I'm Really Feeling the Itch...
Quote from agentlossing on May 25, 2022, 3:09 amUh oh...
Awesome! I got a very beat up K1 from Pentax Forums on the way myself . Very excited to try it out!
Quote from agentlossing on May 25, 2022, 3:09 amUh oh...
Alright! Cool! 😀 Have fun. I really like those older lenses on it. Can't wait to hear your thoughts.
Quote from SpruceBruce on May 25, 2022, 4:50 amQuote from agentlossing on May 25, 2022, 3:09 amUh oh...
Awesome! I got a very beat up K1 from Pentax Forums on the way myself . Very excited to try it out!
I clicked on that listing and was about to share it on this forum when I scrolled through the messages and saw you xD I thought "awww, yeaaah!" lol. Enjoy it! It did look beat up but with plenty of life left, and for that price, I think was a really good find.
Here are the very first observations, which I shared on another site:
- Size: I knew this thing was large, and I wasn't wrong. However, the grip is so good (pretty much perfect, in fact) that the size doesn't impress itself on the user in the hand. To be honest, the ability to comfortably rest my pinky finger without it scrambling to find purchase is, in fact, pretty great. Where the size of the camera will make itself more apparent is in packing it around. I've yet to put a strap on it (waiting for screen protector to arrive) but I think it should wear well enough across the shoulder on a longer strap, but we will see. Packing it around in the car or a bag will be a slightly different story. I know myself well enough that I am not going to jump into getting a camera bag or backpack, because I don't adapt to them well and I end up getting rid of them, typically. So I'll want to make a decision around that later into the period of ownership.
- Weight: another thing people like to mention about this camera, but, again, the grip really comes to the rescue in that area. The other thing is lenses. Even the FA 28-105mm (came with the camera kit, but if I'm keeping this rig, It'll go up for sale, because it's not my kind of lens) is large enough and heavy enough that, once mounted to the camera, it becomes an overall heavy package for me. Heavier, large aperture zooms? Hah, not likely. I want to use small film-era primes, for the most part, and the awesome FA Limited line is always there if I want to get fancier. So, I would say it's on the threshold of being heavy for me, but as long as I keep the lens small and light, it works fine. Plus I like the looks of the big camera with a little lens. It reminds me of a scaled-down version of the Big old Pentax 67 SLRs.
- Body design and features: In a word, nearly perfect. It takes the things I liked about the KP's design and improves on them (okay, I know, the K-1 came out first so the KP was the derivation rather than vice versa, but this is just the way I am reacting to the camera, in a purely stream-of-consciousness, hallucinatory manner - it's just GAS, no absinthe or any similar chemicals, honest). The third dial, for example, has much more useful features available at a twist, such as exposure comp and ISO, without having to set custom functions. The very small top LCD has useful information. I like having TAv on the mode dial, and of course Pentax's green button is excellent when utilizing old lenses which don't electronically communicate with the body. The "moon lander" LCD is a conversation piece, for sure, but it gets out of the way when not needed. I do really wish it had an eye sensor for the LCD, but the K3 III is the first Pentax camera to get one from my understanding.
- Image quality: I haven't really explored this yet, though I did download and play around with a couple RAWs before ordering, and found the amount of detail quite impressive. Also, the DNGs didn't seem to bog down Lightroom or DXO, which was a pleasant surprise. I do think this FF 36mp sensor pushes the limits of what a camera's JPEG engine can do. Files don't seem as clean or crisp as they should when you really zoom in, even given the fact that there's a roomy pixel density compared to smaller sensor cameras. I think far better results will come from desktop software in a way that's more noticeable than it is with my other cameras, and their smaller sensors and also fewer mp.
And the thing I forgot to mention there, the viewfinder! Oh, my. It's the first modern digital camera viewfinder which I've felt had a similar breadth of space as the ones in the Olympus OM-1 and Pentax MX that I have looked through in the past. Really nice, it blows the KP viewfinder out of the water, as may be expected, but still impressed me.
