[Steve.Ledger]

Here's my idea

How about sharing your personal favourite and most successful in-camera set-ups for shooting video with the K-01.?
Some simple 1-2-3 (etc) easy to follow steps which any brick owner can follow to get the best looking footage.
And I mean 'real simple'.. Think about how you would explain it to a complete n00b..

Why do I ask? Well, because I'm astonished at how many people seem to be saying that the K-01 is great as a video shooter.
I can lay my hand on my heart and tell you that I have better footage from the K-7 and well, that was never great (but it was the first APS-C camera from Pentax that shot video).

So please.. Show me your secrets.. I want to get acceptable video from my copy.
(Happy as a pig in mud with the stills - but video is a dog, imho)

[grispie]

Here's my idea

How about sharing your personal favourite and most successful in-camera set-ups for shooting video with the K-01.?
Some simple 1-2-3 (etc) easy to follow steps which any brick owner can follow to get the best looking footage.
And I mean 'real simple'.. Think about how you would explain it to a complete n00b..

Why do I ask? Well, because I'm astonished at how many people seem to be saying that the K-01 is great as a video shooter.
I can lay my hand on my heart and tell you that I have better footage from the K-7 and well, that was never great (but it was the first APS-C camera from Pentax that shot video).

So please.. Show me your secrets.. I want to get acceptable video from my copy.
(Happy as a pig in mud with the stills - but video is a dog, imho)

to begin:
saturation/sharpness/contrast all the way down.
SR off

[Steve.Ledger]

Thanks, yes I learned that one from Philip Bloome when I was using the K-7.
Keeping the sharpness down removes what I call the 'twinkles, which are basically sharpening artifacts..

[jimr-pdx]

I shoot very little, so 720p and ** are sufficient - probably not good enough for most folks. I'll try the reductions above and see how I feel about that!

[jogiba]

I shoot most of my videos with Sony or Panasonic cameras but here is one that I shot over a year ago with my K-01 .

You Tube

You Tube

[grispie]

I'll try the reductions above and see how I feel about that!

by the way: i reduced the settings in the picture style: "bright"
works best for me..

[Steve.Ledger]

So no magic formula then...
I tried the de saturation and can't say I like that much at all.
Oh well.. I'll keep playing

[pghwarrior23]

Definitely interested in hearing any recommendations as well since I bought the K-01 specifically for this purpose as well!

[grispie]

tried the de saturation and can't say I like that much at all.

guess the idea being to get a flat profile that is better to play with in post.

[Steve.Ledger]

Yes, though I was already using the 'Muted' colour setting for video and dropping the contrast and sharpening settings there.
Between the Q and the K-01, I must say the Q is better for random video clips, that is - I get better results with the Q.

[ChrisJowett]

I have found these settings have no disadvantages for basic noob shooting. Whilst it is tempting to leave everything on default, that actually creates problems that noob users will notice without knowing why.
- Full HD 25fps (720p/50fps for sport etc) for PAL - 30fps & 60fps for NTSC; avoids flickering and jittering from incompatibility between television standards and automatic settings.
- Manual shutter set to 1/50 and higher multiples of 25 if necessary; as above, ensures minimal clashes between fps rate, shutter speed, light-source flickering etc etc.
- Manual aperture set as small as possible to maximise depth of field; lack of continuous or silent AF, focus peaking or external viewfinder means we need as much help as we can get keeping our subjects in focus. Experiment with shallow DOF later.
- Auto ISO; only goes up to 6400 anyway so IQ from over-stretched ISO shouldn't be an issue. The effect of M with auto ISO is automatic exposure that doesn't create DOF or shutter speed related flickering etc.
- Both mic gain/sensitivity/volume controls set at mid point to avoid clipping; you can always increase the volume, but if it's clipped you're stuffed.
- External mic fitted to avoid camera and other extraneous noise (Zoom H1 and closed headphones if you're serious about audio, eg. shooting bands); the built-in PCM stereo is pretty damn good, but with no headphone socket or level meter the sound can be hit-and-miss. The Zoom H1 is not much more than an external mic, has an optional hotshoe mount and gives you both a headphone socket and a level meter. Mixing the sound back in is easy in any software, even free ones, by matching the external soundtrack from the H1 with the internal sound then muting the latter.
- SR off. Yet to find any good use for it. Maybe if you're jogging?? Creates ugly "jello effect" if using a tripod or even very still.
- Monopod at least; a huge tripod is preferable, but even the smallest lightest monopod in the land is a vast improvement over handheld.
- Largest Class 10 SDXC card you can afford; 64gb cards are quite reasonable now and 128gb, 256gb etc will come down too until we all have tb SDS cards!I freaked out the first time I used video mode when the recording time switched from 99+ to 25 and counting, but I soon realised that is per file.

[pghwarrior23]

Posted this in another thread but thought I would share here too...my somewhat completed video gear setup with K-01 at its core.

[Steve.Ledger]

That's looks great, and would be worthwhile (for me) if the K-01 produced decent video, but it doesn't (in my opinion).

[pghwarrior23]

Define decent video and how the camera doesn't produce it? Granted it is no 5D MKIII but probably the best camera for video that Pentax has IMO

[Steve.Ledger]

It may well be the "best camera for video that Pentax has" - but that really says nothing about the quality of video it produces.
If you are happy with the output of the K-01, then that's all that matters.
I'm not satisfied with it - so I'll stick to photographs and use my camcorder when I want to shoot video clips.

Cheers