closed, the K-3 viewfinder is too dark for me to focus. Norm can do it with his A400. I can't. But with the K-1 I can, even stopped down. Doesn't mean any of the 'photographers' here will respect my photos or that I couldn't do the same image with a super zoom, but I don't care about that. I can do what I want with K-1. I can't with K-3.

I know plenty of people will sneer at this next. I cropped the attached example in-camera, WiFi'ed it to my phone, emailed it to my wife and she posted it to her blog. Real Time momma post. I don't plan to use K-1 that way, but hey, Happy Wife, Happy Life, right? It isn't the best photo of the day, but it's the one I WiFi'ed and I'm on my phone right now.

Coach is the bald guy in sunglasses. Finished his last round of chemo last week - coached as much as he could right through it. Do I want that shot? You Betcha'. Is it tack sharp? No. Is the exposure perfect? No. Can I make it better in PS - absolutely! It's a cropped, WiFi'ed, uploaded from my phone to this post and downsized by the Forum camera jpeg. Could I even have that RAW from the K-3? I suppose, but I never could do it last year.

Will K-1 make me a better photographer - actually, it might.. From the feel in the hand to the viewfinder to the aspect ratio with my lenses to the shutter it just feels right. So much so that I just might start taking this seriously and paying attention to the output.

Ask me again in a year.*

*This image looks horrible in this post. It actually looks better on my PHONE! - preview RAW on my monitor it's pretty amazing for a sort missed focus shot. I'll append a few to this entry a little later. 100 yds. Monopod seated in a lawn chair. 1/500. f/11. ISO 3200. M Mode SOOC. Whatever.

Second attached image:
100 yards. Monopod sitting on a lawn chair. 1/2000 f/11 ISO 3200 M Mode. Lightly edited in PSE 13. This is about a 60% crop. Note the jaggies pattern in the white bars of the two facemasks at the left. I downsized to 300px / inch when I cropped. I could probably do much better but these files are so huge my computer is choking on them. I can only load 1 .dng at a time and latency for a file change is literally 60 seconds.

[cali92rs]

Well, it is not a troll. I'm genuinely interested in finding out whether the K-1 would let me do things that I can't do with my K-5ii/K-7 while snapping the same sort of stuff.

Many of the trimmings - Wi-Fi, GPS, LCD viewfinder, pixel shift, more pixels, twiddly LCD display, LED lights etc. do not really interest me. Low noise at high ISO would be nice to have, but from what I've seen posted so far the K-1 is good but not that good in real life.

Is there any killer feature, picturewise, that the K-1 has or can do that APS-C can't ? Show me ...

This isnt a troll thread?
The D810, which shares this sensor has been out for a few years. There are literally thousands of samples online to look through. If they dont meet your criteria of "doing what APS-C" cant then the K-1 wont either.
But you probably already knew that. Which makes this a troll thread.
How about you post a picture of an APS-C shot which micro 4/3 cant do? After all they are closer in sensor size than FF and aps-c

[Kerrowdown]

Was it worth it?

For me coming from K20Ds... a resounding yes.

But to be fair, the upgrade to any of the later Pentax bodies would have been a good move too.

[jatrax]

But then, I get four or five at the most images I really like in a month, sometimes one or two, sometimes none. It's way to soon to expect people to have killer images.

+1
Spent a week with the k-1 and so far I have not looked at a single image. Looks like I took about 2,000 shots. Just uploading to Lightroom now. Now to figure out how to develop for the new sensor, sort through all those images and pick out the 10 or so that might be worth the effort. Stop back in a week or so when that is all done and maybe I'll have something to show.

---------- Post added 05-14-16 at 12:46 PM ----------

Is there any killer feature, picturewise, that the K-1 has or can do that APS-C can't ? Show me ...

Picture wise? Probably not. You might be better off with APS-C. It's not like anything is going to instantly stand out. And there are very few images that cannot be taken with APS-C if you know what you are doing.

But for me: Absolutely worth it!!!!!!!!!

[pathdoc]

The amateurs and enthusiasts are still like kids on Christmas day, shooting everything they can with everything full-frame they've got (and the DA lenses on crop) to see what works best. It's the professionals you need to check out, and I'll lay good odds that all their output is going to their clients rather than to flickr.

[normhead]

The amateurs and enthusiasts are still like kids on Christmas day, shooting everything they can with everything full-frame they've got (and the DA lenses on crop) to see what works best. It's the professionals you need to check out, and I'll lay good odds that all their output is going to their clients rather than to flickr.

The same can be said for K-3 or K-5 images... so it's a level playing field. Pros using the camera don't post their work to flickr.

One of my favourite things to do is to go to the art Photography Page on Photo Extract and check the first 5 pages to see what Cameras are being used. This is a juried site and every image is excellent.

