Pentax K-1 Review and Photos

Purple Flower | Pentax K-1 | Pentax D-FA 100mmf/2.8 Macro

Pentax fans waited 15 years to finally see a full-frame Pentax DSLR. With every new flagship announcement starting with the K-7, Pentaxian got their hopes up that maybe this would finally be their full-frame camera. And each time the new flagship specs leaked, it turned out to be another, albeit impressive, APS-C body. Hoya provided scant and coy details about any full frame plans.  Ricoh, when they bought the Pentax brand, assured Pentaxians that full frame had a future, but that it had to be the right future. And then Pentaxians would see another APS-C body, wring their hands, spit out swears at Hoya or Ricoh, and rush to Pentax Forums to write diatribes about leaving the Pentax brand for Nikon. When the K-1 arrived, Pentaxians, like cave dwellers exiting into the sun for the first time, saw it, blinked, and realized their full frame camera had found the right future.

In the year that I’ve had the K-1, it has become my digital workhorse. I’ve used it for indoor sports shoots, beach trips, a LOT of tabletop studio work, pet photos, astrophotography, portraits, and other work. In the last year, I’ve put only 20,000 photos on the camera, far less than expected, and that’s largely due to the substantial amount of film I’m shooting for the All About Film series on this channel. However, every time I use the K-1 it’s a joy and any time I take a film camera with me I look at the K-1’s case and ask if I really want to shoot film that day.

Martini Money Shot | Pentax K-1 | Pentax D-FA 100mmf/2.8 Macro

I have not used a better digital camera than the K-1. I will not go so far as to say that I have never used a better camera than the K-1, though. Even with a year of using the K-1, the jury is still out on whether I think this is the best camera I’ve ever used. It’s great, but the greatness is offset by some limitations.

The K-1 has some amazing capabilities. The pictures in this slide show should tell you something about the camera. The sensor is stunningly sharp. The colors are vivid, luminous, rich, and bright. And at 36 megapixels, the images carry a sublime level of detail and, at their native, in-camera 300 dpi resolution, print poster-sized images from an uncropped original with no quality loss. The K-1, at 300 dpi, can make prints that rival, or often best, the 645 medium-format film cameras that were the staple of professional photographers for decades.

Milky Way over the Bunk House | Pentax K-1 | Pentax FA Limited 31mm f/1.8

What these photos won’t tell you is that the raw files have more exposure compensation correction latitude than Photoshop CS6 can provide. These photos won’t tell you that the images from the K-1 habitually need less work in post than comparable images from every camera I’ve used before this one, and a lot of that has to do with how well the sensor works and how well the software in the camera pairs with the light meter. For almost all imagery needs, this camera is a magnificent creation and will far outpace the needs of almost anyone who picks it up.

The flip-out screen is interface and engineering genius. The photographer should be behind the camera and the screen can be seen from behind it very well, at any angle the photographer could possibly need to use. No it doesn’t flip forward. But if a flip-out screen that allows you to take selfies with your DSLR is a requirement, it might be worth asking if maybe a smartphone is a better option. Spoiler alert: It is. Photographers stand behind their cameras.

Western Fence Lizard and Fly | Pentax K-1 | Pentax D-FA 100mmf/2.8 Macro

For photographers looking at the K-1, I’ve found that it is very well suited for studio, tabletop, product, food, macro, portrait, architecture, astrophotography, and landscape work. It would also work well for reproducing or creating archival digital files of artwork and important documents, especially in pixel-shift mode. And if you want to use a pixel-shift image for forensic analyses of documents, artwork, or even injuries, the K-1’s 150-megabyte pixel-shifted raw files contain so much data that the output will be surprising when backed with good image analysis skills.

The build quality is amazing and the K-1 can take some decent bangs and bumps without issue. But for the build strength, it’s light enough that it won’t break your back hiking with it, but I say this as someone who routinely hikes with all-mechanical medium- and large-format cameras, so my perspective on what’s heavy for hiking may be skewed.

