If you’re used to a point-and-shoot (or one of the K-01’s competitors like the Sony NEX series or Panasonic’s Lumix DMC line), however, the K-01 feels rather thick and heavy. Its body width of 2.3 inches exceeds most of the closest competition by nearly an inch, while its weight of nearly 1.25 pounds is twice as much as comparable options on the market. It’s also a good half-inch taller than many other cameras in its class. Even with the pancake lens, this is not a pocketable camera — and if you add on a full-size zoom lens (like the 18-55mm and 50-200mm lenses that come in other K-01 kits), you’re a lot closer to a small DSLR than a slightly larger mirrorless camera. This is a unique and unusual design decision — the whole point of the segment is to offer most of the power of a DSLR in a significantly smaller body. The K-01 offers image and performance compromises (relative to a DSLR) while just not being small and light enough — a tough proposition to overcome.

Regardless of what you’re used to, you’ll immediately notice the K-01’s distinctive body. It just doesn’t quite look like any other camera on the market, and particularly stands out if you pick up the yellow or silver options (I was stuck with the more pedestrian black model). Noted Australian designer Marc Newson was in charge of the K-01’s design (as well as that of the pancake lens), and while it’s a distinctive look, a number of people who saw the camera remarked that the camera was odd or just plain ugly. There’s no doubt it is a polarizing design — I'd recommend seeing it in person before making a decision on whether or not it’s for you. For my part, I much prefer the more understated look of Panasonic’s Lumix GX1, or the extreme minimalism of Sony’s NEX series.

Pentax K-01 review pictures

Previous

Next View full Gallery

Weight and size issues aside, the K-01 feels like a sturdy, solid camera. The grip is made of textured rubber to help make it easier to hold; unfortunately, the grip itself is very small, making it not the most ergonomic camera I’ve used. It’s certainly possible to hold with one hand, but it would be challenging with any lens bigger than the 40mm pancake. I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention how the K-01's SD card slot and HDMI output are covered by that same texturized rubber, and it's extremely annoying to get the cover closed — plastic would be preferable here.

The rest of the camera is black, white, or yellow aluminium, which means there’s absolutely no flex or ‘give’ to speak of. Adding to the DSLR feel, the camera’s top is dominated by a control wheel, mode selection wheel, and shutter button (with a nice on / off ring surrounding it). The mode dial contains your usual full automatic, program, aperture priority, shutter priority, and full manual modes as well as dedicated video, HDR, and scene modes. There’s also a pop-up flash and flash hot shoe on top, as well — we’ll get into more on all this a bit later.

The control dial is used for adjusting shutter speed, aperture, or any other number of settings on the fly when shooting. Both wheels have a reassuring and satisfying click in use — it's not easy to accidentally change settings. There’s also a handy red button that automatically starts shooting video by default — if you’ve ever fumbled around trying to get your camera set to shoot a quick movie clip and found yourself missing it, you’ll appreciate this feature. For those who don’t want to start shooting video by accident, this button can be easily reassigned,

The camera’s back is dominated by the 3-inch LCD that you’ll use as the camera’s viewfinder. There are also four buttons in a vertical line for autofocus lock, image playback, "info" (a one-stop settings screen), and the more in-depth menu. This row is found on the right of the LCD screen and is easily accessed by your thumb, a smart design choice versus putting them below or to the left of the screen. Lastly, there are four directional buttons plus an "ok" button in the center. These buttons are used for either navigating through menus or to quickly access settings for ISO, white balance, the flash, or shooting modes (single frame, continuous, timer, etc.).

All in all, the K-01 gives the user a wide variety of manual control for those who want it, and does so without overwhelming the camera with buttons or dials. For DSLR owners who are used to tweaking every aspect of the shooting process, the K-01 offers similar flexibility without requiring too much diving through menus — almost everything is a touch or two away. The four-way buttons are positioned right where your thumb would like them to be, while the vertical row of buttons is easily accessible without having to stretch.

As is often the case with cameras in this class, the K-01 contains plenty of user-friendly features for those upgrading from a point-and-shoot, but it also lets users tweak just about every setting one could want as his or her skills increase. This helps make the K-01 a good option for those willing to invest the time (and expense) necessary to master the craft of photography — and, of course, any lenses purchased can be transferred over to a more advanced Pentax DSLR down the line.

