Sure, but those companies need to make an effort and at least meet customers part way... Frankly, it feels like Ricoh just gave up and is now just milking its current customers until the cow goes barren and the tit goes dry
Professional Pentax shooter since the 80s. I use the wonderful K-1 for studio product shots and landscape work (the pentaprism and live-view screen are just astonishing for precise focusing and stacking). Beyond that, all my Pentax gear has gone the way of Ebay and my bag is now full of Sony gear. Pentax has simply not kept up with the most important tech and with my clients requiring much more demanding autofocus and video, I find myself looking at my beloved brand in the rearview mirror. They may survive, but I doubt it. (Having said that, Pentax has provided me with a good living for most of my life, and I will always be grateful.)
My APS-C and FF cameras are the Pentax KP and K-1.2. I have a ton of vintage Pentax glass that all work well, anything including and past the A line support aperture priority fine with full metering so there's a lot of choices for solid glass. I find the KP to be one of my favorite cameras in general to use, there are features in it that should be in mirrorless cameras like the contrast mode or whatever it's called when manual focusing through liveview. It basically applies a highpass filter over the feed making it easier to see contrasting edges glow (for me it's better than just peaking, but it's basically the same thing). I mainly shoot MFT with Panasonic bodies (GX85/GX8) and soon or whenever the OM-5 ships one of those for the updated HiRes that I already use with my EM5.2 for photoscanning. The EM1.3 is cheaper used for basically the same thing, but the OM-5 with the bonus warranty right now plus replacing both my smaller bodies and the em5.2 is worth the extra money on its own if I sold those three (which I won't, but never know). TBH I'd prob pay 1k for a limited Pentax compact that's just the GRIIIx's internals and lens put inside of an MX-1 shell. Unlike Fuji, Ricoh could probably actually manage to make a few to sell for MSRP.
Its called focus peaking and is a breeze to use in combination with EVF 😉 mf and obtical viewfinder needs good eyes and mine are just average 😅 still should drag my K-5 around more and give my eyes some exercise!
It warms my heart to see several still photography focused cameras recently… this might be the weakest upgrade of the bunch but you have to give Pentax and Ricoh credit for sticking to their niche
Also there aren’t many cameras right ibis for under $1000 these days….. a few 4/3 if you can find them on sale and I don’t think any of them are weather sealed
@@TechnoBabble a good choice the kf feels like the closest thing to my Sony a37 that I bought for $600 10 years ago only a bit more expensive…. I just wish there were local camera series where I could see it XD
Camera engineers that are stills focused will still try to increase frame rates and better buffering. You automatically get better video by having better framerates with improved buffering. These cameras should have improving video as a by product of better stills
I think that Ricoh is in a perfect position to bring back the film GR1V. It’ll basically be printing money at this point, and will keep Ricoh’s name strong in the market
I was hoping this whole have been a film camera with the F on the name. K mount Film but apparently not. A film release would have attracted many new people
I would totally buy Pentax stuff if they did this…. Seems unlikely though as who knows how many of the film engineers have either retired at this point or moved on
@@jackwiegmann the market is too niche and the raising prices of film and develop/scan is not helping. Most film enthusiast prefer investing in cheaper bodies so that to save money on lenses and film. Do you really think Ricoh can price a 35mm film camera which cost less then 500 dollars ?
Old Pentax film slr fan boy, but also had some K-3s in the past too. Honestly, I am saddened by each new Pentax release. 6 years later, changed the name, call it new. Who is running Ricoh! Either try to be great, or divest.
Pentax has been out of touch quite some time. I believe the only people buying those cameras are hardcore fanboys, some old Pentax users who don't want anything new and just people who don't know any better. Most (if not almost all) professionals don't use Pentax.
I can understand why people would make fun of Pentax but, as an ex-Pentaxian (over 40 years), I need to remind people that that company had been a leader in photography for a long time. Pentax was the best-bang-for-the-buck for a long time and a company that loved innovations. Let's not forget that. It's sad to see what it has become but, hey, let's not shoot the wounded. It may come back with more innovation. We never know. In the meantime, I am happy with my 2 other systems.
I love Pentax but truth is they're not the same company anymore. It's under Ricoh now and has been for a while and the days of old are gone. They haven't adapted enough like Canon or Nikon even if truth is they put out rugged bodies at a cheaper price. I had some great Pentax glass like the 30mm 2.8 from the 1970s that was amazing. Camera prices are just insane these days. Not 8 years ago I got a Canon T3i for 400 dollars with two kit lenses new in box and now a basic camera like that is close to 900-950. High school kids can't afford that. These companies don't put anything out anymore that the common starter kid can get as a gift or save from a summer job which is why I don't blame them for sticking with smartphones. Wish Pentax and Ricoh put more out but hey I had the Ricoh GR 16mp camera I paid 400 for in like 2015 and now the GRIII is also close to 1000 dollars for not much more. Sad
Use old Pentax SMC lenses on a BlackMagic and the results are constantly inspiring, they ooze character and are the far opposite of clinical. Pity the legacy is practically lost.
@@MgarrKid Agreed. The Pentax 30 2.8 from the 1970's I picked up 5-6 years ago for dirt cheap practically brand new looking. Was great to shoot with. Had to sell off my gear but nowadays prices went up. The Pentax 50mm are great as is the 135.
Pentax's heyday was back in the 1950's - 1980's. Since then they've been in a long slow slide to the back of the pack and current near total irrelevance.
Pentax is very underrated brand. I had Pentax K-30 and later on bought Nikon D610. I was surprised that Live view experience and autofocus were better on Pentax. Now I have Nikon D850 and live view is on par with this very old Pentax. If I didn´t have Nikon lenses , probably I would buy Pentax K-1 II.
To watch a review just watch our K-70 review from 6 years ago. Ho boy is that one huge indictment of Pentax, and indirectly, Pentax users, who would appear to be stuck in some kind of nostalgic past. I get the Pentax love. I used Pentax MX and ME Super from about 1980-ish until I went digital, but while there was a lot to like about the mount and lens selection, they were just another camera brand with just as many cons as pros. To be stuck in a past of those extremely limited pentaprisms fills me with horror. It means going back to shooting black and white but having to see color in the viewfinder. No thank you. I already did my time breaking up rocks on that olden-days chain gang.
Why an "indictment of... Pentax users"? Canon and Nikon only brought out their RF and Z mounts in 2018, a whole 4 years ago - so hardly the "nostalgic past"!! I expect a camera body to last me about 7 to 10 years. Not all users want to spend their time stressing about the gear and "upgrading" to the latest tech every couple of years. Photography doesn't have to be an expensive hobby - just buy a camera and take photos with it. The most important bit is the lens and, with the K mount now 47 years old, there are stacks of high quality used Pentax lenses out there at rock bottom prices that can produce beautiful images in the right hands. After all, a camera is only as good as the person operating it!
I was looking at Pentax DSLRs earlier this year, because they are on-pair with Olympus for weather sealing, but DSLR which I like more than any mirrorless. I did not liked K70 non flipping screen and lawsuit for faulty (cheap) aperture control solenoid. Pentax somehow knew about and to convince me they came with camera name as my initials. :)
in 2019 I was about to buy a Pentax but their K3 iii came so late that I had to get whatever available during that time and I am still happy and kicking with X-T30. Sometimes it does matter having a lightweight what you see is what you get output rather chunkier bulky Thor hammer to pull out.
one year later i was in the same boat and went A7iii. i wanted FF but the AF on the K-1 would have be a mere sidegrade while i was not willing to py 2k for a camera with even more crop then apsc for video. i regret not getting the sony earlier.
Oh nostalgia... such a powerful thing. I'd been using Pentax since the 70s, when they were on top, and continued to buy their bodies after they went digital. I used to love my K-70, it was reliable and bullet-proof (regularly shooting in -30 conditions), absolutely the best bang-for-buck on the market. But auto focus totally sucked and after trying birds with it, I ended up finally wrestling my nostalgia into submission and sold everything to finance a brand switch. Totally happy with my new choice, and yet...any coverage of Pentax will still lure me in. Somebody should start a "Pentaxians Anonymous" group... Glad they are still around, even if I have no plans to go back. It means more competition in the whole market.
