I have been photographing with Nikon for almost the entire time I have been doing travel or, more recently, night photography. When I purchased a Pentax K-1, some photographers raised eyebrows.
Why would I purchase a 2016 camera years after it’s been released?
And why Pentax, a brand that has been more and more subjugated to the margins since they steadfastly refuse to embrace mirrorless technology?
There are seven reasons I embraced the Pentax K-1. Let’s go over some of them.
Image quality
You can read about the specs. The large 36.6 megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor with 14-bit image processor earned a high overall sensor score of 96 — no small feat.
More than this, however, were the RAW files that I was seeing from friends who were using this. There was a beauty in the way it rendered the images, including a palpable openness. I had worked with a Nikon D850, one of the greatest DSLRs ever made, and these images looked just about as good as those.
Further, the low-light capability of this was astounding. I knew several people who had used a K-1, including Hal Mitzenmacher, Timothy Little and Mike Cooper. Their night photos looked fantastic.
And according to DXOMARK, the K-1 achieved a greater dynamic range than the Nikon D810 and Sony a7R between ISO 100-800, and excellent dynamic range up through ISO 3200. It also scored higher than the Nikon D750 and Canon 6D in all categories.
But again, I kept coming back to that openness. Sure, this wasn’t very scientific, but there was a naturalness and beauty to the RAW files that I couldn’t shake.
Cost
I’m on a budget, so cost was definitely a factor. Given its broad feature set, much of which was made with night photographers in mind, I was stunned that this full-frame wonder sold for only $1800 retail.
More than that, I was able to pick up a used body for only $880. There was no way I could say no to that. Where was I going to get a camera this good for under $1000?
Features
For a full-frame camera costing only $1800, I was surprised at the feature set. Focus peaking, five-axis in-body image stabilization, two card slots and more.
Furthermore, there was a built-in time-lapse mode for in-camera stacking.
What also caught my eye, quite literally, was the gorgeous LCD monitor. Images are sharp, as Pentax uses a 3.2-inch monitor with a resolution of 1,036,800 dots (345,600px). And it also has a flexible tilt-type monitor.
Features for night photographers
The K-1 has a number of features for night photographers rarely if ever found on other full-frame cameras.
Body illumination
The K-1 offers LED lights that illuminate various parts of the camera body by pressing a button. This is perfect for night photographers. A small light illuminates the lens mount, while several more illuminate the rear buttons when the screen is pulled away from the body.
Astrotracer
For many night photographers and astrophotographers, an Astrotracer alone might be enough to warrant the purchase of a K-1. But what is it?
An Astrotracer is basically an in-camera star tracker. This allows night photographers to shoot longer exposures without star trailing and without using an equatorial mount or tracker.
The Astrotracer shifts the camera’s image sensor in synchronization with the movement of celestial bodies. It does this by putting the camera’s built-in GPS and sensor stabilization system to further use.
This in-camera star tracker allows the photographer to use much lower ISO and achieve more accurate color rendering of the stars. Furthermore, it saves you from having to purchase and haul an equatorial mount, which can cost anywhere from $300 to $1000 and weigh 2.5-3 pounds.
Night Vision LCD
This function provides a red-lighted monitor display to preserve night vision. I was rather excited about this feature. In practice, however, I found myself satisfied with simply turning the monitor brightness down to its lowest level, which seemed to work. Also, I found it difficult to see what was going on when using Live View.
Dust, mud, running water? No problem!
Pentax has quite a reputation for robust cameras. In 2012, Alex Jansen piled sand on his Pentax cameras to demonstrate their resistance to dust. He then rinsed them off by running them off in the shower.
The Pentax K-1 was similarly tested by Studient Richard by smearing mud over the outside, then cleaning it off under a faucet.
In both tests, the cameras were fully functional. I have yet to see weather sealing on any camera that even remotely compares to this.
Feels great in my hands
This is admittedly subjective. I like large cameras. Then again, I have large hands. The K-1 is a heavy camera. It weighs in at 2.23 pounds. When you pack in this amount of features and robust weather sealing, this is what you get. This is not one of those tiny little Olympus or Sony cameras.
That said, since I am a night photographer, my camera is on the tripod most of the time. Consequently, the weight doesn’t matter so much. And given the dust storms in the Mojave Desert or the salt spray of the Pacific coast, I’ll take that extra weather sealing, thank you very much.
A wide range of lens options
The Pentax K-mount, sometimes referred to as “PK-mount,” has been used since 1975. This means that there’s quite a few choices of lenses out there. This includes older legacy lenses, which you can pick up on eBay for a smile. Indeed, one photographer couldn’t give away his 100mm macro lens. I just paid for shipping. I purchased a 50mm f/4 macro lens for just a few dollars on eBay. This is in addition to other lenses such as the 15-30mm f/2.8 lens — made by Tamron for Pentax — which is one of the finest ultra wide-angle lenses today, and numerous other choices.
Is the choice as wide as Canon or Nikon? No. Is it still quite broad with plenty of deals? Absolutely.
Great features for an even better price
As you can see, the Pentax K-1 packs a lot of features for any camera. But it’s an absurd amount of features for a camera that lists for $1800. And, well, even more if you can get it used for $880!
I don’t personally care about brand names. I doubt Pentax will go belly up any time soon, as they are owned by Ricoh. But if they did, so what? That doesn’t stop me from continuing to use my camera.
