Pentax full frame 35mm official announcement from Ricoh (K-1 36mp)

[tduell]

latest Pentax full frame news here...

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...300221761.html

Cheers,
Terry

Just for clarity... The official link http://www.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/english/products/k-1/ (Edit by Kym)

[MissionMan]

Probably not relevant as no one here shoots pentax anymore

[arthurking83]

I almost fell of my very comfy, beautifully moulded, very snug, very wide and well padded chair when I saw the RRP!

I hate Nikon!

[tduell]

Probably not relevant as no one here shoots pentax anymore

You're a bit behind the times...you need to keep up!

Cheers,
Terry

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I almost fell of my very comfy, beautifully moulded, very snug, very wide and well padded chair when I saw the RRP!

I hate Nikon!

Ha...perhaps you need to clarify for us poor sods who are too slow to twig to what you really mean.

Cheers,
Terry

[swifty]

I almost fell of my very comfy, beautifully moulded, very snug, very wide and well padded chair when I saw the RRP!

Indeed re: RRP.
Now Pentaxians, would you care to help bring me up to speed with what gems lurk in your lens line up?

[mudman]

Probably not relevant as no one here shoots pentax anymore

well MM, those that don't are the losers

[tduell]

What do I think about the K-1?
The announcement is just adding a bit of reality to the teaser stuff that has preceeded this.
It 'sounds' like a reasonable spec.
The continuous frame rate is probably going to be seen as a bit on the low side, and we will have to wait to see if the new AF is much of an advance on the K-3, K-3 II. Not sure about the use of USB-2 versus USB-3. I have never used my USB port, so not much effect on me.
The improvements in the shake reduction and pixel-shift over those in the K-3 II both sound good.

I'm cautiously optimistic, as probably expected, but will wait and see how it all shapes up in tests. As it doesn't go on sale until April I guess we won't see a lot more until we get a bit closer to that date. The price sounds OK to me.


Cheers,
Terry

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Indeed re: RRP.
Now Pentaxians, would you care to help bring me up to speed with what gems lurk in your lens line up?

Do you mean 'my' lens line line up or the pentax lens line up?
I think the announcement did have a few words about lenses.

As to my lenses...see my sig for all the gory detail, but to clarifty my Pentax 150-450 and Sigma 24-70 are FF compatible, the Sigma 18-300 isn't but the K-1 has a crop mode and will auto-sense the lens, but this probably only applies to Pentax lenses.
Certainly not the range of lenses available that some other brands enjoy.

Cheers,
Terry

[swifty]

Hi Terry,
Just some of lenses considered stars in the Pentax line up since I'm unfamiliar with the range.
I shoot Nikon but currently only have 1 lens (and a few other accessories) tying me up to the F-mount. Although that one lens is something special.
And I'm considering an upgrade in the 2016-2017 period. The D810 successor would be my natural choice but I'm very open minded.
Even Pentax 645 should prices come down enough but the K-1's pricing is very attractive but much of my purchase decision will be based on the lens available.

[arthurking83]

What do I think about the K-1? .....

As for the frame rate, many people just assume that this is a factor that is related to the buffer and internal data bandwidth of the device!

It's not!
The most important factor is the data bandwidth capability of the sensor itself.

Sony showed the world how this works with their D300/A7 and D3x/A850-A900 series sensors.
Both those sensors were bandwidth restricted to weird degrees.

That is, they could obviously provide x amount of bandwidth at 12 bit(D300 was 6 -8 fps capable), but in 14 bit mode it was restricted to 1fps(I think more accurately 1.5fps)

That is, the same sensor that could shoot at 8fps in 12bit mode could only achieve 1.5fps when set to 14bit mode.
This made the specs of the camera seem 'slow' in some conditions, but the cameras internal systems(buffer and line speeds) were obviously capable of faster speeds.

D800 series, which obviously uses the same Sony 36Mp sensor is only capable of 4fps, D800E is also 4.4 fps capable too.
Pentax generally uses better data throughput hardware in their comparable cameras, compared to Nikon(this is historically true, not too sure now tho).

So for Pentax to only achieve 4.4fps isn't as a result of Pentax decision .. other than they chose this 36Mp sensor which is limited to that data throughput.
To the casual observer it may look slow, but once you understand the internal workings of the hardware in reality it's more like normal!

One thing that I really do like about this camera is the sensor shift capability. Not so much the stabilisation, but the ability to pixel shift and the gps tacking feature for astro.
I'm not a fan of onboard gps tho. Personally I prefer if they'd used a bleutooth connection to connect an external GPS (a feature on the D500 that I'd use heavily if it works).
GPS is heavy on batteries(and I mean dastardly heavy!)
On the D300 once, I used the cable connected GPS for all shots for that day. I only got 180 exposures.
With the bt GPS(connected via a bt dongle on the camera) I can easily get 800+ images using the GPS for every shot!
So you'd want to be careful and very selective on when you use the GPS in camera!(which then leads to possibly forgetting to turn it on, and/or off).

