Pentax K-1 Reviews

I agree. there is no reason they can't have made the effort to keep at least one model running the kind of video specs that is selling cameras for the competitors.

A basic entry level kit for an indie filmmaker consists of three cameras... ONE prosumer video camera, one d-slr, one go-pro. a wide adaptor for the video cam, a fast fifty and a wide to moderate fast constant aperture zoom for the d-slr.
Some lighting gear (hacked together from the hardware store) work and clamp lights, a couple led panels and a couple cfl or kino flo fluorescents, a couple light stands, clamps, black foil, gaffer tape and sand bags.

some extension cables and misc lighting / electrical bits.

some sound gear. 2 lavs, one shotgun, one dslr mounted mini shotgun, one recorder with xlr jacks one mini recorder, a boom pole, deadcat and misc cables.

a tripod, mini slider and dslr rig. and a mono pod.

with all the money a person has to invest to make a decent indie film, corporate interview or documentary or even weddings...

there is no excuse for Pentax to be losing customers or sales when they could up the specs on one of their camera systems to make it useful for multimedia shooters to justify owning the system...

IF I have the option of buying a pentax d-slr that can integrate into a system for pro work the way nikon and canon do then I get value for owning the system... if I have to buy canon to shoot video ANYWAYS because canon and panasonic BOTH make cameras and lenses for pro level stills and video... why on earth would my next purchase be pentax ANYTHING?
the k70 looks like a baby step in the right direction, but it's not enough, and the k1 is a huge letdown for video.

IF the k-1 had simply matched the direct competitors video specs... clean hdmi out pro res 4:2:2 recording 1080 60p and 4k 24p with sensor based sr as an option over the digital sr... I would be ordering the k1 and the 70-200 next month. instead I've given up hope and am leaving the brand.


if I buy into BMD's micro cinema cam system I might as well sell off my pentax collection and use the money to switch over to panasonic across the board. or go with the ursa and canon lenses and d-slrs. there is no point in having a pentax system sitting around collecting dust waiting for the odd magazine shoot.

Pentax has a very clear and solid proposition: they make great cameras for photography. If you want video then you will nog be served well by them. We all know this. If you want to do commercial video projects then look elsewhere.

What if you want them to be as good as they were?

The K70 seems more video orientated, along with the new 55-300mm lens, so perhaps there's some hope for our videographers?

Well I can’t so no to that but I honestly think they poured all available resources into the K-1. And those resources are limited so choices had to be made.

Personally I really hope — and Pentax through interviews have alluded to this — that they will improve the camera through firmware updates. Bringing back the hardware-based shake reduction seems to be frequently requested and would therefor be a good step.

But at the end of the day this sensor was selected for its photographic qualities. I just had a look at the Nikon D810’s video specs (as that might have the same sensor) and that camera doesn’t have great video features either so maybe the possibilities are limited by the choice of sensor.

Yes, I'm just staggering out of the newsagents now, I think I'm hyperventilating! The K1 comes top of all the pro full frame DSLRs, the only one with 5 stars!! Incredible.

I've never seen anything like that since I got interested in Pentax. Of course, it was a completely fair are balanced comparison, this time ....

It still comes with the usual illogical comparisons and uneven conclusions, not looking at like for like things, or drawing conflicting conclusions ...

Also, in the picture they had a DA 18-135mm on it! I wonder, did they actually realise they weren't looking at the full frame images?!?

Interesting! I haven’t seen this, I will look it up.

It's in the current issue, the one that has a wildlife photography feature .... It's a greeny toned cover with a big close-up of some sort of insect, or butterfly.... Something like that ! (you can tell how interested I am in insect photography! )

Yes, found it.

For others: they list a few ‘high resolution’ camera and the K-1 is the only one that gets five stars. The others are: Olympus OM-D E-M5 MkII, Pentax 645Z, Nikon D810, Canon 5DS & 5DS R and Sony Alpha 7R II.

To be fair, it looks more like a comparison on paper, it’s not like they went out to take photos and compare those and the shooting experience. But nice nevertheless.

I am paying attention to this one incase they add some video codecs to make it more pro spec, there are other cameras with (presumably the same sensor) shooting decent video...

I'm guessing Pentax ditched the sensor based SR NOT over noise in the audio as stated but maybe but due to HEAT and wear on the SR mechanism... they don't want to add a "feature" that cuts the lifespan of the product under heavy use and have a backlash over "quality" due to a shorter lifespan.. it's speculation, not based on evidence.... I don't think anybody has ever tested the old models for lifespan under heavy video shooting conditions.

Live HDMI out with highest quality bit rate and some more video options would have had me jumping at it.
even the absence of a headphone jack isn't a big issue since many shooters will run a line out to the camera from the recorder and monitor sound from the recorder any mics being used get the benefit of the recorders preamps that way ..

For fun try The Sensor Noise DB on www.brendandaveyphotography.com. With the drop-down menu you can compare different models; the K-1 betters the likes of Nikon D810 and Canon 5DS by a long way and stands up well against low light specialist the Nikon D4.

Good site - thanks for the link - it gives me something else to pull my Nikon D5200 using brothers leg with . Interesting to note the K5 and K1 results look similar.

Going back to the 4K video issue, apparently a major factor is the heat generated; Fuji models with 4K have a heat sink which increases weight. The Nikon D5 limits the 4K clips to 3 minutes. So it's not a simple software tweak as some claim, it requires a dedicated structure which would increase weight and cost.

Although the opposite seems to apply to a Panasonic LX100 I bought recently, which is light and takes 15 minute clips in 4k.

Smaller sensors are less of a problem apparently, I suppose it is the law of diminishing returns I.e. doubling the sensor size requires quadruple the energy or thereabouts.