Thanks to Instagram, loads of new cameras come with filters and color modifications to help you improve / ruin your photos (depending on who you ask), and the K-01 is no exception. There are 11 different "custom image" filters that tweak saturation settings ever so slightly; each of these can be modified by the user, giving K-01 owners a wide variety of different custom color settings at their fingertips. There are also seven "digital filters" that offer more dramatic modifications — these can also all be tweaked (the photo above was shot in "high-contrast" mode). Between the two groups, the K-01 can shoot dramatically different images with just a few presses of a button, though I imagine most photographers will just pick the most true-to-life setting and leave it be.

Pentax also included an HDR mode in the K-01 and even found it fit to include it on the camera’s main control dial. Unfortunately, it's not the most flexible mode to work with, and the results didn't justify the feature's prominent placement. (HDR, for the uninitiated, allows for greater dynamic range in the light and dark areas of a photo by taking multiple images and then combining them so all parts of the photo are properly exposed). While in HDR mode, you have no control over the camera’s shutter speed and aperture (though you retain ISO control); you can also manually set the exposure range, or how much the three photos differ in terms of exposure level. In the end, when taking a sunset picture off my porch, it was difficult to distinguish between the HDR composite image and a standard photo. Certain circumstances might make for more useful results, but those interested in HDR photography are probably better off using the K-01’s bracketing mode and creating their own HDR photos in post-processing.

Like nearly every other camera on the market worth its weight, the K-01 shoots in both RAW and JPEG modes, but Pentax included a little extra flexibility. If you’re using JPEG mode (and have your drive mode set to single-shot), the camera automatically records the RAW data and saves it to a separate buffer. After taking a photo, just view the image in playback mode and press a preassigned button — the camera will then ask if you’d like to save the full RAW image. It’s probably not the kind of feature that will get used terribly often, but when you want to use it you’ll really appreciate having the option.

As for the K-01’s built-in flash, it’s moderately powerful and offers a good number of options for those who like manual control over artificial light. Of course, there’s also red-eye reduction built-in. Unfortunately, you’re stuck with the one position that the flash pops into when you activate it — there’s no way to bounce or swivel it at all. While it didn’t always produce pleasing results, a number of photos taken with it came out pretty well, with the subjects not looking overly washed out and red-eye kept to a minimum. There’s also a flash hot-shoe, so if you’re a heavy flash user you’ll want to upgrade to a dedicated module — but it’s nice to know the flash is there for you in a pinch if you need it.

While it might not seem so at first glance, the K-01 is a reasonably speedy performer. I was routinely able to go from completely off to having taken a photo in 1.5 seconds — a pretty impressive rate. As for the camera’s recycle time, I was able to shoot a photo every 1.3 seconds in one-shot mode with autofocus turned off. That’s miles better than a point-and-shoot, but will definitely trail more powerful DSLRs. It’s a decent, if unspectacular rate — and if you’re using autofocus, expect your results to drop quite a bit from there.

However, putting the camera into continuous shooting mode changes the story. Once focus is locked, holding down the shutter button will allow you to shoot pictures at up to 6fps. That’s probably sufficient for most people in the market for a camera like this, though it is bested by options like Sony’s NEX-5N, which shoots at a whopping 10fps. The buffer also fills up quite fast — after about 9 photos, things start to slow down. By the time you’ve taken 14 pictures or so, the camera settles into shooting about 3fps If you’re using a fast memory card, though, you can continue to shoot at a fairly rapid rate, though not as quick as that first 8 shots.

Still, the K-01’s performance in continuous shooting mode was more than adequate, and performance in the rest of the camera was similarly satisfying. There was nary a hint of lag when flying through menus, and the camera takes no time at all to render images when reviewing your photos on the LCD. While it’s certainly not the fastest performer on the block, I rarely felt like I was waiting for the camera to catch up to me — if only the autofocus matched the rest of the camera’s performance.

While speed ranges from acceptable to good, battery life was exemplary. I was easily able to get more than 700 shots taken in a variety of modes and ISOs, along with a handful of videos. Your mileage may vary, but for all but the most demanding shooters, battery life simply isn’t an issue with the K-01. The camera's removable 1860mAh battery is the same one used in Pentax’s K-5 DSLR and is significantly larger than the 1080mAh batteries seen in the Panasonic Lumix GX1 or the Sony NEX-5N. Sadly, the K-01’s battery charger is a rather chunky block, and you have to pull the battery out and throw it on the charger to fill it up. You’ll want to save room in your bag for it when traveling.