Pentax K-01 is a

mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera A mirrorless camera is a photo camera featuring a single, removable lens and a digital display. The camera does not have a reflex mirror or optical viewfinder like a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera, but may have an electronic v ...

announced in February 2012. It uses the

Pentax K mount The Pentax K-mount, sometimes referred to as the "PK-mount", is a bayonet lens mount standard for mounting interchangeable photographic lenses to 35 mm single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras. It was created by Pentax in 1975, and has since been u ...

. The camera was listed as discontinued in February 2013, but the following July was reintroduced to the Japanese market in a new white and blue colour variant.

Lens compatibility

The Pentax K-01 is the first interchangeable single-lens mirrorless camera which is compatible with lenses from a typical SLR camera without the use of an adapter. This differs from cameras from other manufacturers such as

Nikon (, ; ), also known just as Nikon, is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and imaging products. The companies held by Nikon form the Nikon Group. Nikon's products include cameras, camera ...

Nikon 1 The Nikon 1 series is a discontinued camera line from Nikon, originally announced on 21 September 2011. The cameras utilized Nikon 1-mount lenses, and featured 1" CX format sensors. The series included the Nikon 1 V1, J1, J2, and S1 with a 1 ...

or Pentax's own

Pentax Q The Pentax Q is a mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera introduced by Pentax on June 23, 2011. Characteristics Introduced as "The world's smallest interchangeable lens system camera…" The Pentax Q system is composed of four bodies (Q, Q10, Q- ...

, where the manufacturers designed a new lens mount specifically for the new camera system. The camera is compatible with all K mount lenses; K mount lenses started being made in 1975. Lenses without the "A" aperture setting will only meter properly using stop-down metering. Manual focus lenses will continue to function as manual-focus only.

Image quality

The K-01 features the same sensor as the

Pentax K-5 The Pentax K-5 is a 16.3-megapixel digital single-lens reflex camera, announced on September 20, 2010. It began shipping in mid-October 2010 and it was replaced by the Pentax K-5 II in the third quarter of 2012. Externally, the camera body is a ...

and

Nikon D7000 The Nikon D7000 is a 16.2-megapixel digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) model announced by Nikon on September 15, 2010. It replaced the D90 as the top end consumer camera, by using much of the technology and controls from the earlier D5000, ...

DSLRs, a Sony 16 MP sensor. DxOMark has rated the potential image quality of the K-01 as slightly lower than the K-5 and D7000. However, compared to other MILCs, the Pentax K-01 is rated slightly better than the

Sony NEX-5 The Sony α NEX-5 is a digital camera launched on 11 May 2010. It is a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera with the body size of a larger model fairly compact point-and-shoot camera with a larger sensor size (APS-C) comparable to that of some d ...

N, and slightly below the

Sony NEX-7 The Sony α NEX-7 is a digital camera announced 24 August 2011 by Sony. It is a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera and as such inherits a smaller body form factor than a traditional digital single-lens reflex camera, while still retaining the ...

. DxOMark's Sport (low light ISO) rating placed the K-01 first among all MILCs at the time it was tested.

Design

The camera body was designed by

Marc Newson Marc Andrew Newson CBE RDI (born 20 October 1963) is an industrial designer who works in aircraft cabin design, product design, furniture design, jewellery, and clothing. His style uses smooth geometric lines, translucency, strength, transpar ...

Awards

The K-01 was selected as a Product Design winner at the 2012 red dot design awards, and for a Gold award at the

German Design Award The Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is the official design award for Germany presented by the German Ministry for Economics and Technology. The award was given for the first time ...

2013.

Variants

The Pentax K-01 was released in four body colour combinations: black body with silver top and black grips, black body with silver top and yellow grips, silver body with black top (Europe only) and white body with black top and black grips. A blue and white version was released in July 2013. Pentax K-01 5357

Reception

Almost immediately upon its release, the K-01 became one of the most controversial Pentax offerings, with criticism focusing on the Marc Newson design, which many considered made the camera too heavy and uncomfortable to hold, with poorly-placed controls, while acknowledging its strong image quality and low-light / high ISO performance. Other reviewers complained about slow autofocusing. Positive aspects of the K-01 included its image and build quality and its compatibility with all existing Pentax K-mount lenses.

References

External links

{{Pentax digital interchangeable lens cameras K-01 Mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras Cameras introduced in 2012 Live-preview digital cameras