I moved away from Pentax… and I’m now back. Bought a used K5ii for $200. AF-S is really fast, an OVF is appreciated, the build and handling are great. Good mirrorless lenses are neither smaller nor cheaper than good DSLR lenses! Still kept a Fuji and Sony to supplement but I really love shooting Pentax again.
I love pentax, I just wish that the 3 bodies I have had over the last 10 years, the K-01, the K-30, and the KP had not had terminal malfunctions. This former Pentaxian has since moved on to Fujifilm :|
I've owned and used the following Pentax cameras, MX, ME super, Super A x 2, MZ5n, MZS, K20, K5, K3, KP, K1ii and not had a single malfunction problem with any of them.
The K30/50/70(less)/s1/s2 had known issue of aperture block but the KP is a very solid camera and this is only the 2nd time I've read by anyone that he's had an issue with that. Mine for once works like a charm and will hopefully continue to do so for many years to come. Never regretted buying it. Amazing camera with great specs , underrated even amongst Pentax users. Wish they's make a V.ii at some point. If you dont care much about video, if you dont mind pentax's mediocre AF-Continous (before the K3iii at least), and if you dont mind carrying a spare batterie in your pocket on your long walks, then there's NOTHING this cam cant do great. 5 stop IBIS - Weather resistance - Pixel Shift - Focus peaking - great low light performance - multiple wheels for customisation ....you name it.
I’d be interested if Pentax (at least partially) went down the route canon was going with their SL3 as the smallest DSLR. Alternatively if Ricoh started making their compact cameras with the same weather sealing and magnesium bodies and all that would be great too.
The K mount wont help on that. What they could do though is a mirrorless k mount , but Ricoh gas stated that Pentax will remain dslr oriented (in order to not shoot the GR in the leg?) But, actually my Pentax KP is a very compact dslr in comparison to other pentax bodies.
Ricoh bought Pentax off of Hoya in 2011. There is no "Combining Forces" as today there is only Ricoh. Pentax is just a brand name they slap on their DSLRs, Lenses, sports optics and some CCTV equipment. Interestingly, Hoya still uses the same brand name for their medical products and services.
I had really hoped for something more than this...even if not much of an update... heck, if pentax said outright that this has a new and improved aperture block design, I'd buy it... I may still replace my K50 with a K70 though....otherwise it's Fuji X mount for me going forward.
I loved my Pentax gear, and spent a fortune on a lot of bodies, lenses, flashes and so on, and then a Nikon 1 V1 dropped into my lap (you haven't yet reviewed it, boys), and found everything I missed on my K-5 (the top of the range camera in those days): Fast startup, excellent AF and small and useful lenses. With the Z series added IBIS, but not for the smaller Z DX cameras, to my dismay (hardly any of the Z lenses have VR, so why, oh, why not the Z DX cameras have IBIS like their bigger brothers)! Anyway, the tiny Nikon 1 series isn't without faults, but it made life so much simpler, so I sold it all, worth some $30,000 and got myself a Nikon FX camera as complement. Bliss!
The use of the SAFOX X AF system is really a bad idea instead of using the SAFOX XIII in the KF. Buffer? It seems that Pentax does not Know what a buffer is. A massive improvement would be getting a real fast buffer indeed!
It’s disappointing they did not update the focusing system. I think they needed to keep cost and feature set well below that of the K3iii, which means we probably won’t see a midrange model to replace the KP. Maybe they will come out with a dedicated KF Astro?? Hopefully they turn there attention to updating more DA lenses with PLM motors.
How about this then? 6 years ago I couldn't afford a new camera so I have been using my dad's K20 for quite a few years now. I might have a look at this one, return the K20 and keep the lenses, well some of them anyway...😉
PENTAX!!!! YEAH! #LastManStanding I owned K-70 thanks to Your review (sinking in to stream sold me). Still think that it develop better colors and quality than my actual Fuji X camera. K-70 sensor got major advantage over other cameras in it price range. Great way of dealing with noise.
as a Pentax user, this is definitely a camera not wishing to upgrade to. I will wait for a new K-1 with the AF of K-3 III if ever. So far, for landscape and nature my K-1 is still a tank. If i ever get another brand, it will be sony.
Same, KP is about the only body I'd buy at the moment, even though it's only HD and not 4K None of the current line up offer me any real world improvements of the K-01's or K-5's, and for Shoot-And-Publish my IstD is nearly perfect resolution to use for social media.
@@PiDsPagePrototypes the KP ii would be the only Pentax camera i'd trade my KP with. I simply love it...the size..the ergonomics...the IQ (lots of people are bashing the model for those first 2 exact features! Lol) But I fear there will never be such a thing.
Pentax has always seemed to me like most free open source software - a bunch of customization and interesting features hindered by inherently non-user friendly interface. Still, I'd love to see more competition in the mirrorless market with the unique features that Pentax brings to the table. I mean who else lets you manually move the sensor and offers button illumination, to mention just a few?
I started DSLR photography with a Pentax K100D Super, a 6MP entry-level camera. With the 18-55 and 55-300. I think Pentax has made a few decisions down the line that drove them further and further into a corner. The first one, starting with the K-7, was to go with smaller DSLRs. I know the K-5 was well loved, and I had one, but I think this is where they already started to exit the more mainstream market. The second one is putting all kinds of SR (IBIS) based features in. Not that that’s bad, but focusing on Nth degree sharpness with pixel shift when your AF system really isn’t competitive, seems like trying to be too much of a perfectionist in one area, and sacrificing more core features for that. Maybe the third thing was having multiple ways of doing, for example, aperture priority. Instead of the camera having a more limited way of selecting modes, as that also makes it less likely to make a mistake. So again, this seems a bit perfectionist/nerdy to me, in a way. I’d have loved for Pentax to continue the K20D line, but add better AF, a higher framerate, and still offer lenses like the DA 16-45/4, which was light but good. And for God’s sake, put better motors in the DA* glass. Anyway, all that’s in the past now.
So basically you're claiming that may of the positive aspects of Pentax cameras, are what are causing it's demise. I suppose that's one way of looking at it but it's not an argument that I can agree with.
@@philmartin5689 I’m saying they made some choices to focus on one thing, neglecting other things that in my opinion are more core features. And maybe that’s not even opinion. It’s like they focused on the icing of the cake, but not the cake itself.
@@starbase218 Yes that's well said. Pentax lost it on core qualifications and core tasks of a camera (mainly: autofocus), instead they came up with plenty of side gimmicks which were most often half-baked (partly implemented badly, partly already conceptually half-baked), i.e. more toyish than useful in the end. This probably promoted the view onto Pentax as a toy cam maker. Their toy design "special editions" probably firmed that toy cam image. No surprise that when Pentax was running behind too much technologically, most ambitious users escaped to Nikon DSLRs and moved on to mirrorless systems later. So that at Pentax there are very few old blokes left, most probably simply too old by now (=mentally too rigid) to consider doing any changes to their (photo) life. A bit like the old farts who once stubbornly refused going digital in the 2000s, or refused accepting the autofocus invention in the 1980s. Such a type of left-behind user group can't secure the survival of a brand though, or can it?
@@tubularificationed Well, the SR based features were ok I think. But take the AA filter simulation. That’s something I set once on my K-3 at the time, and never touched it again. It’s the same with other things: they are either very niche, or you just set them once and leave them there. Meanwhile, every photo you take involves focusing. I think most people use AF most of the time for that. So… seems like something you want to be good at.
it will make 6-7 fps at least but video is a bummer. i think its there to show that pentax dslr are not yet dead. on the other hand video was always a stepchild for pentax and at times they forgot it at the mall😅 they should just blow the k3iii up to full frame.
I was a Pentax fanboy, I loved my K30, I loved even more my K70. The K70 had a lot of features 6 years ago, but they stuck in the past. When they announced that they do not want to step in to the mirror-less game I broke up with them. I went for a Sony A7ii, then for a Sony A7C. I do not regret that change, but! I had my K70 and the A7 at the same time, and really, it felt like I could just hammer the Sony into pieces with the Pentax, without even scratching the K70. I never had any doubt about the weather sealing on the Pentax, but in the other hand on the Sony... I think twice before pulling it out in harsh weather. And one thing, the Sony still lacks of some software features, like internal RAW processing, no T mode just B mode, etc.