Tobie | Pentax K-1 | Pentax FA Limited 77mm f/1.8

The K-1 is not a perfect camera and I have some frustrations. The camera’s frame rates are way too slow for sports and action work. The video output is HD, not the 4K it should be, and the HD is a bit lackluster in the highlight detail. The AF is the best Pentax has ever released, but that’s like winning a third-tier baking contest at the county fair – sure, it’s the best one there, but no one cares.

But chief among my frustrations, and this frustration is very challenging for me because rectifying it would mean sacrificing one of my favorite aspects of the camera, is the 36-megapixel sensor. I love the photos from this sensor, but my computer is seven years old and editing photos from the K-1 taxes it. If you buy a K-1 and plan to edit pixel-shifted, or even normal, raw files, anticipate a computer upgrade if you haven’t done so recently. That doesn’t mean buy a new computer, but you may need to help your existing computer out a bit. To help my computer keep up with the K-1, I maxed out my RAM, upgraded my photo editing hard drive to a faster model with a larger cache so that I could store the K-1’s images and allow Photoshop the space is needs for scratch disk space, and put an additional cooling fan in the case specifically for the RAM. The files have so much data that until I added the new fan, my RAM and processor were overheating and crashing the computer if I edited too many K-1 photos. And all of that means, too, that the computer needs more air and now traps a lot more dust, so it needs more frequent cleaning. These are some of the real-world consequences to getting a camera with a ludicrous number of megapixels.

Dancer in Smoke | Pentax K-1 | Pentax D-FA 100mmf/2.8 Macro

So if you have an old computer, plan to budget for some replacement or upgrade parts in addition to this camera when you set your money aside. If you shoot photos in any meaningful quantity, or do any high-end editing, your old computer will run out of storage space and the performance will suffer quickly under the weight of the K-1’s files.

And speaking of slow computers, the K-1’s on-board computer is underpowered, like the camera needs a tugboat but it got a strong dude in a canoe. The camera’s drive mode speeds, relative ease with which the K-1 underruns its buffer, especially when shooting in raw, and the time needed to clear the buffer when it fills all reflect this underpowered processing capacity.

Flyball Dog | Pentax K-1 | Pentax FA Limited 77mm f/1.8

And Ricoh could have solved both of these problems – the significant computing power needed to edit K-1 photos and the lackluster on-board computer performance – with one simple move: fewer megapixels. Even a 12- or 16-megapixel full frame sensor is more than most people need. A smaller sensor would have alleviated the processing strain for owners’ computers. A smaller sensor would have allowed the camera’s buffer to last far longer. It would have been like keeping the strong dude in the canoe but asking him to pull a small sailboat instead of an ore ship.

But I said most people. And for the K-1, the target market, high-end landscape, architecture, product, and portrait photographers, all those megapixels are needed. So for the primary audience for which this camera was designed, it does exactly what they need, and the both the image data size, supporting computing power, and relatively low-power on-board computer are non-issues.

Rollei Vario Chrome | Pentax K-1 | Pentax D-FA 100mmf/2.8 Macro

All photography has compromise. All photography has trade-offs. This is the nature of our hobby or profession. The K-1 asks that photographers make some compromises. For most photographers, they are inconsequential or insignificant and the K-1 will be far more camera than most anyone could ever fully use. For some professionals, such as sports photographers, the compromises mean that this camera is not well suited to their demands. If you’re a photographer looking at a K-1, you are far enough along in your hobby or profession to understand your shooting style, and to know from what I’ve said here if the K-1 is a good fit for you. If you don’t know your shooting style well, the K-1 will be unforgiving. But if you do, and if your subjects and style mesh well with the K-1, you will find that this is an amazing tool and a ready companion for advancing your creative vision.

Milky Way over the Old Chevrolet | Pentax K-1 | Pentax FA Limited 31mm f/1.8