In summary
Buy this camera if:
– You already own a suite of Pentax K-mount lenses.
– You’re seeking an interchangeable-lens compact camera with superior high-ISO performance and a high sensitivity range.
– You would enjoy a camera with lots of creative in-camera adjustments.
– You’d like to be able to record HD video clips with stereo soundtracks.
Don’t buy this camera if:
- You don’t have a suite of Pentax-compatible lenses.
- You’re a sports photographer.
- You want fast autofocusing in varying light levels.
- You’re not interested in in-camera processing to obtain special effects with JPEG files.
Full review
The Pentax K-01 is noteworthy, not only for its very different design but also because it’s the first mirrorless camera to have been designed for use with a pre-existing (and quite comprehensive) suite of SLR lenses. Equipped with the same 16.3-megapixel APS-C sized sensor as the K-5, the K-01 also offers many of the K5’s functions so it’s no surprise to learn the K-01 is the largest mirrorless camera available.
Designed by celebrated Australian industrial designer, Marc Newson, it stands out for its simple lines, rounded corners and soft, rubberised accents. (You can access a video covering Newson’s approach to the camera’s design at http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mrXKDrg-xy8 .) The body, which is labelled ‘Assembled in Philippines’, is made from durable, machined aluminium with a polycarbonate cladding in black, white or yellow. Sadly, it’s not weather-sealed.
The three colour options for the Pentax K-01, shown here with the 40mm f/2.8 kit lens. (Source: Pentax.)
Build and Ergonomics
Radically different from other mirrorless cameras (including Pentax’s own Q), the K-01 is quite large and chunky when compared with its main rivals. The increase in body size is partly a result of its compatibility with K-mount lenses, for which a large flange-back distance is required and partly due to the large sensor.
Front view of the Pentax K-01. (Source: Pentax.)
Roughly half of the front panel is taken up by the lens mount, which protrudes approximately 10 mm from the camera body. Inset into the lower inner corner of this protrusion is the lens release button, while an AF/MF slider switch is partially inset into the opposite side. The lens mounting plate is solid stainless steel and carries seven electronic contacts plus a red dot, against which the dot on the lens is aligned when changing lenses.
The front panel edges out slightly to form a shallow grip, which is mostly covered by a finely-ridged rubber cladding that extends around to the back panel, becoming a cover for the card slot and interface ports roughly half way along the side panel. This cover lifts up and is held in place by a rubber tag that forms a loop around a tethering point.
This soft port cover isn’t a successful design element in this camera. It’s deceptively easy to dislodge while you’re using the camera, particularly when changing settings with the E-dial or taking the camera in and out of a protective pouch or camera bag. And when the rubber lifts you have to ease it gently back into place, which takes a couple of seconds.
An additional the hard plastic cover over the card slot itself (which provides some protection against dust and moisture) opens in the opposite direction to the rubber cover and gives you an extra thing to fiddle with when changing memory cards. The ribbed cladding continues most of the way around the opposite side of the camera body, where there’s another lift-up rubber lid; this time covering a port for an external microphone.
Top view of the Pentax K-01 without a lens fitted. (Source: Pentax.)
A prominent mode dial is located hard against the raised section of the top panel where the pop-up flash and flash hot shoe are located. The built-in flash in raised manually via a slider on the top left side of the rear panel, while the hot-shoe is compatible with Pentax’s digital flash units or the add-on O-GPS1 GPS tracker.
Ten shooting modes are accessed via the mode dial: Auto, Movie, P, Tv, Av, M, B (Bulb exposure), Flash off, HDR and SCN. To the right of the mode dial is the shutter button surrounded by an on/off switch that is almost ellipsoidal. The front edge of this switch lines up along the camera’s front panel. Solid aluminium strap lugs are inset into each end of the top panel.
Lined up adjacent to the rear of the top panel are four slightly raised buttons. A solitary black button near the left hand end doubles as a flash-up/delete button. To the right of the flash housing is a programmable green button, followed by a large E-dial, which is recessed into the top panel, another programmable button (this time in red) and a +/- button that’s used for setting EV compensation and aperture values.
Like Pentax DSLRs, many of the K-01’s controls are customisable, to a similar degree. While many users will welcome this versatility, buttons that support multiple functions can take some getting used to.
While the default setting for the green button is re-setting whatever value is being adjusted and the red button is starting and stopping movie recording, either can be programmed to any of several settings. Options include temporarily changing the file format, depth-of-field preview, focus peaking display or setting Custom Image or Digital Filter parameters.
The E-dial is mainly used for changing the shutter speed, aperture and EV compensation values, depending on the shooting mode and selected setting. But it can be used in conjunction with, or separately from, the arrow pad on the rear panel to adjust various controls and is also used to magnify images in playback mode or display thumbnails of images recorded on a card.