I know what you mean. When I had them, I felt I could use my Pentax DSLRs to hammer nails. Not even the new Canons can compare, and they're built better than the Sonys.
i was pentax owner for 7 years , last pentax was K-1 II - overally great camera but lacks new lenses development , i switched to sony , , it s fine now! i love sigma art lenses, tamron lenses, laowa stuff and eye focus is top feature
@@philmartin5689 mainly i use sigma 14-24 2.8 DN ART great lens! tamron 28-75 2.8 small compact great optics, sigma 85 1.4 DN art , tamron 70-300 . all these are mirrorless design lenses, smaller , compact, sharp as razor - no such thing for pentax Available ,,,,, pentax has it s own limited lenses like fa 77 1.8 (which i owned) but you can feel that it s optics from film era with some updates
@@krtkarkrtkar394 Yep, not only Pentax DSLRs but also Pentax DSLR lenses are a lens museum by now. Just like this K-70 Mark 1.01, also for lenses, Pentax warms up old stuff from the past, with a few mostly irrelevant changes (e.g. coating changes, or doing something to the motor), mainly to serve as a fake reason for a painfully overblown price and profit margin bump. But like with cameras, also the lenses are left too much behind other brands' skyrocketing mirrorless lens standards. Pentax lenses have most often still those traits of their film days' standards: - sharp only in the center, - and only if stopped down a lot, - bad chromatic aberrations of all kinds, - portrait lenses having horrible bokeh (e.g. FA 77mm 1.8: green onion rings around purple dishes). - but lens prices appear ridiculously overpriced as if by several 100% sometimes, given the actual performance when compared to contemporary high mirrorless standards.
The least they could do is To install a way better processor in there that could handle Face detect Auto eye detect, autofocus tracking, 100 to 12800 ISO performance on par with A6400, and better live view auto focus performance kind of like a mirrorless camera. - They are after all competing against the likes of A6400, a6600, Fuji Xt3. I would pay $1200 for these features in a Pentax body alone. PS I have the K70 and I love it .
My K-70 is a great camera for what I use it for. I don't do sports and only dabble in wildlife. I use it mainly for landscapes, street, travel, macro and portraits and it is great for those. I don't do video, or need rapid shooting or a deep buffer. The two control dials and programmable buttons make it a joy to set up and use too. However... I bought mine new for £400 ($500 or so at the time). Admittedly in a 2020 New Year sale, but even then the shop's list price was only about £550. So I bought it for less than half the price of the KF. I think that tells you how much inflation there has been in the photography equipment market in the last two years!
Pentax just needs to add a hybrid viewfinder, to give the DSLR bodies a 'Mirrorless Mode' EVF for high speed shots with the mirror locked up. As for decent video, yup, been asking for that for years as Pentax owner, but there's a VERY vocal group of Anti-Video folk on the Pentax user forums who campaign against any improvement of the video features, to the point of asking the company to remove video altogether. They get heard more, and then we end up with screw up's like the K-3iii not doing 25 or 50 fps and cropping to 4K,.. Or a designer who thinks it's okay to have the premium body not have a tilt/flip screen.... WTF??? I love my K-01's and K-5's, and it sucks they keep screwing up video, leaving me to use my Pentax lenses on Sony's, Panasonic's, Canon's, BMD's,...
The problem with having this as an entry level camera is you are "entering" the Pentax system which means you have to real way forward. You are basically going down a deadend street. The future is definitely not Pentax. Which sucks because I used to love Pentax. I wish they were still looking and moving forward.
If Pentax are serious with keeping their DSLR line alive, one avenue where they can go would be to leverage their stabilized sensor to enable things like hi-res mode, and their star tracking to the lower end to get people excited in them again. But that will likely not be worth it for them, so I don’t see any kind of future in Pentax unless they can have some kind of killer feature that makes people want to take a chance on them
The Shift option can be upscaled with little penalty so basically a hi-res mode. Their killer feature is being the only DSLR with IBIS and one that can be adjusted on menu.
@@bearbearingston7696 it might be, but it’s a very small niche. I’m thinking they need a feature that overcomes the fact the their camera is still a DSLR
@@lim2001burger I don't think IBIS is a small niche nor pixel shift due to being very used by landscape photogs which are most of the K1 users, i think Pentax' weakness is the lens system because the fact it is a DSLR only bothers photographers under 25 years old or novices, most people outside the US and the top chiefs in Europe still widely use DSLRs... a market ignored by Pentax too ironically.
Releasing the same camera 7 years later for 90% same price. Just... wow. Maybe they figured if they are the only dslr producers left there's no competition and need to upgrade.
Everyone likes Pentax, but I don't know a single person who would consider buying one nowadays. They are like the inoffensive neighbour. If they ever release a K1 (proper) replacement, the reality is, I doubt it will be as good as the 5-year-old Nikon D850, and that is pretty damning (though I love the D850).
Not being fair to the K1! There are advantages for the D850 over the K1/1ii. Better AF, higher MegaPixels, FPS, video. But the K1 has advantages over the 850 as well...Pixel Hhift (so you can get those mp back), Image Stabilisation, great full tiltable backscreen and Astrotracer GPS unit built in, which is an AMAZING feature for Night sky photographers (and if any company but Pentax had this built in then it'd be "the reason everyone should get this cam"). But Ricoh/Pentax's marketing strategy sucks so noone bothered (and instead made paid YT reviews on the latest and greatest MILCs). If a K1iii will ever be produced it will be hands down the best stills camera ever made. MILCS included.
Thanks guys! At 900 USD I can get a used Canon 5D III with a 24-105 f/4 lens. Different size and yada yada, but way more convenient. Oh, and that's not taking into account the possibility of getting a new Canon 200D II with a Sigma 18-50 2.8 lens, which offers better video than the KF, and a more compact setup for DSLR lovers :)
Ιf we play it like that (used market included), at 900$ you can get a used Pentax K1 (even with a 28-105 lens if you get lucky) which is pretty close to "the best full frame for stills ever created" statement. Just saying.
@@XXX-vy6xv Agreed. That is also probably better for most people looking at stills, I assume. The used market is quite underrated, and some of those gems can give the newest cams a run for their money too :)
@@jayforcinema True. The used market is underrated because everyone wants to follow the hype and get "the latest and greatest"! Totaly fine by me! I'll gladly help them get rid of their 5 year old "junky" gear for a fraction of the initial price!
@@jayforcinema oh, I'm no "pentax only" guy either. I own a relatively new Pentax body as a main cam (a 2017 released Pentax KP which I totally love), a 15 year old Pentax CCD sensor cam bought for peanuts, but also a Samsung NX300 for (almost) pocket size walkaround street cam combined with a pancake prime and my next goal would be a cheap X-T10 or X-T20 Fuji. If and only when found cheap. As I said, everyone get the newest...i'll gladly help you get read of the junk! 😎😁
I love Pentax. My first Camera whas a Pentax Z10, later a Pentax Z10P i even use a Pentax K1. I hope the make a new medium system and mirror les system I think, dis is the last new product.......
Love from Ontario, Canada! We watched this video on our TV and came here to leave this comment. We think KF is for beginners and the only reason they came up with is changing chips and internal components, in view of the new international economic constraints, that may behave very differently from K-70. The advanced enthusiasts and professional photographers, should be more focusing on next modifications in K-1 ii, K-3 iii and medium formats. However, there is another segment of Pentaxians that would be interested in KF. People who are into hiking and backpacking like us. We would like to carry a lightweight camera like KF as a backup to our KP, not a heavyweight like K-1 ii or even K-3 iii.
They should focus (in my opinion) in medium format. Focus on bringing it to the masses, lowering the price of the technology. This is a battle they’re no longer even participating in
I really like Pentax but never owned one. They truly look like great cameras, wonderful ergonomics, great glass, and that menu system looks very intuitive.
If you’d get this camera though, or a K-70, keep in mind that it has a 10-year-old autofocus system (11 points, 9 cross-type) and an even older 77 segment light meter. Which means it doesn’t really do AF tracking at all. AF performance in general has been something Pentax hasn’t been great at. Except maybe for the K-3 III.
