Pentax K-01 16.3 Megapixel Mirrorless Reviews Roundup

Built like a tank., M. Likavec "Mike"
Great build and optical quality...overall excellent. It has a very solid feel. Color balance near perfect. Bought it as a back up but find that I use it daily.

As am amateur potographer, i love the quality of the pictures, benjamin a tayag jr
Pictures are crisp, and with very natural colors.
Downside is I lost the lens cap of the 28mm lens on day 1. There should have been a cap keeper system.

Zoom Issue, m.kobie
Love the picture quality, however you need to buy additional lens for better zoom. Not a listed requirement in the description. It does state that additional lens are available not required.
Lens protector should also be attached (via cord). At events it is easy to lose.

Slick, easy-to-use body with tons of lens options, Brianna Sheldon
*The Body*
The Pentax K-01 is a relatively compact camera body (considering it mounts all K-mount lenses and needs to be deep enough for the mount and the focal distance of those lenses) with a nice, clean design. It is chunky and friendly-looking, which helps put subjects at ease.
I found the menus and controls simple and intuitive, and all the options I've needed have been easy to find. I did have to check the manual to see how to get it to take pictures with an old, manual-aperture lens, but after the correct option is enabled, it never needs to be touched again. As someone who still trots out the old K1000 every so often, this is definitely the best digital option I've handled yet. I can use all my old, fast lenses (though there is some light reduction given the APS-C sized sensor).
One gripe is that the camera uses contrast-based autofocusing, so it can struggle in low light. Luckily, manual focusing is a cinch and the 'focus peaking' option makes it easy to tell when you've got it right.
*The Lenses*
Both of the provided lenses are very standard zooms. The glass is good, the zoom is responsive, and I get plenty of fine control when using the manual focus. I wish they had a larger aperture, but they do just fine for kit lenses.

Awesome camera, Betty
This is a fun camera. The 40 mm lens is excellent. The camera body feels rugged. The picture quality is amazing. The menu system is easy to navigate. With the 40 mm lens attached, the K-01 is a good tool for street photography and fits well in a coat pocket.

The greatest flawless camera you can get for $400!, Yulia
I just love this camera. I mean all of it. The design, the quality of picture and even the absence of a viewfinder is not a flaw for me. BUT! My husband ordered the camera on January, 16th and we still DIDN'T GET it. Although it was said that there're more than 15 cameras in stock and it would be shipped to us within 1 month. It's just so frustrating we cannot get the camera of our dreams because of shipping problems. :-(

This camera is everything I expected it to be!, marc campbell
I did my research before purchasing. I weighed the benefits vs the shortcomings. This camera is sexy in my opinion and it looks real cool with my huge pentax lenses! Despite what some people say, I found that only the nit-pickiest whiners would have any legitimate complaints about this camera in terms of size, button placement etc…
This camera is better than most all of the mirrorless interchangeables and at its price point it has the best image quality by far.
Because the market for this camera is mainly concerned with size, this camera fell out of favor quickly and thus dropped in price from its $900+ msrp to being sold all day long at $300 or $400 with the 40mm pancake. It holds its own with the best in the market as far as image quality and functionality are concerned, but is untouchable where price holds significant weight.
Backwards compatible with every pentax k-mount lens? Yes thank you!!!
Drawbacks:
Uses contrast detection auto-focus. That was unnecessary, Pentax. You could've easily gone with the faster phase detection.
No viewfinder option. A lot of the interchangibles offer an efv option through third party, even though they aren't great.
Every other drawback is essentially insignificant unless you are one of the aforementioned nit-pickers.

At last a digital Pentax, Krandel Krause "Jaded"
Though some of the finish is a bit dodgy (access to battery and flash card does not close very securely), the features on this camera are so rich I hope I find the time to delve into them all while I am young enough to enjoy them. Another great aspect of this product is that it takes my previously bought Pentax M-series lenses which saves me a pretty penny as I get up to speed with all the features this full range digital camera offers.