The first Pentax is on Page 4, Joshua Middleton, with a K-5, then another K-5 and a K-x on page 5. At 21 images per page that's 3 Pentax images out of 105. None taken with a newer camera than a K-5. I'm not clear what that might say about pros and Pentaxes, but it certainly suggests that pros are much slower with their uptake of new gear, than many amateurs.

No K-1 pictures are at Luminous Landscape, but there are a good selection taken with a K-3, have a look, scroll through the pages.
http://www.photoextract.com/pictures/pentax-k-3

Now check out the Nikon D810 images.
http://www.photoextract.com/pictures/nikon-d810

Great pro photographers were still shooting K-3s after the D810 was released, great Pro photographers are going to be shooting K-5s and K-3s after the K-1 is released. That's reality.

Check out the Photography Gallery May 2016, the only Pentax image on page 1, is taken with a K20D, and one is taken with a Nikon D5200 and one with a Nikon D7100.
http://www.photoextract.com/photography/2016/5/11

I rest my case.

---

Last edited by normhead; 05-14-2016 at 02:09 PM.

[kh1234567890]

Pros using the camera don't post their work to flickr.

Not being a 'Pro', I am not particularly interested in what they do with it or what pictures they take. I don't even care if anyone ever looks at my shots. All that I was wondering was whether a K-1 would enable me take significantly less boring snaps than I can take with what I have

[dakight]

Not being a 'Pro', I am not particularly interested in what they do with it or what pictures they take. I don't even care if anyone ever looks at my shots. All that I was wondering was whether a K-1 would enable me take significantly less boring snaps than I can take with what I have

Maybe. It's a tool and like any tool it will only produce what the photographer's skill can coax out of it. Is it capable of producing significantly better results? Yes, I believe it is. Will it do that in every case for every photographer? Not a chance! Is it worth the additional cost? Well, that's an entirely personal question with only one right answer... yours.

[jatrax]

All that I was wondering was whether a K-1 would enable me take significantly less boring snaps than I can take with what I have

Probably not, but you will definitely have more fun taking those boring snaps

[kp0c]

No idea. I took the k-3II and k-1 along on my coast trip intending to try both. Never took the k-3II out of the bag. No idea if there is an appreciable improvement in image quality, still uploading the shots.

But "was it worth it?" YES. I rarely buy anything that lives up to my expectations. I usually build up the purchase in my head so much that when it finally arrives it is a let down. The k-1 exceeded any expectations or dreams I had and is still showing me things. Barely touched the capabilities in fact.

I know if you get enthusiastic on this forum you get called a fanboy, but this is by far the best purchase (not just camera) I have ever made.

I think I truly know how your feel as I can be quite passionate about things as well. However, I can't help but giggle a little when I hear you say you've never made a better purchase in your life while you also said you haven't even look at the pictures you made with it. One would think that for a camera to be the best purchase ever, picture quality would be a criteria.
I'm quite envious of everyone who got their K-1. Very eager to purchase one, probably next year.

[jatrax]

One would think that for a camera to be the best purchase ever, picture quality would be a criteria.

Probably right, but in this case (so far) I'm looking at it as what toy have I ever bought that I felt I got my moneys worth? I just spent a week on the road with the k-1 and shot about 2,000 images. Had more real honest fun with this camera than anything else I can remember buying.

Now of course the work starts as I have to go through those images, sort, select and then learn how to develop for this new sensor. So whether it will be the best camera I ever bought is still up in the air. But best toy, already won hands down.

Will the images be better than the k-3? Will clients see any difference? Will I sell more prints because I bought this camera? Who knows. Right now I don't care, I'm having too much fun!

[bobmaxja]

I have a K-5 and I know I was able to go outside my comfort zone and take great photos. When I go somewhere and feel, I will only take snapshot, I just take my P&S. Getting the K-1, I will work harder to find the perfect subject or composistion for that camera. In some case the K-5 will do it. I am a wood worker and it's not different, modern tools or manual tools can do the same work but you can go further depending of the project. You need to choose the proper tool when you doing a photo trip

[Driline]

All that I was wondering was whether a K-1 would enable me take significantly less boring snaps than I can take with what I have

The K-1 will give you instant "Street Cred". I plan on renting one and walking around town with it displaying it proudly around my neck just so others may know the potential power I wield between my hands. Bwaaaa haaaa haaa

[stevebrot]

Well, it is not a troll. I'm genuinely interested in finding out whether the K-1 would let me do things that I can't do with my K-5ii/K-7 while snapping the same sort of stuff.

All the multitudes of threads over the last year with titles like "What does FF do for me that APS-C can't" and all the talk of format equivalence and so on and this matter is in need of additional clarification? (I need a head-bang emoticon.)

Here is the answer in short form posed as a question:

Are you totally happy with your current camera and is it capable of making the captures you wish with the range of lenses/accessories you currently own or can afford?

If yes, the K-1 has nothing to offer.

Steve