Autofocus on pentax cameras is good enough for general photography. IE, landscapes, portraits, night photography where they fall behind the rest is action, sports and wildlife. And I do all three with my Pentax cameras, it's just more challenging getting a good picture
@@scrptwic With respect, even your first sentence is still an opinion. I have had 4 Pentax DSLRs and a whole range of lenses. When I got a Nikon D7100 I made this video to illustrate the differences that I noticed: th-cam.com/video/NZ_C_g4GLkw/w-d-xo.html In the video, the K-3 doesn’t always lock focus. And when it does, it takes more time. I found that there is a delay, both between pressing the AF button and the lens actually starting to focus, and when doing micro-adjustments. And this delay gets larger when the light level drops. This may not bother you. But for me it meant that getting some kids in focus in the evening when I was traveling in Laos was quite hard. Because also, in the evening, you typically want a larger aperture, which means a shallower DOF. I think I used single-point AF-C (I never use auto) but the camera just couldn’t keep up with what was happening. Until these kids reached out their hands (because they wanted to give me something) long enough for the camera to be able to focus on that. It was a nice shot, but it was entirely accidental. I wanted to get a different shot but kids don’t sit still. That time I was using the K-7, so it’s possible that the K-3 would have done better. But if I compare it to how my Nikon system behaves (with any lens, btw) there’s just no comparison.
Well, that's different and unexpected... 😅 Does Pentax even lend out gear to reviewers? I'd take a look at one. 🤷 Haven't done much with Pentax since the original K-5.
The k3 is a good upgrade over the beloved K5 mainly because or two reasons 24 megapixel sensor over the K5 15 megapixel sensor and the ability to use PLM lenses. The K5 does not have the the electronics to use the faster PLM lenses you need a K50 or newer camera for the PLM Lenses
Recently been looking and shopping around cameras (for fun really)... and huh, I've got to say, for a stills-only camera, I've got a hard job finding anything that would be a meaningful upgrade (within it's class, naturally), and this is a pretty old camera!
I still use my Pentax K-30, although it has aperture problem. This problem appear in K-30, K50 may be in K-70. I don't know why Pentax gives up for AA battery (or mix with Lithium Battery, may be it is the root cause for aperture problem). Mirrorless camera is a good choice but now it becomes same weight or over weight as DLSR camera. I don't want be Coolie as other professional photographers. I do want a simple/less weight of camera. If Coolies wants to add weight for the camera, they can add lead plate on the camera.
I think the aperture problem is using the camera in the auto mode I never had a problem using apature priority mode with my K50 or K70 until I loaned both cameras to my son who shoots in auto mode, got the cameras back and both had ABF issues
@@scrptwic Sorry brother. I just use K-30 in auto mode for a few time. I set Av mode for all the times. From web user information, it says if the external battery pack is used, problem can be solved. Now I am use AA NiMh battery. First photo is black in most of time, then the next will become normal.
I think Pentax is on to something here. Yes mirrorless is replacing DSLR’s but as it happen with all other old technologies, they all continued to exist as a niche and many are still doing great these days in that niche
Actually there's one, no actually 2 type of camera that will save Pentax if they wanna build it. 1. Make a new digital version of Pentax Espio, inherit the design philosophy, APSC size sensor with standard 35mm fix lens. Tilt screen with bunches of today's feature and aim for the young market, hipster if u wanna called it and enthusiast as an everyday carry camera (high-end) point shoot. 2. Almost like the first one, but this one more high-ed. Aim the Fuji X100 series and Olympus Pen F target audience Design a compact but not too small interchangeable lens body, name it Pentax MX (of course with design inheritance). Sell it with 33mm kit (challenge is to make it as a pancake lens so it will make sense to get the X100 user base). Small compact pancake lens as a kit, then design a special adapter (sell separately). And complete the ecosystem with bunch of accessories just like what Fuji does. First step with the duo, then it will go from there, next Pentax will aiming the professional territory (the big league). But most likely as long as Pentax is owned by Ricoh, those two little awesome thing will not happen. Coz it will kill the Ricoh GR series.
No new DSLR in two years from any manufacturer. Rubber parts age. For silicone elastomers the sealing is usually over 10 years, but for other kinds of rubber it may be 3-5 years (if vulcanized properly, not the planned obsolecense types).
I had Pentax K10 d and I loved it but it aged and Pentax didn't catch up with video so my current camera is Canon. Sorry Pentax, there is 0% chance for winning me over again!
Pentax and Olympus are brands that just keep on surviving. Props to them. If they were American companies they would have been aggressively taken over by VCs after defaulting on a loan and become history.
Pentax and Olympus are the next candidates for deceasing. Maybe not vanishing, but their overseas factories being shut down and remaining assets (technical drawings, patents) being sold on, yet another time, maybe to some of these emerging Chinese or Korean lens makers. The brand name Pentax will have to disappear from cameras, because the former owner Hoya still owns that brand name, and they might not want to continue licensing this, not to some cheapo Chinese business. Maybe the next owner will have to call this stuff "P-K Systems" or so.
K-70 is my best camera ever - I would love some video quality improvement though... This new product should be named K-75 or K-7A to be able to make more variants in the future... So I would be buying Pentax K-7E next ;-)
Oh stop it! Jordan looking at Christ the whole time, Christ looking down the whole time holding his breath or laughter, you guys are doing a disservice for this release, it's so unprofessional but funnyashell😂
"I can't even do it" says it all
High time for the K1-ii and 645Z to get updated, I say.
The photography community needs multiple companies to successfully do business for healthy competition
What Pentax does is neither "successful" though, nor is it doing its competition any "healthily"?
Pentax doesn't offer any competition, but diversity in niches is
Sure, but those companies need to make an effort and at least meet customers part way... Frankly, it feels like Ricoh just gave up and is now just milking its current customers until the cow goes barren and the tit goes dry
Fuji, Sony, Nikon, canon are all doing a great job at catering the masses. Pentax can sleep now
Professional Pentax shooter since the 80s. I use the wonderful K-1 for studio product shots and landscape work (the pentaprism and live-view screen are just astonishing for precise focusing and stacking). Beyond that, all my Pentax gear has gone the way of Ebay and my bag is now full of Sony gear. Pentax has simply not kept up with the most important tech and with my clients requiring much more demanding autofocus and video, I find myself looking at my beloved brand in the rearview mirror. They may survive, but I doubt it. (Having said that, Pentax has provided me with a good living for most of my life, and I will always be grateful.)
You guys always find a way to make fresh review content and I love it!
My APS-C and FF cameras are the Pentax KP and K-1.2. I have a ton of vintage Pentax glass that all work well, anything including and past the A line support aperture priority fine with full metering so there's a lot of choices for solid glass. I find the KP to be one of my favorite cameras in general to use, there are features in it that should be in mirrorless cameras like the contrast mode or whatever it's called when manual focusing through liveview. It basically applies a highpass filter over the feed making it easier to see contrasting edges glow (for me it's better than just peaking, but it's basically the same thing).
I mainly shoot MFT with Panasonic bodies (GX85/GX8) and soon or whenever the OM-5 ships one of those for the updated HiRes that I already use with my EM5.2 for photoscanning. The EM1.3 is cheaper used for basically the same thing, but the OM-5 with the bonus warranty right now plus replacing both my smaller bodies and the em5.2 is worth the extra money on its own if I sold those three (which I won't, but never know). TBH I'd prob pay 1k for a limited Pentax compact that's just the GRIIIx's internals and lens put inside of an MX-1 shell. Unlike Fuji, Ricoh could probably actually manage to make a few to sell for MSRP.
Its called focus peaking and is a breeze to use in combination with EVF 😉 mf and obtical viewfinder needs good eyes and mine are just average 😅 still should drag my K-5 around more and give my eyes some exercise!
It warms my heart to see several still photography focused cameras recently… this might be the weakest upgrade of the bunch but you have to give Pentax and Ricoh credit for sticking to their niche
Also there aren’t many cameras right ibis for under $1000 these days….. a few 4/3 if you can find them on sale and I don’t think any of them are weather sealed
@@digitalrex5 I think the Panasonic G85 is probably the best, cheapest option for a mirrorless, rugged camera with IBIS.
@@TechnoBabble a good choice the kf feels like the closest thing to my Sony a37 that I bought for $600 10 years ago only a bit more expensive…. I just wish there were local camera series where I could see it XD
Bough a Xerox copier lately?
Camera engineers that are stills focused will still try to increase frame rates and better buffering. You automatically get better video by having better framerates with improved buffering. These cameras should have improving video as a by product of better stills
I think that Ricoh is in a perfect position to bring back the film GR1V. It’ll basically be printing money at this point, and will keep Ricoh’s name strong in the market
I was hoping this whole have been a film camera with the F on the name. K mount Film but apparently not. A film release would have attracted many new people
@@sdhute Just look at Leica with the M6. I feel like the market is there.