The rear panel of the Pentax K-01. (Source: Pentax.)
The rear panel also carries the same LCD monitor as found on the popular K-5 DSLR. This large display occupies almost a third of the rear panel. Four buttons are aligned vertically along its inner edge, covering: the AE/AF lock, Play, Info and Menu. The arrow pad’s directional buttons access (clockwise from the top): ISO, drive/self-timer, white balance and flash settings. Above the arrow pad is an inset LED that glows while the card is being accessed.
One key feature missing from the K-01 is a viewfinder ““ and there isn’t one listed among the accessories for this camera. Consequently, you’re forced to compose shots on the monitor which, like all of its kind, forces you into to point-and-guess shooting in bright outdoor lighting.
The battery tucks into a dedicated compartment in the base of the camera, just beside a plate with the ‘Marc Newson’ signature in orange. This logo is also displayed on the monitor when the camera powers-up. A metal-lined tripod socket is located slightly back from the centre line of the base plate in alignment with the optical axis of the lens.
The rechargeable D-LI90 battery is big and chunky and takes approximately 5.3 hours to charge from scratch. A fully-charged battery should provide enough power for approximately 540 shots (assuming less than half of them are taken with flash) or 320 minutes of playback.
Controls
Shooting modes are easiest to set via the mode dial, which is versatile enough to satisfy most users. While providing the same Auto, Movie, P, Tv, Av, M, B and Flash off settings as Pentax DSLRs, it lacks the sensitivity priority (Sv) and Shutter & Aperture Priority (TAv) shooting modes.
The K-01 is the first Pentax with an HDR setting on its mode dial, which makes this function much more readily accessible than it was when buried in the menu. As in the K-5, in HDR mode the camera records three exposures in rapid succession, varying exposures with -3 EV, 0 EV and +3EV exposure compensation. These are merged to create one JPEG image.
Four HDR settings are provided: HDR Auto (the camera decides the strength of the effect), HDR 1 (the weakest effect), HDR 2, and HDR 3 (the strongest effect). Diving into the menu system allows you to access an additional auto-align setting for hand-held HDR shooting.
The SCN mode accesses 19 scene pre-sets: Portrait, Landscape, Macro, Moving Object, Night Scene Portrait, Sunset, Blue Sky, Forest, Night Scene, Night Scene HDR (JPEG only), Night Snap, Food, Quick Macro, Pet, Kids, Surf & Snow, Backlight Silhouette, Candlelight, Stage Lighting and Museum. Once again, they’re JPEG only and provide an option to full-auto shooting.
Pressing the Menu button displays the complete camera menu, which is divided into five sections. The first contains four pages of shooting controls, while the second covers movie functions. The third is the playback mode palette (which covers in-camera, post-capture adjustments), while the fourth contains the set-up menu. The final pages access the Custom settings, which cover 16 functions.
However, most adjustments to shooting functions are easier to access by pressing the Info button in standby mode. This calls up the Control Panel screen, which displays only items that can be adjusted in the shooting mode you’ve set. These are represented by icons arrayed in a 5×3 array. You can toggle through the settings with the arrow pad buttons and press the OK button to access each setting’s sub-menu.
As in the K-5, the K-01 includes an extended dynamic range setting for use with contrasty subjects. However, its auto mode only adjusts JPEG files when the camera deems it necessary. Aside from that there are highlight and shadow settings. Like the K-5, the K-01 provides three steps of adjustment for shadows, but only on or off only (or auto) for highlights. On the basis of our general usage, we’d recommend setting the highlight adjustment to auto or on in most situations.
In-camera noise reduction settings are similar to the K-5, as is the native sensitivity range, which spans from ISO 100 to ISO 12800. This can only be extended upwards to ISO 25600, whereas the K-5 offers each-way expansion to ISO 80 and ISO 51200.
Using the arrow pad for ISO adjustment provides the widest range of settings. Pressing the top button provides two options: delineating the auto ISO range and selecting individual values from a one-EV step range, using the E-dial. The camera remembers the last option you used, making it quite quick to adjust settings on-the-fly.
Being mirrorless, the K-01 is forced to rely on contrast-detect autofocus, which means its AF system is significantly slower than those in Pentax DSLRs. Although the camera supports AF point selection, it’s tricky to use and requires some toggling with the E-dial and arrow pad buttons.
Continuous AF isn’t provided and the tracking option has to work hard to lock on to moving targets and keep them sharp. If you select the release priority function in the custom settings, the shutter will fire even if the image isn’t focused, which rather defeats the photographer’s objective.
Despite deploying the AF assist lamp quite early (compared with the DSLRs), the review camera had difficulty locking onto subjects in low light levels, even when they were fairly contrasty. Pentax has provided a couple of functions to make focusing easier, notably focus peaking and AF Autozoom.
