Our "insider" from Pentax brought a Pentax K-01 to Grandfather Mountain last weekend and a few of us got to play with it for a while. My impressions fall into two categories: 1 - I'm now certain that I have no interest at all in a camera without a viewfinder 2 - For those who don't mind (or prefer) the lack of viewfinder the K-01 is one seriously impressive piece of kit
It's bigger than other mirrorless cameras, but has a nice, big (for mirrorless) APS-C sensor. And it's smaller than the K5, which is one of the smallest DSLR's on the market. But what really impresses is the solidity, heft and "feel" of its build. It *feels* more professional-grade than any other Pentax camera I've ever held, except possibly the 67. Now the "feel" of quality and actual durability/reliability are not the same thing, but the impression of quality construction is undeniable. Controls are very nicely laid out and simple to use. It's a bit different for someone accustomed to SLR's but probably easier to understand for someone just moving up from a point-and-shoot or smartphone, the major demographic this camera is aimed at. In short, the lack of viewfinder is a deal-killer for me (as I expected) but for those to whom this isn't the case it's a lot of camera for the money. -- Mark Roberts - Photography & Multimedia www.robertstech.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