I would totally buy Pentax stuff if they did this…. Seems unlikely though as who knows how many of the film engineers have either retired at this point or moved on
I want them to bring back the GXR but only with the M mount permanently attached and with their current 24 mp sensor.
@@jackwiegmann the market is too niche and the raising prices of film and develop/scan is not helping. Most film enthusiast prefer investing in cheaper bodies so that to save money on lenses and film. Do you really think Ricoh can price a 35mm film camera which cost less then 500 dollars ?
The color science on the R5 C is just beautiful
I'm still rocking my trusty and now vintage Pentax K1000- the first camera i ever bought back in high school in the early 90's✨
The colors out of the R5C look really fantastic!
Expectable.. it's a Canon 😊
This is probably graded log footage, so your color compliments should go to Jordan.
@@HappyHubris I like this color better than the usual gh6 shots tbh
Hey, how colors can be "fantastic"?
@@HappyHubris that goes without saying, Jordan is great.
Still using my Pentax K3 as my winter street camera in Winnipeg with the incomparable Pentax-A 35mm f2.0.
Old Pentax film slr fan boy, but also had some K-3s in the past too. Honestly, I am saddened by each new Pentax release. 6 years later, changed the name, call it new. Who is running Ricoh! Either try to be great, or divest.
Pentax has been out of touch quite some time. I believe the only people buying those cameras are hardcore fanboys, some old Pentax users who don't want anything new and just people who don't know any better. Most (if not almost all) professionals don't use Pentax.
Stoked! The lack of AA filter and color science are what makes my K-70 is the go to camera for me.
I love my Pentax!
I can understand why people would make fun of Pentax but, as an ex-Pentaxian (over 40 years), I need to remind people that that company had been a leader in photography for a long time. Pentax was the best-bang-for-the-buck for a long time and a company that loved innovations. Let's not forget that. It's sad to see what it has become but, hey, let's not shoot the wounded. It may come back with more innovation. We never know. In the meantime, I am happy with my 2 other systems.
I love Pentax but truth is they're not the same company anymore. It's under Ricoh now and has been for a while and the days of old are gone. They haven't adapted enough like Canon or Nikon even if truth is they put out rugged bodies at a cheaper price. I had some great Pentax glass like the 30mm 2.8 from the 1970s that was amazing. Camera prices are just insane these days. Not 8 years ago I got a Canon T3i for 400 dollars with two kit lenses new in box and now a basic camera like that is close to 900-950. High school kids can't afford that. These companies don't put anything out anymore that the common starter kid can get as a gift or save from a summer job which is why I don't blame them for sticking with smartphones. Wish Pentax and Ricoh put more out but hey I had the Ricoh GR 16mp camera I paid 400 for in like 2015 and now the GRIII is also close to 1000 dollars for not much more. Sad
Use old Pentax SMC lenses on a BlackMagic and the results are constantly inspiring, they ooze character and are the far opposite of clinical. Pity the legacy is practically lost.
@@MgarrKid Agreed. The Pentax 30 2.8 from the 1970's I picked up 5-6 years ago for dirt cheap practically brand new looking. Was great to shoot with. Had to sell off my gear but nowadays prices went up. The Pentax 50mm are great as is the 135.
Pentax's heyday was back in the 1950's - 1980's. Since then they've been in a long slow slide to the back of the pack and current near total irrelevance.
Pentax is very underrated brand. I had Pentax K-30 and later on bought Nikon D610. I was surprised that Live view experience and autofocus were better on Pentax. Now I have Nikon D850 and live view is on par with this very old Pentax. If I didn´t have Nikon lenses , probably I would buy Pentax K-1 II.
It would be neat if they go the Cosina/Voigtlander route and release manual lenses for modern cameras, or the Leica route and rerelease the K1000.
Nobody wants a k1000. The KM is a k1000 with better features.
To watch a review just watch our K-70 review from 6 years ago. Ho boy is that one huge indictment of Pentax, and indirectly, Pentax users, who would appear to be stuck in some kind of nostalgic past. I get the Pentax love. I used Pentax MX and ME Super from about 1980-ish until I went digital, but while there was a lot to like about the mount and lens selection, they were just another camera brand with just as many cons as pros. To be stuck in a past of those extremely limited pentaprisms fills me with horror. It means going back to shooting black and white but having to see color in the viewfinder. No thank you. I already did my time breaking up rocks on that olden-days chain gang.
Why an "indictment of... Pentax users"? Canon and Nikon only brought out their RF and Z mounts in 2018, a whole 4 years ago - so hardly the "nostalgic past"!! I expect a camera body to last me about 7 to 10 years. Not all users want to spend their time stressing about the gear and "upgrading" to the latest tech every couple of years. Photography doesn't have to be an expensive hobby - just buy a camera and take photos with it. The most important bit is the lens and, with the K mount now 47 years old, there are stacks of high quality used Pentax lenses out there at rock bottom prices that can produce beautiful images in the right hands. After all, a camera is only as good as the person operating it!
I was looking at Pentax DSLRs earlier this year, because they are on-pair with Olympus for weather sealing, but DSLR which I like more than any mirrorless. I did not liked K70 non flipping screen and lawsuit for faulty (cheap) aperture control solenoid. Pentax somehow knew about and to convince me they came with camera name as my initials. :)
in 2019 I was about to buy a Pentax but their K3 iii came so late that I had to get whatever available during that time and I am still happy and kicking with X-T30. Sometimes it does matter having a lightweight what you see is what you get output rather chunkier bulky Thor hammer to pull out.
one year later i was in the same boat and went A7iii. i wanted FF but the AF on the K-1 would have be a mere sidegrade while i was not willing to py 2k for a camera with even more crop then apsc for video. i regret not getting the sony earlier.
Any new K70 out there left good time for a discount.
Oh nostalgia... such a powerful thing. I'd been using Pentax since the 70s, when they were on top, and continued to buy their bodies after they went digital. I used to love my K-70, it was reliable and bullet-proof (regularly shooting in -30 conditions), absolutely the best bang-for-buck on the market. But auto focus totally sucked and after trying birds with it, I ended up finally wrestling my nostalgia into submission and sold everything to finance a brand switch. Totally happy with my new choice, and yet...any coverage of Pentax will still lure me in. Somebody should start a "Pentaxians Anonymous" group...
Glad they are still around, even if I have no plans to go back. It means more competition in the whole market.
I moved away from Pentax… and I’m now back. Bought a used K5ii for $200. AF-S is really fast, an OVF is appreciated, the build and handling are great. Good mirrorless lenses are neither smaller nor cheaper than good DSLR lenses! Still kept a Fuji and Sony to supplement but I really love shooting Pentax again.
Traitor 😮
Can they please consider relaunching the Q series. Those lenses and that system are ripe for updates with how far mobile sensor tech has progressed...
I love pentax, I just wish that the 3 bodies I have had over the last 10 years, the K-01, the K-30, and the KP had not had terminal malfunctions. This former Pentaxian has since moved on to Fujifilm :|
I had a k50 die on me, was thinking about getting KP. what happen to yours?
Fuji has lots of problems as well. Coming from a Fuji shooter who switched to Pentax.
I've owned and used the following Pentax cameras, MX, ME super, Super A x 2, MZ5n, MZS, K20, K5, K3, KP, K1ii and not had a single malfunction problem with any of them.
The K30/50/70(less)/s1/s2 had known issue of aperture block but the KP is a very solid camera and this is only the 2nd time I've read by anyone that he's had an issue with that. Mine for once works like a charm and will hopefully continue to do so for many years to come.
Never regretted buying it. Amazing camera with great specs , underrated even amongst Pentax users. Wish they's make a V.ii at some point.
If you dont care much about video, if you dont mind pentax's mediocre AF-Continous (before the K3iii at least), and if you dont mind carrying a spare batterie in your pocket on your long walks, then there's NOTHING this cam cant do great.
5 stop IBIS - Weather resistance - Pixel Shift - Focus peaking - great low light performance - multiple wheels for customisation ....you name it.
why did your kp die?