Fantastic improvement over K-7, Andrei D
Did well to wait a year or so to get it at a good price. It is in every way better (workable high ISO) and faster (foscusing) than my K-7. The yellow colour attracts lots of shocked looks or approving smiles. The only negatives is its lack of viewer.

so good, hoseong chang
cool camera the bset disign
white is smoking hot color
cool camera the bset disign
white is smoking hot color

LOVE IT so far! (Novice user), Eduardo Nietzsche
I bought this as basically a "starter" DSLR even though I know it's not a true DSLR but a mirrorless camera, which just happens to have most of the size and weight of a DSLR, but more importantly a full APS-C sensor (only bigger one is a Full Frame sensor, found in cameras $2,000 and up), and MOST amazingly, for around three hundred twenty bucks it's about the same price as a "prosumer" point-and-shoot with a sensor about a 3rd as large!
It's a "starter" camera for me because I really don't know much about photography and have used P&S ones up until now...I just lusted after the low light performance and all-around much better image quality of something with an APS-C sensor. Now I know that you can find other APS-C cameras in the $300-400 range on clearance these days (Samsungs and even some entry-level Sonys), but from the reviews I've read, they'd be hard pressed to beat the image quality of this Pentax!
Plus, I totally LOVE the strikingly unique color and form factor of this fat yellow baby...you go, Marc Newson! It feels pleasantly and reassuring SOLID in my hands, and haven't had any button confusion that others have complained about.
The Pentax menu system is pretty much self-explanatory and intuitive...I have not had to refer to the manual much, albeit I know I am only using a small percentage of its full capabilities.
I am going to start a photography night course in a few weeks' time, after which I will update my review. But so far the pics that I've taken in "Auto" mode have been gorgeous, including the ones where I was playing with the manual focus in order to get a "bokeh" effect.
The 40mm lens does require me to step back a lot farther from my subject than a normal 24-28mm wide angle lens, but right now I am reluctant to take on the extra bulk of the very affordable Pentax DA 18-55mm kit zoom lens...plus the zoom doesn't do much if any bokeh, sadly enough. So I will be looking around for a 20-24mm prime lens, just wish they weren't so bloody expensive!

nice camera, deepwhiteman
To me, as a entry level user, I love this camera, I love the color, the quality and also the availability of all kinds of pentax lens. The most important thing is, the picture quality, even better than some other entry level SLR, no mention those small dummy camera, given the price, i cant say anything too bad about it

Made me fall in love again with photography, Carlos Malagueña
Very fun and friendly camera to use. I love the shape and size. It feels very solid. You can set it down on the back, bottom, or either side. The buttons are large and easy to access. The sensor is fantastic. I have the K-x and I can really tell the difference. The K-x, while great in low light, tends to blow out the highlights much more in daylight. Ever try and take a picture of someone with silver hair in bright sunlight? The HDR setting on the K-01, which takes and combines three pictures at plus, minus and standard EV settings, gives me something no other camera has ever been able to offer so readily, details in both the highlights and shadows. That is the kind of picture that I strive to take. (Yes, I know using the HDR setting is cheating).
Video is very good. I didn't see the jumpiness that others have mentioned. Battery life is fantastic, way way better than the K-x. I wouldn't be surprised if one charge is good for over 500 shots. Shooting JPEGs, the multiple exposure settings are blazingly fast. Motor speed lags after the first six shots when set to RAW. I suppose that is a negative.
I enjoy the artistic filters, especially the posterization, pastel, and watercolor. These, along with cropping, work in camera. I find this preferable over working with images on a computer.
Skin tones are excellent and the white balance is the best I have seen. I am sure there are other cameras out there that would do as well or better. But for $316 with a decent 2.8 lens? Thank you, Amazon.

Great for low light and landscapes...., Kurt Thomas "Adventurous type"
I'm no pro photog, having used mainly point and shoot zooms until springing for my first interchangeable lens camera here, but the picture quality has been amazing, especially for night and indoor shots. There is no zoom to speak of, with the stock lens and it is difficult to safely get close enough to big 'gators for a decent shot, so I definitely will have to spring for a telephoto lens soon.

