MX1 advert

A nicely shot advert but with some cringe makingly pretentious commentary link

Yeah well shot and put together, certainly shows offthe camera, and doesn't have the annoying whine (usually from the music choice) of a Canikon advert. But they sure went OTT with the script..

"To explore the city of lights, I always take my Pentax MX1" - so you've be exploring for about a couple of months then Mr passionate photographer?

Hopefully the price comes down a but. Personally I chose to just pick up 'the legendary MX SLR film camera' last week, with lots of change (ie the entire RRP of the MX1) in the pocket to fire plenty of 'full frame' (:roll rolls through it.

For a promotional video it's quite good, informative and sensibly gives the information a photographer would want to hear...
As an advert it's long (meaning far too expensive to air on television), laborious and not very fun...
They're obviously trying for a specific part of the market which is fine and to a point justified but the MX-1 could be pushed to a wider (possibly younger) audience with shorter punchier advertising...

I got to see and gave a little play with an MX-1 in the newly reopened Jessops in Oxford Street. They had a nicely laid out Pentax section.

I found it suprisingly large, especially compared to the Pentax Q. The rear tilty screen seemed useful but competely incongruous to the otherwise retro design. Everything but the screen looked and felt great. Some will appreciate the practicality of the screen but it just looked ugly to me.

The cameras performance seemed average, not enough to justify the price difference to the next level up in image quality imo. Handling was great, the ev dial very welcome, image quality was alright, autofocus comparatively slow by the competition's standards and shooting raw was a slow experience. I think it will compete with a reduction in price but if the competition responds then I think it will be outclassed.

The basic idea has a lot of potential but the size of the camera really warrants a larger sensor. It seems to me that Hoya Pentax have designed a very plausible rival to the Fuji X10. Hopefully Ricoh Pentax will give me a reason not to buy an X20 or X30.

Looking at offerings from other manufacturers the Q, on the other hand, remains firmly in a niche of it's own. Seeing a Q10 in the polycarbonate confirms my preference for the Q.

But Fuji appreciate the value of a proper view finder.

Not everybody wants an optical viewfinder of the rangefinder-style type. On a DSLR that's something else, but I wouldn't want to go back to 1970s style direct vision finders.

I don't really see the point of not having a viewfinder. It's there to use if you wish but you don't have to. Useful in extremely bright conditions where the screen might be more difficult to see. Plus it adds to the authenticity of the retro look. Not sure how much it adds to the cost to manufacture of course but I think its exclusion cuts down the potential punters quite significantly as it's a frequent observation.

Actually the paradoxical consequence of seeing and handling the MX-1 is that it makes me very keen on an X20.

The camera designer always has a problem in that they can't satisfy everyone in one model. Hence lots of different options on the market.

There are those who desperately want an optical finder on these camera types and those like myself who don't. Nobody is right or wrong.

I don't because a decent finder of this sort makes a camera much bigger and more expensive and frankly I don't like the parallax error. That's why I prefer DSLRs. However, on a compact, compromises have to be made and I'm happy enough these days using the back screen.

Users new to photography don't expect a viewfinder, they expect a screen anyway, so apart from limited models the future path may well be clear.

[/quote]Actually the paradoxical consequence of seeing and handling the MX-1 is that it makes me very keen on an X20.[/quote]+1.

Sorry, nothing worse for me than a bunch of people trying to take photographs with the equipment waving about at arms length.

It's not for the viewfinder although another good reason to have one is when batteries are running low. I think the X10 (which I have played with) is better than the MX-1 for iq and af and the X20 is supposed to be quite a significant upgrade. The MX-1 is a year too late imo.

One thing possibly in the Pentax's favour is its use of the conventional Bayer array on its sensor. Adobe has had two shots so far at rewritining algorithms for Fuji's X-Trans to get decent results in Lightroom. Otherwise, I agree with the above and would consider the MX-1 a little behind the curve. I personally also favour a viewfinder in a camera like this, though my demographic does not underwrite photography's future.

I think the days of the viewfinder in mass market cameras are long gone sadly

I'm pretty squarly in the 'must have a viewfinder' category, with one I'd probably have bought one, without, I won't. Then again I accept I may not be the target market.

Although I'd rather use a Pentax, with a compact camera, I'm quite happy to use something else as any accessories aren't going to be K compatible anyway.

It's not so much accessories but the operating logic and colour quality that are compatible.

Pentax cameras have the colour that I like. The menus of all the cameras, and the other controls, work in the same way.

I've tried many, but still go back to Pentax in the end.

Write up in this weeks Amateur Photographer. Nice to see Pentax buying references scattered around the mag too.