I’d be interested if Pentax (at least partially) went down the route canon was going with their SL3 as the smallest DSLR. Alternatively if Ricoh started making their compact cameras with the same weather sealing and magnesium bodies and all that would be great too.
@mipmipmipmipmip literally the only thing holding me back from buying the GRiii.
I love my Ricoh GR iii, so may Pentax and Ricoh could combine forces to make the smallest DSLR ever.
The K mount wont help on that. What they could do though is a mirrorless k mount , but Ricoh gas stated that Pentax will remain dslr oriented (in order to not shoot the GR in the leg?)
But, actually my Pentax KP is a very compact dslr in comparison to other pentax bodies.
Mirrorless system based on Ricoh GR it is good idea...
Ricoh bought Pentax off of Hoya in 2011. There is no "Combining Forces" as today there is only Ricoh. Pentax is just a brand name they slap on their DSLRs, Lenses, sports optics and some CCTV equipment. Interestingly, Hoya still uses the same brand name for their medical products and services.
When you factor in lenses, Pentax is pretty small. I have the 40mm XS and 70mm Limited. You can't get smaller in those focal lengths.
@@slimphotog ypu definitely cant get smaller than the XS 😁
Only some DYI pinhole lenses on youtube are smaller 😂
I had really hoped for something more than this...even if not much of an update... heck, if pentax said outright that this has a new and improved aperture block design, I'd buy it... I may still replace my K50 with a K70 though....otherwise it's Fuji X mount for me going forward.
I loved my Pentax gear, and spent a fortune on a lot of bodies, lenses, flashes and so on, and then a Nikon 1 V1 dropped into my lap (you haven't yet reviewed it, boys), and found everything I missed on my K-5 (the top of the range camera in those days): Fast startup, excellent AF and small and useful lenses. With the Z series added IBIS, but not for the smaller Z DX cameras, to my dismay (hardly any of the Z lenses have VR, so why, oh, why not the Z DX cameras have IBIS like their bigger brothers)! Anyway, the tiny Nikon 1 series isn't without faults, but it made life so much simpler, so I sold it all, worth some $30,000 and got myself a Nikon FX camera as complement. Bliss!
One USH1 SD card slot with micro usb! Welcome to Jurassic Park! 😂
The use of the SAFOX X AF system is really a bad idea instead of using the SAFOX XIII in the KF.
Buffer? It seems that Pentax does not Know what a buffer is. A massive improvement would be getting a real fast buffer indeed!
Love the intro!
It’s disappointing they did not update the focusing system. I think they needed to keep cost and feature set well below that of the K3iii, which means we probably won’t see a midrange model to replace the KP.
Maybe they will come out with a dedicated KF Astro??
Hopefully they turn there attention to updating more DA lenses with PLM motors.
The Canon R5C colours are superb!
How about this then? 6 years ago I couldn't afford a new camera so I have been using my dad's K20 for quite a few years now. I might have a look at this one, return the K20 and keep the lenses, well some of them anyway...😉
I want a new Pentax medium format camera. Plus newer super telephotos.
Never super telephotos? Their telephotos haven't been the better on the market for ages, so never is probably right.
PENTAX!!!! YEAH! #LastManStanding I owned K-70 thanks to Your review (sinking in to stream sold me). Still think that it develop better colors and quality than my actual Fuji X camera. K-70 sensor got major advantage over other cameras in it price range. Great way of dealing with noise.
Some of the best colors SOOC for sunsets was on my k70
@@sdhute Yep, sunsets and mornings cold... amazing clean rendering
You pentaxians are scary AF. All photographic fanbases are tribalistic but none as culty as you lot.
Is that a video from 2017 ?
as a Pentax user, this is definitely a camera not wishing to upgrade to. I will wait for a new K-1 with the AF of K-3 III if ever. So far, for landscape and nature my K-1 is still a tank.
If i ever get another brand, it will be sony.
Same, KP is about the only body I'd buy at the moment, even though it's only HD and not 4K
None of the current line up offer me any real world improvements of the K-01's or K-5's, and for Shoot-And-Publish my IstD is nearly perfect resolution to use for social media.
@@PiDsPagePrototypes the KP ii would be the only Pentax camera i'd trade my KP with.
I simply love it...the size..the ergonomics...the IQ (lots of people are bashing the model for those first 2 exact features! Lol)
But I fear there will never be such a thing.
Pentax has always seemed to me like most free open source software - a bunch of customization and interesting features hindered by inherently non-user friendly interface. Still, I'd love to see more competition in the mirrorless market with the unique features that Pentax brings to the table. I mean who else lets you manually move the sensor and offers button illumination, to mention just a few?
Yey Pentax still in the game. I started with P30n, K30, K-01 and the K70. Enjoyed shooting with these cameras!
I started DSLR photography with a Pentax K100D Super, a 6MP entry-level camera. With the 18-55 and 55-300. I think Pentax has made a few decisions down the line that drove them further and further into a corner. The first one, starting with the K-7, was to go with smaller DSLRs. I know the K-5 was well loved, and I had one, but I think this is where they already started to exit the more mainstream market. The second one is putting all kinds of SR (IBIS) based features in. Not that that’s bad, but focusing on Nth degree sharpness with pixel shift when your AF system really isn’t competitive, seems like trying to be too much of a perfectionist in one area, and sacrificing more core features for that. Maybe the third thing was having multiple ways of doing, for example, aperture priority. Instead of the camera having a more limited way of selecting modes, as that also makes it less likely to make a mistake. So again, this seems a bit perfectionist/nerdy to me, in a way.
I’d have loved for Pentax to continue the K20D line, but add better AF, a higher framerate, and still offer lenses like the DA 16-45/4, which was light but good. And for God’s sake, put better motors in the DA* glass.
Anyway, all that’s in the past now.
So basically you're claiming that may of the positive aspects of Pentax cameras, are what are causing it's demise. I suppose that's one way of looking at it but it's not an argument that I can agree with.
@@philmartin5689 I’m saying they made some choices to focus on one thing, neglecting other things that in my opinion are more core features. And maybe that’s not even opinion. It’s like they focused on the icing of the cake, but not the cake itself.
@@starbase218 Yes that's well said. Pentax lost it on core qualifications and core tasks of a camera (mainly: autofocus), instead they came up with plenty of side gimmicks which were most often half-baked (partly implemented badly, partly already conceptually half-baked), i.e. more toyish than useful in the end.
This probably promoted the view onto Pentax as a toy cam maker. Their toy design "special editions" probably firmed that toy cam image.
No surprise that when Pentax was running behind too much technologically, most ambitious users escaped to Nikon DSLRs and moved on to mirrorless systems later. So that at Pentax there are very few old blokes left, most probably simply too old by now (=mentally too rigid) to consider doing any changes to their (photo) life.
A bit like the old farts who once stubbornly refused going digital in the 2000s, or refused accepting the autofocus invention in the 1980s.
Such a type of left-behind user group can't secure the survival of a brand though, or can it?
@@tubularificationed Well, the SR based features were ok I think. But take the AA filter simulation. That’s something I set once on my K-3 at the time, and never touched it again. It’s the same with other things: they are either very niche, or you just set them once and leave them there. Meanwhile, every photo you take involves focusing. I think most people use AF most of the time for that. So… seems like something you want to be good at.
@@starbase218 you make the very common mistake, that because you don't need a specific feature, no one else should find it useful or require it.
Most excited about 480p with 60 fps. Coupled with the burst shooting of 3 fps it will finally give Canon and Nikon a run for my money.
it will make 6-7 fps at least but video is a bummer. i think its there to show that pentax dslr are not yet dead. on the other hand video was always a stepchild for pentax and at times they forgot it at the mall😅 they should just blow the k3iii up to full frame.
I have a GR iii but honestly that is likely the last Ricoh camera I ever spend money on.
Will you fully review Fujifilm XH-2?
I was a Pentax fanboy, I loved my K30, I loved even more my K70. The K70 had a lot of features 6 years ago, but they stuck in the past. When they announced that they do not want to step in to the mirror-less game I broke up with them. I went for a Sony A7ii, then for a Sony A7C. I do not regret that change, but! I had my K70 and the A7 at the same time, and really, it felt like I could just hammer the Sony into pieces with the Pentax, without even scratching the K70. I never had any doubt about the weather sealing on the Pentax, but in the other hand on the Sony... I think twice before pulling it out in harsh weather. And one thing, the Sony still lacks of some software features, like internal RAW processing, no T mode just B mode, etc.