The pixel shift is a landscape/studio photographers dream .. if you concern yourself about ultimate quality. As long as the lens is capable of rendering the resolution, acutance and color from this camera will be at the peak of what's currently possible.

DPR has a mini preview done on a pre production model. Looks quite good.

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And for Swifty.

Nikon lenses are easily adaptable to Pentax mounts. The Pentax K/M42 mount has a shorter register distance, so lenses will work fine, other than AF and electrical functionality.

The other way around(Pentax lenses on Nikon bodies) you obviously lose infinity focus(unless you're willing to hack a lens! )

[Cage]

The suggested MRP blew me away.

Now why did I keep that Pentax M 50mm f1.7 when I've been using Nikon for over two years.

If I hadn't 'upgraded' to the K5 from the K20D I'd probably still be a Pentax shooter. Loved all my lens but not so much the K5.

[KevPride]

Will be interesting to see what US$1799 translates to when CRK get stock, they have managed to keep some of the lenses comparable to US$. Hopefully not over $A2500.

[MissionMan]

What is the native resolution without sensor shift?


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[tduell]

What is the native resolution without sensor shift?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

36.x MP, but still the same using pixel shift, just that each pixel gets the actual R,G and B rather than having to interpolate.

Cheers,
Terry

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Hi Terry,
Just some of lenses considered stars in the Pentax line up since I'm unfamiliar with the range.
I shoot Nikon but currently only have 1 lens (and a few other accessories) tying me up to the F-mount. Although that one lens is something special.
And I'm considering an upgrade in the 2016-2017 period. The D810 successor would be my natural choice but I'm very open minded.
Even Pentax 645 should prices come down enough but the K-1's pricing is very attractive but much of my purchase decision will be based on the lens available.

I'm no expert on this, so I'd suggest having a roam around on Pentax Forums http://www.pentaxforums.com/...I'm sure you'll find some discussions on this very topic.

Cheers,
Terry

[MissionMan]

36.x MP, but still the same using pixel shift, just that each pixel gets the actual R,G and B rather than having to interpolate.

Thanks, what is the benefit of having this?

[spootz01]

This is really tempting even with my investment in the EF system. The price alone makes it a steal for a FF sensor. Now I guess I will have to watch with envy from afar...

[arthurking83]

What is the native resolution without sensor shift?


....

MM, like Terry said, it doesn't increase the pixel count, but it does increase 'resolution' or more accurately acutance in the image.

if you want to see it in terms of a visual representation of it in real life, go to the DPR site and look for the studio comparison widget.
(actually I'll do it for 'ya here with THIS LINK .. if it works. If it doesn't then just do it manually.
Get the pentax K-3II up twice in the two comparo boxes, one with pixel shift on and the other off .. and a D7200 in another(they use the same sensor). K3-II has pixel shift.

What you actually want to look at in the studio tool is the black diagonal lines(on white) on the diagonal strip, as this is where the technology is more obvious.
Note that with the K3-II with pixel shift off and D7200 render those diagonal lines with the jaggies. That is the diagonals aren't rendered as lines, they have the staircase effect(ie. jaggies).
With the pixel shift on, the lines are rendered as lines instead.

But if you zoom around the entire image, there isn't all that much more detail rendered anywhere because the lens used just isn't up to the task.
That's why the lens used is important to make full use of the technology. So if the lens is capable, then the camera will provide the extra detail.

Also look at the comparison at higher ISO too .. the pixel shift is rendering much finer grain/colour noise detail, which has the effect of cleaner looking high ISO noise too.

the other benefit is that you don't get moire either.

Only problem is the limitations on when, and at what settings, you can use pixel shift.
I'd guess that 4.4 fps most likely won't be available when using pixel shift(but I dunno!).

[Cage]

Cheers for the link Arthur.

Interesting how the Pixel Shift seems to reduce noise.

[MissionMan]

Wow. 121MB raw file

[tduell]

Cheers for the link Arthur.

Interesting how the Pixel Shift seems to reduce noise.

That's because the PS image is made up from the 4 images shot at each of the Bayer sensor locations...RGGB.
If you shoot 4 images on non PS camera, and average, the result will have lower noise.

Cheers,
Terry

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Wow. 121MB raw file

Yes, comprising 4 DNG files, which then need to be processed using Pentax Digital Camera Utility software, or if you don't use Windows or OSX, with dcrawps to process the 4 and generate a 16 bit tiff.
For info, dcrawps is a patched version of David Coffin's dcraw software, modified to process the PS RAW files. It has the ability to highlight any movement in the subject during the shooting of the 4 images, and to do a repair using pixels from one of the layers. It cunningly looks at differences in the two green pixel shots to detect movement.

Cheers,
Terry

[Cage]

That's because the PS image is made up from the 4 images shot at each of the Bayer sensor locations...RGGB.
If you shoot 4 images on non PS camera, and average, the result will have lower noise.

Cheers,
Terry

I'm confused.

Does the K1 do four takes for each image ?