I very much agree with your observations, particularly the emphasis on ergonomics and handling. My favorite lenses to use on it are the compact primes as well. If you really want to embrace the Pentax 67 look, I liked the old Takumars with the big hoods, like can be seen on the K-1 in this video:
IQ is definitely very, very good. And I'm curious what you think when you get into it since you seem to have a level head about those things. I do think it is over emphasized the gains in IQ you get from FF or high megapixel. Not that I need to tell you that, I know you know that stuff more than I do. But at least as a warning to others. Sometimes those messages of FF/High megapixel wonders can affect your internal biases and either people embrace gains that aren't there (or over exaggerate those that are), or on the other hand get sorely disappointed in unrealistic expectations unmet.
I didn't realize I was this way until I picked up my GX1 and panasonic 20mm f1.7 (thanks to your advice for a cheap GRIIIx alternative 😀). I am blown away at the detail in those 16mp M4/3 files and with that fantastic lens. They are really good, but I also think that I have been somehow biased against m4/3 without realizing it... thinking they must be quite subpar compared to my FF and APSC cameras...
Funny the things that happen even when you're trying to be educated and more about getting nice pics than focusing on gear 🙂
The K-1 is awesome though 😉
You are right about the perceived versus real gains of FF and high megapixels, though this is the first FF body I've had, and the highest megapixel count by quite a ways. I've downloaded and edited sample RAW files before, but that's about it with digital FF. I think I had a pretty good idea of what to expect from the K-1 based on owning a KP for 9 months or so, and extensively using the GR III models since 2019... I knew Pentax would deliver DNGs with plenty of headroom in their 14-bit RAWs, and good high-iso with a kind of smooth grain due to the pre-processor. Of course I was curious whether this sensor held "more" and I think it does - you can push shadows a lot with little penalty, and the colors are very rich. Color and tone transitions are where I really want to closely inspect the results from this camera.
However, editing some photos today reminded me that truly excellent optics mean more than the sensor behind them. Zooming in on GR IIIx DNGs I am just amazed at how sharp that lens is. Fortunately the SMC 50/1.7 is quite a sharp lens too, and I'm on the hunt for other vintage lenses with good color rendition and sharpness. But the Panasonic 20/1.7 is truly special. It's the poster child for M4/3. I think you're seeing some of what makes the format so interesting: really good lenses all around, and some especially so, combined with a kind of biting graininess that actually looks quite good in my opinion. Yeah, it's there even at the base ISO 200 or 160, but I don't think it needs to be shied away from.
While some formats and manufacturers try to reinvent the wheel sometimes with their sensor tech (I think Pentax did it fairly successfully with their 24mp APS-C sensor/processing), M4/3 has a kind of outdated, but still very useful, style. You just have to really tame those highlights. In bright sun, my best results come from purposely embracing deep shadows and keeping the brightest parts at a level where the colors remain very saturated. It's a somewhat limiting look, but then I live in the PNW so how often do I get sunlight anyway?
And thanks for the kind words, I'm not really all that broadly experienced with gear, I just have a few niches where I've worn a nice groove 😉
Quote from agentlossing on May 29, 2022, 5:09 amHowever, editing some photos today reminded me that truly excellent optics mean more than the sensor behind them. Zooming in on GR IIIx DNGs I am just amazed at how sharp that lens is.
Yes, I was reminded of this again after taking my GR to Hawaii as my primary camera. I think that lens resolves more detail than any other lens I own, on any of my cameras. Even cropped in I had more detail than my K-3 III not cropped in, using the old 12-24mm lens. Just goes to show...
I really like my Fujinon 55mm f1.8 I was gifted. Very sharp and nice rendition. I liked my Takumars 85mm f1.9, 50mm f1.4 and 24mm f3.5. The 50mm f1.7 you have I really like for the price. The FA limiteds as you mentioned before I still want to explore more, but I really adore my 43mm on it. It's decently sharp, but it's more about the other characters it brings.
One fun one I've been playing with recently is the plastic DA 35mm f2.4, which I bought used for just under $50, but usually hovers around $70. It's meant for APS-C but works on the K-1 with a little vignetting. Fun, small, light, cheap, fast 35mm AF lens that performs way better than you'd expect.
I really liked the 35/2.4 on the KP, I may try it out on the K1. I'm unabashedly fond of a nice vignette.