I know what you mean. When I had them, I felt I could use my Pentax DSLRs to hammer nails. Not even the new Canons can compare, and they're built better than the Sonys.
Still waiting for K3III full review and RAW samples on DPReview
Gosh!
I still love my Pentax! My k20 still feels better than my sonys.
Sounds like what OM System did with the OM-5 reuse of old tech. Why?
Ricoh, passing off an old camera as a new one is just a shame
They have exactly 1 guy looking at what tech is cheapest now vs 6 years ago and "updated" based on that.
i was pentax owner for 7 years , last pentax was K-1 II - overally great camera but lacks new lenses development , i switched to sony , , it s fine now! i love sigma art lenses, tamron lenses, laowa stuff and eye focus is top feature
How many lenses do you need?
@@philmartin5689 mainly i use sigma 14-24 2.8 DN ART great lens! tamron 28-75 2.8 small compact great optics, sigma 85 1.4 DN art , tamron 70-300 . all these are mirrorless design lenses, smaller , compact, sharp as razor - no such thing for pentax Available ,,,,, pentax has it s own limited lenses like fa 77 1.8 (which i owned) but you can feel that it s optics from film era with some updates
@@krtkarkrtkar394 Yep, not only Pentax DSLRs but also Pentax DSLR lenses are a lens museum by now.
Just like this K-70 Mark 1.01, also for lenses, Pentax warms up old stuff from the past, with a few mostly irrelevant changes (e.g. coating changes, or doing something to the motor), mainly to serve as a fake reason for a painfully overblown price and profit margin bump.
But like with cameras, also the lenses are left too much behind other brands' skyrocketing mirrorless lens standards. Pentax lenses have most often still those traits of their film days' standards:
- sharp only in the center,
- and only if stopped down a lot,
- bad chromatic aberrations of all kinds,
- portrait lenses having horrible bokeh (e.g. FA 77mm 1.8: green onion rings around purple dishes).
- but lens prices appear ridiculously overpriced as if by several 100% sometimes, given the actual performance when compared to contemporary high mirrorless standards.
Rather see the release of a new medium format camera like a Pentax 6x7 or since they are under Ricoh bringing back the Film GR
The least they could do is To install a way better processor in there that could handle Face detect Auto eye detect, autofocus tracking, 100 to 12800 ISO performance on par with A6400, and better live view auto focus performance kind of like a mirrorless camera. - They are after all competing against the likes of A6400, a6600, Fuji Xt3. I would pay $1200 for these features in a Pentax body alone. PS I have the K70 and I love it .
My K-70 is a great camera for what I use it for. I don't do sports and only dabble in wildlife. I use it mainly for landscapes, street, travel, macro and portraits and it is great for those. I don't do video, or need rapid shooting or a deep buffer. The two control dials and programmable buttons make it a joy to set up and use too. However... I bought mine new for £400 ($500 or so at the time). Admittedly in a 2020 New Year sale, but even then the shop's list price was only about £550. So I bought it for less than half the price of the KF. I think that tells you how much inflation there has been in the photography equipment market in the last two years!
R5c looks great, excellent colors.
Pentax just needs to add a hybrid viewfinder, to give the DSLR bodies a 'Mirrorless Mode' EVF for high speed shots with the mirror locked up.
As for decent video, yup, been asking for that for years as Pentax owner, but there's a VERY vocal group of Anti-Video folk on the Pentax user forums who campaign against any improvement of the video features, to the point of asking the company to remove video altogether.
They get heard more, and then we end up with screw up's like the K-3iii not doing 25 or 50 fps and cropping to 4K,.. Or a designer who thinks it's okay to have the premium body not have a tilt/flip screen.... WTF???
I love my K-01's and K-5's, and it sucks they keep screwing up video, leaving me to use my Pentax lenses on Sony's, Panasonic's, Canon's, BMD's,...
"If you are a serious photographer, you don't need video...." same people.... "What's a tiktok?"
The problem with having this as an entry level camera is you are "entering" the Pentax system which means you have to real way forward. You are basically going down a deadend street. The future is definitely not Pentax. Which sucks because I used to love Pentax. I wish they were still looking and moving forward.
Still rocking my Pentax 67ii
Love the reviews.
I thought F would be short for full frame before I clicked in. As a K5 and K1 owner, it’s good to know that Pentax is still around and that’s all.
If Pentax are serious with keeping their DSLR line alive, one avenue where they can go would be to leverage their stabilized sensor to enable things like hi-res mode, and their star tracking to the lower end to get people excited in them again. But that will likely not be worth it for them, so I don’t see any kind of future in Pentax unless they can have some kind of killer feature that makes people want to take a chance on them
DSLR has its limit. Pentax has its limit.
The Shift option can be upscaled with little penalty so basically a hi-res mode. Their killer feature is being the only DSLR with IBIS and one that can be adjusted on menu.
@@bearbearingston7696 it might be, but it’s a very small niche. I’m thinking they need a feature that overcomes the fact the their camera is still a DSLR
@@lim2001burger I don't think IBIS is a small niche nor pixel shift due to being very used by landscape photogs which are most of the K1 users, i think Pentax' weakness is the lens system because the fact it is a DSLR only bothers photographers under 25 years old or novices, most people outside the US and the top chiefs in Europe still widely use DSLRs... a market ignored by Pentax too ironically.
Releasing the same camera 7 years later for 90% same price. Just... wow. Maybe they figured if they are the only dslr producers left there's no competition and need to upgrade.
Why didn't Pentax call this the K FU and get right to the point.
If I was running a camera store, I would not keep Pentax in stock - Special Order Only
That's how it is in Southern California special order only nothing in stock except refurbished K1000 film cameras for $300.00
Everyone likes Pentax, but I don't know a single person who would consider buying one nowadays. They are like the inoffensive neighbour. If they ever release a K1 (proper) replacement, the reality is, I doubt it will be as good as the 5-year-old Nikon D850, and that is pretty damning (though I love the D850).
Not being fair to the K1!
There are advantages for the D850 over the K1/1ii. Better AF, higher MegaPixels, FPS, video.
But the K1 has advantages over the 850 as well...Pixel Hhift (so you can get those mp back), Image Stabilisation, great full tiltable backscreen and Astrotracer GPS unit built in, which is an AMAZING feature for Night sky photographers (and if any company but Pentax had this built in then it'd be "the reason everyone should get this cam"). But Ricoh/Pentax's marketing strategy sucks so noone bothered (and instead made paid YT reviews on the latest and greatest MILCs).
If a K1iii will ever be produced it will be hands down the best stills camera ever made. MILCS included.
That's quite a lot of snow in November
Thanks guys! At 900 USD I can get a used Canon 5D III with a 24-105 f/4 lens. Different size and yada yada, but way more convenient. Oh, and that's not taking into account the possibility of getting a new Canon 200D II with a Sigma 18-50 2.8 lens, which offers better video than the KF, and a more compact setup for DSLR lovers :)
Ιf we play it like that (used market included), at 900$ you can get a used Pentax K1 (even with a 28-105 lens if you get lucky) which is pretty close to "the best full frame for stills ever created" statement.
Just saying.
@@XXX-vy6xv Agreed. That is also probably better for most people looking at stills, I assume. The used market is quite underrated, and some of those gems can give the newest cams a run for their money too :)
@@jayforcinema True. The used market is underrated because everyone wants to follow the hype and get "the latest and greatest"!
Totaly fine by me! I'll gladly help them get rid of their 5 year old "junky" gear for a fraction of the initial price!
@@XXX-vy6xv Same here :) Although as a video-first guy my interests lie more with older Panasonic and Fuji gear
@@jayforcinema oh, I'm no "pentax only" guy either.
I own a relatively new Pentax body as a main cam (a 2017 released Pentax KP which I totally love), a 15 year old Pentax CCD sensor cam bought for peanuts, but also a Samsung NX300 for (almost) pocket size walkaround street cam combined with a pancake prime and my next goal would be a cheap X-T10 or X-T20 Fuji. If and only when found cheap.
As I said, everyone get the newest...i'll gladly help you get read of the junk! 😎😁
Hold up! WhAT year is this???
Ok folks. Using a K-r and still loving a not mirrorless camera. But what of the older KP vs the KF? Can one even find a KP model anywhere?