PENTAX + MARC NEWSON = Winner !!!!, J. Conner "qm2-703"
As of 3-9-13 : This review has been changed from 5 stars to 4 stars....weaknesses have been found in HDR and indoor video. See comments in following review.
First: yes, this is literally a solid little brick of a camera. You maybe thought the Canon G15 or the Nikon P7700 was a brick.....ha !! So this cam is for people looking for great photography, not so much worried about wight (about same as most Pentax DSLRs...)
Before buying and using the K-01, I already owned a NEX 5N and a Pentax K-30. Recently, I've used the K-01 in both the 40mm and then the bundled lens version. Just so you know what I'm comparing to.
A./ The NEX 5N takes sharper, clearer high-ISO pictures (above 3200). It is clearly today's best buy for those who value the combination of quality stills and quality video above all else, when spending under $1000....but:
B./ The K-01 is easier to operate: I've had a difficult time adjusting to the "no-buttons" NEX menu system. It is a chore to try to operate the NEX any faster than at a very deliberate speed.
C./ The built-in K01 flash is balanced over the subject area, and color rendition with the flash is very good. However, under 5 ft., this flash is so powerful that you may have to really dial down exposure or diffuse through a piece of plastic. That's okay with me. Stronger is fine as long as it is balanced.
D./ Non-flash Auto WB is about as good as I've seen. In most cases, equal to the NEX 5N, equal to my K-30, and better than the compacts (LX5, XZ1, P310..)that I have tried..
E./ Auto Mode will capture night scenes as well as any Night Handheld mode on any camera. The K-01 has maybe the best all-around Auto Mode on any camera - rivalling or bettering my Pentax K-30 DSLR, and my son's Sony A57. By the way, Pentax did something amazing with the K01 - they set Auto mode ISO range to be adjustable all the way to 12,800 !! Jeez, I love that, for the pure fun of it. I may get arrested some night, out there taking test pictures of neighbors' windows and porchlights when there's no moonlit sky to photograph.
F./ However, outdoor daylight shots often need you to apply some HDR to balance overall contrast and reduce blow-outs. There is an HDR mode on the dial, and HDR level ajustments in the menu, but the HDR series of 3 shots seems nervously slow taking place. The Pentax Imaging website even says that the K01 HDR mode does NOT have auto-align for its three shots, so you do need to hold quite still. Pentax really needs to fix that.
G./ Shot-to-shot time (incl. focus) is a little behind my K-30, but ahead of the NEX.
H./ With the latest firmware upgrade to the K-01, low light focus has improved to maybe a B+ grade. As long aa you can see with your naked eye something to point the focus assist beam at, you will get a lock 90% of the time. Then hold the half-press focus, compose your shot, and finish completely pressing the shutter button.
On auto, my K-01 made a decent viewable exposure at ISO 12,800 in the near darkness of my basement rec room. The "No Flash" mode on the dial is actually another approach useful for low light. Mind you, that H./ procedure I described is for really dark restaurants, etc....in regular low light I have had few focus issues. Lighter colored and more solid subjects always work better as focus points. But there is, as always, no substitute for weeks of experimentation learning all there is to know about a camera of this advanced ability. Once you do, there is little limit to the shots you can successfully make. "Better to use a good photographer than a great camera."
I./ The 40mm lens is good, but remember it is a "fixed aperture" lens, making it difficult to compare against a kit zoom. The 40 will be at 2.8 when the kit zoom at 40mm is usually 4.5. The 40mm would be expected to be sharper at the exact focus point, but blur the background more. Shooting a test of a world globe, the 40 was indeed just a bit sharper, but not that much. Please read a book on basic lens photography before you spend this much money on an interchangeable lens camera, as opposed to even a premium point and shoot. Unused lenses that just sit on a shelf for 80% of their life are going ot be a huge waste of your money. Just as with the NEX's 16mm pancake lens, I would consider the Pentax 40mm to be most useful for its physical size. On the other hand, the 40mm is probably as good as the best sweet spot on the 18-55mm, so you could also make it your night or indoor lens.
It is not sharp enough, however, to crop 2-300% and get a great result. Fixed lenses and kit zooms are for high quality "in visible range" photography. Not for seeing a mountain goat's whiskers.
J./ The DA L 18-55 lens is also not pro grade, but it has some good spots where proper ISO, aperture, and shutter in combination give very, very nice reults. Hey, it costs $100 new on Amazon...what do you want? Much of the time, I use Aperture mode at 7.1 and let the camera do the rest. For $100, you may find your lens's sweet spot to be f4.5 or f9.....:) If no real sweet spot, you probably then have either a consistently weak one that needs to be returned, or you got really lucky and have a consistently good model.
I've not fully tested the 50-200mm lens yet, but it looks usable, with no major flaw on the few shots I've tried. Again, it's only $200, and the shots I took at 80mm and 125mm were really nice. At the risk of repeating myself, buy a superzoom camera and a tripod if you love to photograph mountain goats.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The K-01 is designed and built as solid as a brick. Since it looks like no other Pentax, I attribute this to Marc Newson, working around a literal "box" full of DSLR grade performance goals, including a true K-mount lens mount that inherently has a larger minimum focal distance to whatever film/sensor/mirror you have in the box. I actually love the feel of Marc's design, even tho it is pretty much a two-hand shooter. I also really like the look, at least in black or in white. Yellow, maybe not so much, but I have not seen one in person.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONCLUSION: The K-01 equals the NEX series in value, winning for its better on-the-fly handling , its solid build , and since the NEX 5N has balooned to $678,its price. The K-01 loses by a little in sharpness at its default level, lack of auto-align in HDR mode, and indoor video. Back on the high plus side, the K-01 can use all Pentax K mount DSLR lenses on full auto w/o any adapter, while the NEX needs a very expensive adapter to use the Sony DSLR lenses on Auto.
If only there had been a way to make the LCD tiltable like the NEX, what a camera this would have been. But I can also see the extra dollars that would have to cost. Maybe the tiltable LCD and a tiltable flash, auto HDR align, and better indoor video focus tracking are items for the "K-02" in a year or two.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PS: I have to report that indoor video is not as good as I first thought : In 3pm daylight, and in a room with many windows, with no lamps to assist in lighting, the K01 has shown considerable lack of ability to stay in focus while panning. There is also very slight background motor hum. NEX 5N has much less of this problem. ------ K01 rates B, NEX rates A.
KUDOS TO: Pentax Engineering.....bold photographic platform, very close to that DSLR-in-a-box you were looking for. Performed very similar to my K-30 in almost every category except focus speed. Mostly, only the lack of a viewfinder keeps the K01 from being a DSLR....
KUDOS TO: Marc-Newson....beautiful way to translate Pentax's "functional K-mount box" into reality. Good on ya, mate !! Or do Aussies lose that down-under talk, once they have an office in a high-rent district of London ?

