All Forum Comments
Comment by Darkmunk posted on Replacement for *istD at 07/04/2013 - 11:13
The screen was hopeless in bright daylight, properly annoying and disabling. Need to look for one of those screen viewfinder attachments.
Difficulty holding it with no finger grip, lack of weather sealing and fear of scratching it meant that I just didn't get it out very often - grabbing the iPhone instead!
The floppy rubber card cover is really annoying, - not closing securely, constantly opening where my thumb falls on it or putting it in the bag.
Focus is slow and even with selective focus, slightly unpredictable, so I have it on manual focus a lot. Luckily, the focus switch is better than the K5 so that's easy.
All in all, I think for me at least, it's just a low-light backup camera. The sensor is fab and the images are typically brilliant with amazing exposure latitude in post.
I'm happy that I bought it, especially with that pancake lens, but the K5 is still king in every respect.
Comment by Darkmunk posted on K-01 and 40mm first impressions... at 07/04/2013 - 11:05
The refurbished units will have the latest firmware, so hopefully they will work even better than before
Comment by Darkmunk posted on killed my second Metz 58 AF-1 at 30/03/2013 - 14:41
Venue was extremely dark but the K-01 set to manual and auto ISO (thanks George ) and focus peaking, was an absolute gem! I used the on-board flash on -2 and it lit the whole 30m room easily.
Standing on a table with the camera at arm's length above my head, it was still simple to see the screen and manually focus on the dark, fast moving figures using the focus peaking - Brilliant!
This morning I took the under-exposed shots and batch-processed them to pull out the colours and lift the whites. No problems; very little noise; really happy with what were essentially snap-shots.
One advantage is that people didn't have any unreasonable expectations - all they saw was a normal guy with little camera instead of the bloody great SLR and Metz hanging off the side. So they won't be expecting miracles from a 'pro' in a dark venue.
Comment by Darkmunk posted on K-01 and 40mm first impressions... at 30/03/2013 - 12:53
Comment by Darkmunk posted on K-01 and 40mm first impressions... at 29/03/2013 - 15:47
Comment by Darkmunk posted on K-01 and 40mm first impressions... at 29/03/2013 - 14:55
I'm happy with the size; that will easily sit in my coat pocket.
The finger grip is silly - unnecessarily small even with the pancake lens; design over function.
Focus peaking! WOW, that is brilliant! I'll be using that a lot. It makes manual focusing a snap even with my dodgy long sight. I think using the screen instead of a viewfinder will annoy me, but Focus Peaking will make up for it.
That's it for now, only had it 2 hours Back later.
Comment by Darkmunk posted on K-01 and 40mm first impressions... at 29/03/2013 - 14:50
I'm getting both Metz 58 flashes fixed. Tiny ingress of sea water totally wrote-off the second flash so they are sending recon item.
Main reason for fixing is to get that deliciously small and fast output on 256th for ballistic photography, and having two will double that output to 128th for the same duration.
It will also be really handy to have two identical auto/pttl flashes at weddings etc.
In the mean-time, I was so impressed by the Yongnuo YN560-II for off-camera use, I bought another.
I've also been using my Metz CL45-4 at non-critical events. It's a super-powerful beast and commands respect, but the auto mode is limited to a fairly narrow angle - often blowing out people in the foreground, so not a professional solution.
Comment by Darkmunk posted on killed my second Metz 58 AF-1 at 29/03/2013 - 08:42
Still peering over the wall at the Q tho
Comment by Darkmunk posted on Pentax Q - yet another user review! at 29/03/2013 - 08:12
Comment by Darkmunk posted on Pentax Q - yet another user review! at 27/03/2013 - 00:07


I still use mine at weddings even using 1600 ISO if necessary, as the grain is very film-like and pleasant, especially in BW.