[noelpolar]

Lots of good answers in line with the intent of this thread. I'll add a short bit that to me says it all.

Up to the K-1, most Pentaxians loved their lenses and explored them over time with various Pentax digital bodies...... for me the K-1 is THE BODY that has turned this on it's head. I now love my body (K-1....haha) and enjoy my lenses.

I reffer to her as Elle.

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Last edited by noelpolar; 07-20-2016 at 04:02 AM.

[surfar]

The jump was easy, just part with a few $$$$(well a few thousand)


I loved the K50(had 2, sold the extra one) but the K1 is by far the funnest photography tool


The extra weight is noticeable, so I just picked it up and used it everyday.Now my other cams feel "too" light....ha ha.


I don't own a DFA lens and I'm not about to start, the old glass works great and most of the DA stuff too.(on FF)

[Class A]

My very preliminary findings coming from a K-5 II are:

• The K-1 feels considerably heavier. I like it for shooting, though. Seems easier to keep the camera still while shooting.
• The K-1 feels significantly more responsive. Image review is practically instant. I double-checked the K-5 II settings whether I had accidentally activated lens corrections because it feels so slow in comparison.
• The K-1's shutter button is great (there is no distinct release click). Makes it sooo easy to take a shot without introducing shake.
• The grip is higher and at last my pinky finds a place to grip the camera. The K-5 II's grip (without an extra battery grip) was always a bit too small to comfortably place all my fingers on it.
• I already put the swivelling LCD to good use and look forward to using the WiFi-enabled LiveView on my smartphone.
• The "daylight/nightime"-adjustment feature for the back-LCD is very handy. How did I ever live without it?
• DOF of my Rokinon 85/1.4 at MFD is insanely thin.
• Images have a very relaxed, pleasing look. As in car engines, you can tweak performance by adding a turbo etc., but there is no replacement for real engine displacement.

[Class A]

One thing I do miss is being able to switch between AF-S and AF-C via a switch rather than a menu item...

Press the "AF mode" button and turn the front dial. The change from "AF-S" to "AF-C" and vice versa will be shown in the viewfinder. No need to go menu-diving.

[edo]

When I got the Pentax k1, my photo bag got bigger. My lenses were bigger and my files were better!

Now that I get used to it, I crop more and more, as a result I don't bring longer lenses with me anymore, and reduced the number of lens dramatically. So weight is controlled.

This is natural in my opinion as landscapes requirements are more pixels than a portrait for example.

Oh and yes, k1 makes me happier, by using my lenses on FF finally!

[MikePlunkett]

Press the "AF mode" button and turn the front dial. The change from "AF-S" to "AF-C" and vice versa will be shown in the viewfinder. No need to go menu-diving.

Yes, ok, I was exaggerating and yes I'm sure it will be something I get used to. I just miss being able to go 'click' on the K-5! It's a very minor thing but I can't really see the rationale behind doing it.

[kyukyu]

Well I come directly from a K20 which I have absolutely LOVED till now. I have been totally satisfied with the K20, after many years it was like an extension of my eyes and I have always been satisfied with its pictures. In fact, I had never felt the need for a newer model and have been investing in good glass.
Then came the K1 and on spec it was a camera so damn GREAT that it woke my interest. Add to this that my son is beginning to walk/run, and that the available light at home is not that much, and you understand that the K20 was suddenly being pushed to its limits. I could still get good fotos in these conditions, but it was much harder and I often missed some magic moments of my kid. Among my glass are the FA 20-35, the 43, the 77, the dfa 50 macro and the A*300, so hey, I tested it at the store and bought it after 3 seconds

So what was it like in these 4 weeks of use? Well basically I have not yet stopped laughing like an idiot every time I use the camera It's like jumping on a Ferrari from a Fiat Panda, you just don't reach the limit of the car because it allows things you just wouldn't dare at first!
So I can shoot at insane ISOs (20k? 30k?) and get better pictures than the K20 at 800. I have shot hand held at 20mm for 1.6 (one point 6) seconds and the scratches on the paint on the building 10m from me were perfectly defined in the picture! I can attempt autofocus in pitch black and it locks. I have shot bursts at my son running, with the 50-135!! and I discarded one on 30 pictures (thanks biz-engineer for his hints btw). I have recovered perfect details from pitch black pictures in post. I can use TAV at its full potential because the ISOs are almost limitless. SO USEFUL with my kid running from sun to shade! So I control DOF and speed and the camera takes care of the exposure.

