Mine is here too and so far I've only done some very boring test shots indoors and outside in my road using the 24-70mm F2.8. Impressions so far:
1. It feels like a very serious lump of a camera, not at all like a gripped K3 but has the feel of the 645Z i.e. you pick it up and think 'wow - this thing is a beast' - especially with the DBG-6 and something like the 24-70mm F2.8 fitted
2. It feels like a next gen machine compared to my K3 - much more responsive feeling when navigating menus and the menus on the screen are much cleaner and crisper looking. Add to this the viewfinder markings and the sexy on board lighting etc and it just feels like a next gen product.
3. The speed of focussing with the 24-70mm feels almost instantaneous it's so fast and so far it's highly accurate. With the 24-70mm I would say it's focussing better in low light than my K3 used to with the 17-70mm SDM. I did notice one peculiarity that when switched to manual focus the viewfinder red recticules light up and confirm focus rather inaccurately i.e. not when optimum focus is achieved however switch to autofocus and it seems bang on - weird.
4. The camera is far more comfortable without a grip than any Pentax camera I have ever used and the grip only makes a very marginal improvement to the handling whereas on say a K3 the grip for my large hands made a huge differnce to comfort.
5. The user interface and control positions are very different to the previous K3's etc. I managed to go from K5 to K3 without needing to read the manual. You definitely need to read the manual with this!
6. The movement of the playback button is incredibly annoying and itsa position is inferior to that on the K3!!
7. The 24-70mm F2.8 Pentax lens somehow doesn't feel quite as Pentaxy as I might have hoped. It feels a little too much like my Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 i.e. a bit plasticky for an £1100 lens. However it's pretty much the only game in town for pro use and optically seems extremely good. I'm not mad on the thin focus ring being closer to the shooter than the zoom ring either - and it's too small.
8. The lack of noise at high ISO is absolutely staggering as others have said. It seems about three or 4 stops cleaner than a K3 i.e. ISO 800-1600 seems like ISO100 on a K3!! This thing will be a low light monster!!!
9. The viewfinder is utterly fantastic - it feels much bigger than the APSC viewfinders did and the red lit markings are fantastic plus I love the level indications - you feel like a fighter pilot using a head up display!!!
10. All my other Pentax lenses had beautiful colours on the optics when you look at the optics head on and yet this looks almost uncoated - the lens elements look to be coated with nothing!!
11. The on board lighting is magnificent!! Everyone is going to love it!!!
12. It's brilliant it takes the same battery cells as the K5/K3 et al. Make sure your batteries are well charged!
13. I sometimes shoot 800+ pics at a model or client shoot, That's almost too many for my biggest 64GB memory card so I've ordered a 128GB Lexar 1000x SDXC card. Having said that I haven't really noticed any lag writing to or reading from a Sandisc ultra 64MB 32x SDXC card so the Lexar is probably overkill but it's only money!!
14. Burst mode in RAW at 4.5 frames sec feels fast and not that much slower than the 8 frames/sec of the K3. You'd swear the K1 was actually doing 6 frames a sec and the difference doesn't feel as great as the numbers suggest.
15. So far the only time it failed to focus was when pointed at featureless purple background paper when it just wouldn't focus at all. On everything else it's nailed focus quickly without hunting at 100% accuracy
16. My 24-70mm zoom ring feels incredibly stiff - hopefully that's newness and it will loosen up with time. At present it feels a bit too much.
On balance I think it's an incredibly impressive camera and by far the best camera I have ever used. I will however keep my K3 because aside from times like airshows when a crop sensor camera has advantages with telephoto lenses there's also the general issue of the bulk and weight of the K1. Would I cart it around on holiday for the day - yes but I really wouldn't be my first choice if a lot of walking was involved. For taking out of the car and walking for a few mins to an outdoor location it's fine and in studio it's not an issue. Am I glad I bought it - you bet. My main motivation was to be able to shoot full length portraits more easily in my smallish home studio. The field of view is such that at 50mm I'm starting to see beyond the edges of my background paper rolls so mission accomplished!! The viewfinder is one of the very best bits - it's amazing!!!
Did I say the viewfinder is amazing!!!! You really will feel that shooting APSC was like shooting from inside a postbox with your view really constrained. Most of us have simply not shot with a full frame film camera in years and we've got used to APSC viewfinders being the norm - this is like when you go to the cinema and they show the commercials on 2/3 of the screen and then when the main movie starts the curtains motor back and the whole view opens up!!! Some pics as I unboxed on my twitter feed.
How much do I love it - a lot!!!! Is it going back - not on your nelly!!! You guys are gonna love it!!!
jonlg
Jonathan Gorse Photography https://purpleport.com/portfolio/jonathangorse/?referrer=jonathangorse https://twitter.com/JonathanGorse/media
Last edited by jonlg; 04-28-2016 at 06:52 PM.
Reason: added twitter
I much enjoyed getting a quick synopsis.
Originally posted by Billgscott 
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