I’m not wedded to brand names. I don’t really care if it’s Pentax, Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus, Leica, Fuji or anything else. I only care that the camera fits my needs. And the Pentax K-1 does so in a big way. That it does so at such an attractive price point is the cherry on top.
Pentax is marred by marketing, not by product. Thanks for letting us know about this hidden gem. Hope more people will purchase it.
I am relatively new to Pentax, but they seem to exist in the margins, regarded as relics, particularly since they make only “flapping mirror” cameras. But wow, is this a great camera.
So happy to see a Pentax get it’s due!!!
The K-1 is on my wish list!! I JUST obtained my second K-70 after a friend lost my first one, which has all these features, but only has 24 MP.
Have you worked with the Pixel Shift at all? Crazy cool!
Thanks. This is my first Pentax ever. It’s crazy great, beautifully designed. Such beautiful images as well.
I have experimented a little with Pixel Shift, but rarely do it because it doesn’t work so well when scenes have moving elements. In my case, that’s often stars.
I LEFT OFF ONE!
An eighth reason I am using the Pentax now is the accessibility of the common functions. There are buttons or dials for accessing things such as ISO, which I prefer to scrolling through menus!
Keep exploring: Hyper Program Manual, Program Lines, MTF Program Line, customizable Image Modes including B&W w/filters & IR. Note you can edit any image real time still available in the buffer, for such things as proofing White Balance, Custom Image Modes, and not only save them as new files, but save them as RAW files. Also note you have intervalometer, composite intervalometer, intervalometer in composite 4K movie and star trails. Also note you can make fine adjustment of the sensor in one degree increments, up, down, left, right, 16 degrees, and on a curvature up to 9 degrees either left… Read more »
I could do several more “Seven reasons To now use the Pentax K-1 camera”!! Those are the seven – actually eight if you see one of my comments – that I particularly love. Really, though, there are so many other reasons.
I’m not a pro. I love my K100D though. :)
They do make great cameras!
I switched also from being a lifelong Nikon shooter to a K1 Mark ll owner last year. I have a friend who shoots with Pentax and I’ve always marvelled at the quality of his shots.
Best decision I ever made – a wonderful camera with some truly remarkable lenses to choose from as well.
That’s fantastic, Dan. I must confess I am still using a Nikon D750, so I haven’t completely jumped ship. Regardless, the K-1 is an amazing camera at any price, but at the price it sells for, it’s ridiculously great.
I have been using Pentax since the days of film and have a good collection of FF lenses. I now have the K-3 and the K-1. The K-1 combined with the 24-70 f/2.8 is my favourite and the image quality is amazing. The camera is very heavy, so I use a Fuji X-T4 for street photography and keep the K-1 for important landscapes and studio portraits.
Good call. The K-1 has great detail and rendering. I use either a Leica D-Lux 4 or Nikon D750 for hikes, street photography, or other things.
My First “real” camera was a K-1000. match needle metering. That along with the Kodak Complete book of Photography got me going. I have been through several Pentax cameras in various stages. My go to right now for wildlife photography is the K-5 ii. Crop sensor just gets me in that much closer. BUT the main point is I have been able to use the same lens through all the camera bodies. Never having to re-glass has been fantastic. Camera body stabilization is the other. And I take the looks I get when I’m with other photographers when they are… Read more »
As I mentioned, I am relatively new to the Pentax universe. I purchased the K-1 because of…well, above. It’s a GREAT camera, surely one of the best DSLRs ever made…AND it’s half the price of a Nikon D850. Because I interact with night photographers, I don’t get quite as many reactions as I ordinarily would. Why? The camera is more popular with night photographers because or its amazing feature set, Astrotracer, weather sealing, and more. In fact, several night photographers turned me on to the camera. Another reason might be because they can’t see what I’m using in the dark!… Read more »
I am confused about K-2. I only know a Pentax K2
That’s a rather different camera, as that is a rangefinder-style film camera released in 1975.
Not so much rangefinder as SLR, see: https://www.pentaxforums.com/camerareviews/pentax-k2.html
Gerjan was referring to the typo where I think you should have typed K-1: (‘Further, the low-light capability of this was astounding. I knew several people who had used a K-2, including Hal Mitzenmacher’).
Ah, got it, thanks. I’ll try to have that corrected.
Good review, thanks very much for sharing it with us. I recently read several reviews of the Pentax K-1 Mark II on the web and I noticed something I found interesting. The reviewers usually make several negative comments in the reviews about the large size and heavy weight of the Pentax camera. Yet, they don’t make similar comments about the competing Nikon, Canon, or Sony models – even though those other models, with comparable lenses attached, are often heavier. For example, these are some phrases regarding size or weight used to describe the K-1 Mark II in the camera review appearing in dpreview: “chunky grip;… Read more »
Ken, Thank you for the great review. There’s another feature that you might want to explore, that is the in camera HDR bracketing that saves the bracketed images to a single RAW image (or jpg if you want to go there.).
As a landscape photographer (and astrophotographer) this is a great addition. Granted it only takes 3 stops, but that’s oftentimes enough.
You are most welcome, Craig. I have not even tried HDR bracketing yet. This is such a deep camera, and it’s hard to believe that there are this many features in such a modestly-priced camera. Out of curiosity, how do you usually use HDR bracketing for night photography or astrophotography?