I love Pentax.
My first Camera whas a Pentax Z10, later a Pentax Z10P
i even use a Pentax K1. I hope the make a new medium system and mirror les system
I think, dis is the last new product.......
They have upgraded the model name
Yep, that summarizes the Pentax research & development team efforts and capabilities in one concise sentence 😉
Love from Ontario, Canada! We watched this video on our TV and came here to leave this comment. We think KF is for beginners and the only reason they came up with is changing chips and internal components, in view of the new international economic constraints, that may behave very differently from K-70. The advanced enthusiasts and professional photographers, should be more focusing on next modifications in K-1 ii, K-3 iii and medium formats. However, there is another segment of Pentaxians that would be interested in KF. People who are into hiking and backpacking like us. We would like to carry a lightweight camera like KF as a backup to our KP, not a heavyweight like K-1 ii or even K-3 iii.
This video is the same as the last video but Chris and Jordan have updated their t-shirts.
Leica: Re-releases M6
Pentax: Hold my Asahi. Re-releases K70
Hahahaha
They should focus (in my opinion) in medium format. Focus on bringing it to the masses, lowering the price of the technology. This is a battle they’re no longer even participating in
They should go back and make 67 film cameras
Will keep my two K-70’s ty
Recycling seems to be the trend. Pentax K-70 is now called KF and Olympus E-M5lll is now called OM-5. Both companies can no longer be taken seriously.
I really like Pentax but never owned one. They truly look like great cameras, wonderful ergonomics, great glass, and that menu system looks very intuitive.
Agreed the menu system is above many mfgs
Look at Fuji for proper ergonomics.
If you’d get this camera though, or a K-70, keep in mind that it has a 10-year-old autofocus system (11 points, 9 cross-type) and an even older 77 segment light meter. Which means it doesn’t really do AF tracking at all. AF performance in general has been something Pentax hasn’t been great at. Except maybe for the K-3 III.
Autofocus on pentax cameras is good enough for general photography. IE, landscapes, portraits, night photography where they fall behind the rest is action, sports and wildlife. And I do all three with my Pentax cameras, it's just more challenging getting a good picture
@@scrptwic With respect, even your first sentence is still an opinion. I have had 4 Pentax DSLRs and a whole range of lenses. When I got a Nikon D7100 I made this video to illustrate the differences that I noticed: th-cam.com/video/NZ_C_g4GLkw/w-d-xo.html
In the video, the K-3 doesn’t always lock focus. And when it does, it takes more time. I found that there is a delay, both between pressing the AF button and the lens actually starting to focus, and when doing micro-adjustments. And this delay gets larger when the light level drops.
This may not bother you. But for me it meant that getting some kids in focus in the evening when I was traveling in Laos was quite hard. Because also, in the evening, you typically want a larger aperture, which means a shallower DOF. I think I used single-point AF-C (I never use auto) but the camera just couldn’t keep up with what was happening. Until these kids reached out their hands (because they wanted to give me something) long enough for the camera to be able to focus on that. It was a nice shot, but it was entirely accidental. I wanted to get a different shot but kids don’t sit still.
That time I was using the K-7, so it’s possible that the K-3 would have done better. But if I compare it to how my Nikon system behaves (with any lens, btw) there’s just no comparison.
Dose it have Google?can the ois compair with the more expensive Realme 10 ?4k 60 1080p 240..wait for the full review..
I miss my Z1-p. Oh wait, I still have it!
In October, OM Systems released their OM-5, which at the time I called "lowest effort update ever"... Ricoh/Pentax: "Hold my beer"
😂
Battle of the trash king.
Don't forget to include Canon with m50 ii
Well, that's different and unexpected... 😅 Does Pentax even lend out gear to reviewers? I'd take a look at one. 🤷 Haven't done much with Pentax since the original K-5.
The k3 is a good upgrade over the beloved K5 mainly because or two reasons 24 megapixel sensor over the K5 15 megapixel sensor and the ability to use PLM lenses. The K5 does not have the the electronics to use the faster PLM lenses you need a K50 or newer camera for the PLM Lenses
They should have give something substantial feature wise since they are already releasing an upgrade.
Pentax-Schmentax! Where do I get the shirt that Jordan is wearing? Not the exakt one he is wearing, I'm not weird, but one like it.
Recently been looking and shopping around cameras (for fun really)... and huh, I've got to say, for a stills-only camera, I've got a hard job finding anything that would be a meaningful upgrade (within it's class, naturally), and this is a pretty old camera!
You guys must annihilate at cocktail parties! The symbiotic energy is unmatched.
I still use my Pentax K-30, although it has aperture problem. This problem appear in K-30, K50 may be in K-70. I don't know why Pentax gives up for AA battery (or mix with Lithium Battery, may be it is the root cause for aperture problem). Mirrorless camera is a good choice but now it becomes same weight or over weight as DLSR camera. I don't want be Coolie as other professional photographers. I do want a simple/less weight of camera. If Coolies wants to add weight for the camera, they can add lead plate on the camera.
I think the aperture problem is using the camera in the auto mode I never had a problem using apature priority mode with my K50 or K70 until I loaned both cameras to my son who shoots in auto mode, got the cameras back and both had ABF issues
@@scrptwic Sorry brother. I just use K-30 in auto mode for a few time. I set Av mode for all the times. From web user information, it says if the external battery pack is used, problem can be solved. Now I am use AA NiMh battery. First photo is black in most of time, then the next will become normal.
I think Pentax is on to something here. Yes mirrorless is replacing DSLR’s but as it happen with all other old technologies, they all continued to exist as a niche and many are still doing great these days in that niche
Actually there's one, no actually 2 type of camera that will save Pentax if they wanna build it.
1. Make a new digital version of Pentax Espio, inherit the design philosophy, APSC size sensor with standard 35mm fix lens. Tilt screen with bunches of today's feature and aim for the young market, hipster if u wanna called it and enthusiast as an everyday carry camera (high-end) point shoot.
2. Almost like the first one, but this one more high-ed. Aim the Fuji X100 series and Olympus Pen F target audience Design a compact but not too small interchangeable lens body, name it Pentax MX (of course with design inheritance). Sell it with 33mm kit (challenge is to make it as a pancake lens so it will make sense to get the X100 user base). Small compact pancake lens as a kit, then design a special adapter (sell separately). And complete the ecosystem with bunch of accessories just like what Fuji does.
First step with the duo, then it will go from there, next Pentax will aiming the professional territory (the big league).
But most likely as long as Pentax is owned by Ricoh, those two little awesome thing will not happen. Coz it will kill the Ricoh GR series.
They need to make film Camera SLRs again.
Really. How many more film shooters do we need until it’s viable for someone to make new film cameras that aren’t disposable/toy or Leica?
Pentax still has my fav egonomics
No new DSLR in two years from any manufacturer. Rubber parts age. For silicone elastomers the sealing is usually over 10 years, but for other kinds of rubber it may be 3-5 years (if vulcanized properly, not the planned obsolecense types).
I'm so sad that they've not kept up with the other brands. Pentax was such an amazing brand up until the 90s :(
I had Pentax K10 d and I loved it but it aged and Pentax didn't catch up with video so my current camera is Canon. Sorry Pentax, there is 0% chance for winning me over again!
epic opening 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Side note - mine came with a CD, so not all of them don’t come with one lol
And the k70 is just a reworked k-s2
Pentax and Olympus are brands that just keep on surviving. Props to them. If they were American companies they would have been aggressively taken over by VCs after defaulting on a loan and become history.
Pentax and Olympus are the next candidates for deceasing. Maybe not vanishing, but their overseas factories being shut down and remaining assets (technical drawings, patents) being sold on, yet another time, maybe to some of these emerging Chinese or Korean lens makers.
The brand name Pentax will have to disappear from cameras, because the former owner Hoya still owns that brand name, and they might not want to continue licensing this, not to some cheapo Chinese business.
Maybe the next owner will have to call this stuff "P-K Systems" or so.
K-70 is my best camera ever - I would love some video quality improvement though... This new product should be named K-75 or K-7A to be able to make more variants in the future... So I would be buying Pentax K-7E next ;-)
Oh stop it! Jordan looking at Christ the whole time, Christ looking down the whole time holding his breath or laughter, you guys are doing a disservice for this release, it's so unprofessional but funnyashell😂