PENTAX + MARC NEWSON = Winner !!!!, J. Conner "qm2-703"
Before buying and using the K-01, I owned a NEX 5N for 3 months, and I own a Pentax K-30 also. Now, I've used the K-01 in both the 40mm and the bundled options versions.
Conclusions:
A./ The 5N takes slightly better ISO 3200 and 4000 pictures, BUT...
B./ The K-01 is easier to operate, even tho the 5N has some touch control features.
C./ The built-in K-01 flash is excellent, and color rendition is very good.
D./ Non-flash Auto WB is as good as I've seen.
E./ Auto Mode will capture night scenes as well as any Scene or Night Handheld mode on any camera . Maybe the best all-around Auto Mode on any camera - rivalling or bettering my Pentax K-30 DSLR, and my son's Sony A57. Pentax did something amazing with the K01 - they set Auto mode usable up to ISO 12,800 !! Jeez, I love that, for the pure fun of it.
F./ However, outdoor shots often need you to apply HDR level 2 to balance overall contrast. There are a lot of Scene modes, but with the good Auto, I haven't explored them yet.
G./ The 40mm lens is good, but it is a fixed aperture lens, meaning that it will blur areas you may want in focus, and vice-versa, in certain situations. If you don't understand this, please read a book on basic lens photography before you spend this much money on an adjustable camera, as opposed to a point and shoot.
H./ The DA L 18-55 lens is not the sharpest, but at aperture 7 thru 10 it is very good, so much of the time I put it in A mode at 7.1 and let the camera do the rest. I've not fully tested the 50-200mm lens yet, but it looks usable, with no major flaw on the few shots I've tried. I wish Pentax had a "clear Zoom" or Intelligent Zoom" as good as Sony and Lumix, so heavy tele lenses would be needed less often.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 5N takes better stills at higher ISO, and is smaller. But it seems fragile in comparison, esp. its flash attachment, which is a freaking joke. Marc Newson and Pentax did a great job on their pop-up flash operation,, and the ease of getting to the flash compensation, which, btw, is very accurate and usable. The K-01 needs better promotion, geared to families and enthusiasts, and it could easily be selling at the price level of the NEX 5N.
The K-01 is built like a brick outhouse. Since it looks like no other Pentax, I attribute this to Marc Newson, working around a literal "box" full of performance needs. I actually love the feel, and I like the look, at least in black and in the white. Yellow, not so much. Sorry, Marc.
CONCLUSION: The K-01 wins, for its ability to use new and older Pentax DSLR lenses w/o any adapter, giving it a phenomenal range of ability in prime lenses, dedicated to specific situations. The 5N can use Sony DSLR lenses only with an adapter, and then only manual focus. Available true NEX lenses are expensive and not covering nearly as wide a range. After the latest firmware upgrade to the K-01, its performance in low light focus is near A grade. If you can even make out an object in mid-range to point the focus assist beam at, you will get a lock 85% of the time. Then hold the half-press focus, move to the center of your shot and finish completely pressing the shutter button. On auto, the K-01 made a decent test pic at ISO 12,800 in the near darkness of my basement rec room. The "No Flash" mode on the dial also is useful for low light.
PS: The K-01 video is as good if not maybe better than the NEX...less motor noise detctable in quiet scenes.
KUDOS TO: Pentax Engineering.......amazing, bold photographic platform, able to do so much. Cheers !
KUDOS TO: Marc-Newson......beautiful way to translate Pentax's "functional box" into reality. Good on ya, mate !! Or do Aussies lose that down-under talk, once they are HQ'd in London ?