The viewfinder is awesome, big, but not too big that you need to move your eyes to see the corners. It is clear enough that I don't need the split-screen I had on the K20 for manual focusing.
The controls are different from the K20 but I have accustomed quickly, just the AF button is not yet intuitive.
The 20-30 becomes an ultrawide. I love it. The 43 was longish on the K20, now it is a WONDERFUL normal lens. The dfa 50 Macro now resolves details I just CAN NOT SEE with my naked eye and my glasses on. Like 0.1mm webs a few meters away. The 77 gets as wide as the 50 was on APS-C, it is an angle I love and I needn't describe the lens. The 50-135 remains as great as ever in crop mode and can be cropped a bit wider if I need to. The A*300 has become so EASY to shoot. On the K20 I was always on the limit with ISOs and speed if the light was not bright. Now with the insane stabilizer, the insane ISOs, the more precise AF assist and the big viewfinder it is just child's game. The astrotracer is great too.

So to summarize: image quality is stunning and the general handling had me just fall in love

[Nakedgun]

One thing I noticed was, color of JPEG from K1 is not as good as from K5II.

Disappointing to hear, but, thanks for posting it.

[jbinpg]

The K-1 gives you lots of tools to customize its jpeg output. Did you mean to say that its default jpeg output is disappointing?

[jcdoss]

# When you moved to the K-1, from which camera did you move.
# How did the K-1 perform compared with your previous Pentax SLR - for the same tasks. I accept different lenses may have to be considered, but in some cases compatible cropped and FF lenses will have been used.
# How close or distant did you find your older camera in it's handling, ergonomics etc.

1) I have previously owned a K30 and still own a K-x and a Sony NEX-6, all of which I used with Pentax lenses exclusively. I have a large collection of manual focus K- and M- lenses which is all I use now.

2) The K-1 produces much cleaner and much larger files compared to any camera I've ever owned. Higher ISO files have far superior quality and sharpness with less (but still present) noise. I haven't given Pixel Shift an honest try yet.

3) I haven't tried to do any comparisons, but I will make some comments.
The K-1 is way bigger than any of my previous cameras. For the past six months or so, I have been carrying a K-x and a film camera in the same bag, however that bag is not big enough to hold the K-1 plus another camera.
The camera is heavier than any of my previous cameras by quite a lot.
I find the camera to be somewhat uncomfortable to hold for long periods, but I have fairly small and dainty hands.
Battery life is awesome... far better than any camera I've owned.
Love the viewfinder, but I still find it difficult to hit critical focus with fast lenses at/near wide open. I use LV for critical shots, or pretty much any shot where I'm trying for shallow DOF. The adjustable screen is perfect for this, and the lack of any delay or mirror flap is a relief.
Jury is still out on the top control dials, but I'm leaning towards . I use mine to set ISO (aperture on the ring, front dial for shutter, and rear for ISO), but I do switch it to WIFI when I want to offload/share jpegs, which is more often than I expected.
I know it's obvious that lenses are wider, but in ways I can't explain since I never used these lenses on film cameras until recently, their FOVs feel more natural now.
Despite being larger and heavier, all my manual lenses feel well-balanced and are a joy to use on the K-1. The K-x was good with smaller lenses, but started to feel a bit "top heavy" with larger ones (ie, K200/2.5). Every lens I own feels good on the K-1... from the M40 pancake to the M400/5.6 (which I've used hand-held a few times with decent results on the K-1).
Love the levels in the viewfinder!

That's all I can think of right now... maybe I'll update the list if something else occurs to me later.