Amazing pictures and user friendly settings., Manda5340
I purchased this camera for my college major, to take pictures and video, and of all the choices available, this one was the most promising. It offers all of the manual setting features; white balance, ISO, exposure, aperture and shutter speed can all be set manually. Yet, it only has a few, easy to understand buttons. The menu system is also easy to use, setting up each individual setting doesn't take forever. You may still need to crack the manual, I did, but I only had to look at it once, it's that easy.
I just took it to class for the first time, and my instructor was inspecting them all, even she said it had the best manual white balance setting she had seen, and there's about 20 of us, she looked at mine almost dead last, so after seeing 20 different cameras, that's pretty amazing!

Excellent, excellent, excellent camera!!!, Jamie Donatuto
I've spent the day chasing my kids around in various situations, under various settings and this camera has performed wonderfully. The photos are amazingly crisp and clear. Even after all of my pre-purchase research, it has performed better than I had imagined! At this point, I can confirm most of the positive feeback the camera has received, so will rather address two of the main negative marks against it.
In all the research I did leading up to making a purchase, the major doubters of this camera referenced the lack of viewfinder and the AF speed (oh, and the design, but that means nil to me as I'm more concerned with what the photos look like than I am the equipment capturing them!).
I will admit that the screen was a bit tricky to see at times in the sunlight, but I was able to find a way to shield it in most cases. Though the viewfinder options are scarce, they are out there, so I may be looking into it. But in all, it's not an insurmountable issue for an amateur photography enthusiast such as myself.
Re: the AF, the firmware update is HUGE. I shot most of the day without it, but as the sun went down I decided to put the camera down and process the update. I noticed a huge difference, which quickly quelled my concerns over the AF issue. But the upgrade is a must. Note: I upgraded to v1.01.
I am not a pro, by any means, but have always had an affinity for cameras and photography. If you're looking to upgrade from a P&S, need a tagalong for your DSLR or you're in the market for a camera that will give you more creative control and focal length options, as well as very high image quality, then this camera will not disappoint.
The other final contender in my price point was (surprise, surprise) the Sony NEX-5N. I played with it for a bit before purchasing the K-01, but the give-and-take on the pros and cons between the two was so close I couldn't justify spending the extra money. And I'm glad I didn't. The K-01 is a sure bet in this price bracket.

GGreat lens compatibility, Niu Zhaoqun
The best thing I like this camera is that I can use ALL my k-mount lenses w/o an adopter! plus the great image quality, same as my old K-5

New to anything but a point and shoot, love at first sight!, Rachel Looslie
Takes great photos, very user friendly! 40 mm lens it came with happens to be the lens we love most! Awesome camera!