[les3547]

I wanted to contribute, but anything I might say has already been said by all the posts. If I were to choose one opinion that best represents my experience it is the post by biz-engineer:

K1 is robust with regard to shooting capability, I have the feeling I can use that camera forever. K3 is not forgiving, very sensitive to lens sharpness and camera motion, and noise shows up pretty quickly as soon as ISO gets higher than 800. Can't see any use of APSC anymore except if it was the size of a pocket-able compact camera. It's not that FF image quality is much better than APSC, it's the fact that full frame shooting is so much more tolerant to lower light, high contrast, camera shake, lens sharpness and incorrect framing.

In short: practical difference between K3 and K1 = robustness to shooting conditions.

[Winder]

To the question(s):

# When you moved to the K-1, from which camera did you move.
# How did the K-1 perform compared with your previous Pentax SLR - for the same tasks. I accept different lenses may have to be considered, but in some cases compatible cropped and FF lenses will have been used.
# How close or distant did you find your older camera in it's handling, ergonomics etc.

I suppose some might have found that, say compared with a K-3ii, the conditions had to be 'extreme' to really notice any noticeable difference, especially when the shot is printed. Be honest ...

Maybe K-1s will be able to be hired in the UK sometime and then I'll be able to do my own tests. But until then, I'll continue to churn around trying to fathom whether I'd gain much for my style of shooting with an upgrade and all this entails. Hopefully, this thread will be helpful to me and others as I/we try and understand how the K-1 performs compared with our current kit and usage.

Many thanks

1. I am still shooting with the K-3 and the A7II. I have added the K-1. I have also owned the K-7 & K-5. Canon 5D, Olympus E-3, Contax 645.
2. K-1 is better is every way. to most of them. A7II still has better AF accuracy, but not by much.
3. K-1 handles great. Still getting use to a few things, but great camera to work with.

I never bought the K-3II, but compared to my K-3 the K-1 files are much better. If you are just shooting JPEG, then the K-1 is probably not worth the upgrade. If you shoot in RAW, the files are as good or better than anything Canon can offer.

[TwoUptons]

I moved to the K-1 from a K-01, and before that a K-10.

The K1 is a big honking thing, and it is too snug for my normal bag. It is also a complicated beast, with lots of ways to get a mode mixed up and yourself thoroughly confused. And I miss the pop-up flash.

The worst part is my 16-50. I really wish I could get a built-in crop that fit its image circle better. I love the way that lens works for me.

All that being said, the thing is a fantastic camera. Focus speeds are laughably better than the K-01, particularly with my Tamron 70-300. The screen is great, the viewfinder even better, and it feels like a real tool in my hand.

And image quality is spectacular, even with lenses I thought were lousy. Having the extra ISO headroom lets me use apertures that weren't usable before.

Yeah, definitely worth the upgrade...

-Eric

[bdery]

These are very good questions.

# When you moved to the K-1, from which camera did you move.

K-3. But I still own it and use it.

# How did the K-1 perform compared with your previous Pentax SLR - for the same tasks.

Pictures are great with both. The view in the viewfinder is vastly different and takes some time getting used to. I've lost my bearings regarding focal length. Using an APS-C lens gives me a smaller effective viewfinder than the K-3. AF speed is improved, shutter noise is wonderfully smoother (and the K-3 is already a marvel). The info on the viewfinder is useful, I love the LCD overlay.

High ISO is just amazing. Same for AF speed

# How close or distant did you find your older camera in it's handling, ergonomics etc.

The only things I've lost are the built-in flash (mainly used as a wireless control) and the top LCD real estate. The latter is a real loss, I think Pentax could have put both the new dial and the selection knob atop of one another, and preserved some space to have a large top LCD.

I can't understand why they switched the live view and playback buttons. I constantly make mistakes with those.

The locking button is useless for me, I'd rather have a third custom button.

I still think they could make a custom menu page, with menu items often used grouped there.

I REALLY like the new moving LCD. That's a marvelous take, perfectly implemented. Loving it when using a tripod.

I really like the custom INFO screen. And the 5 user modes.

[bdery]

It's a very minor thing but I can't really see the rationale behind doing it.

The rationale is to be able to save that setting in a user mode. It has been the same with the K-3 I and II.

DOF of my Rokinon 85/1.4 at MFD is insanely thin.

It is the same as it was with APS-C. Only the field of view has changed.