Focus peaking emphasises the outline of the subject, making it easier to see what’s in focus. It’s only available when you assign this function to the green or red button. Since depth-of-field preview is another option that can be assigned to one of these buttons, using both together prevents you from assigning other controls to them.
AF Autozoom magnifies the image one second after focus is locked. It’s not much use when the camera can’t find focus and doesn’t work with the Tracking mode. In manual focus mode, the image can be magnified by pressing the OK button and you can use the E-dial to change the magnification from 2x to a maximum of 6x.
The in-camera Custom Image modes are mostly the same as in Pentax’s latest DSLRs and have been covered in previous reviews. They include Bright, Natural, Portrait, Landscape, Vibrant, Radiant, Muted, Bleach Bypass, Reversal Film, Monochrome (including film filters, infrared, sepia toning), Cross Processing (with random effect generation). Digital filters include Extract Colour, Toy Camera, Retro, High Contrast, Shading, Invert Colour and Colour adjustments. These settings only change JPEG files; raw files are recorded without additional processing.
Six main drive modes can be accessed via the right button on the arrow pad: Single Frame, Continuous Hi, Continuous Lo, Self-Timer, Remote Control, and Bracketing. The Continuous Hi mode lets you take about six high-resolution JPEGs at six frames/second. For DNG.RAW files, only Continuous Lo is available and the buffer fills after six frames or four RAW+JPEG pairs. For JPEGs, the Continuous Lo frame rate is about 3 fps, falling to around one frames/second with raw files.
Sensor and Image Processing
The 23.7 x 15.7mm CMOS sensor has been inherited from the K-5 but it’s coupled to a new PRIME M image processor chip, which has been developed to minimise image noise. The new processor also improves video recording performance and capabilities.
Image formats are almost the same as in the K-5, although for raw files Pentax has dropped the proprietary PEF in favour of the ‘open’ DNG format. DNG.RAW files are only recorded with a 3:2 aspect ratio and an image size of 4928 x 3264 pixels and they’re not processed so none of the in-camera effects are applied. Typical files are around 26.32MB.
For JPEGs, users can access four aspect ratios, each with three compression ratios. Typical image sizes and compression ratios are shown in the table below.
|
Aspect ratio |
Image size |
Recorded pixels |
Best (1:4.5) |
Better (1:8) |
Good (1:16) |
|
3:2 |
16M |
4928 x 3264 |
9.34MB |
5.28MB |
2.67MB |
|
12M |
4224 x 2816 |
6.92MB |
3.91MB |
1.99MB |
|
|
8M |
3456 x 2304 |
4.66MB |
2.64MB |
1.37MB |
|
|
5M |
2688 x 1792 |
2.83MB |
1.63MB |
0.85MB |
|
|
4:3 |
14M |
4352 x 3264 |
8.26MB |
4.66MB |
2.38MB |
|
11M |
3840 x 2880 |
6.43MB |
3.65MB |
1.86MB |
|
|
7M |
3072 x 2304 |
4.14MB |
2.38MB |
1.24MB |
|
|
4M |
2304 x 1728 |
2.38MB |
1.37MB |
0.72MB |
|
|
16:9 |
13M |
4928 x 2776 |
7.97MB |
4.49MB |
2.28MB |
|
10M |
4224 x 2376 |
5.83MB |
3.32MB |
1.69MB |
|
|
6M |
3456 x 1944 |
3.94MB |
2.25MB |
1.71MB |
|
|
4M |
2688 x 1512 |
2.41MB |
1.40MB |
0.75MB |
|
|
1:1 |
10M |
3264 x 3264 |
6.19MB |
3.51MB |
1.79MB |
|
8M |
2880 x 2880 |
4.85MB |
2.77MB |
1.43MB |
|
|
5M |
2304 x 2304 |
3.13MB |
1.79MB |
0.94MB |
|
|
3M |
1728 x 1728 |
1.79MB |
1.04MB |
0.55MB |
As well as being a capable stills camera, the K-01 works well for shooting movies. Movie capture can be accessed directly via the red button (if you haven’t changed the default setting) or through the mode dial plus shutter release.
The K-01 records video clips in MPEG-4 format using the efficient AVC/H.264 compression. Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) clips can be captured at 30, 25 or 24 frames/second, while 720p HD can be recorded at 60, 50, 30, 25 or 24 frames/second, providing scope for slow-motion video recordings. There’s no high-speed option for recording VGA clips for slow-motion playback (a missed opportunity).
Recording starts and stops when the red button or shutter button is pressed, depending on which option is selected. The AF system operates by default (with all its inherent problems and no focus confirmation) but you can focus manually by switching the camera to manual mode and turning the focusing ring on the lens.
The camera can record video continuously for up to 25 minutes with a clip length limit of 4GB. Audio is recorded via tiny single-hole microphones just above the lens mount, although users can connect a stereo microphone to the 3.5mm diameter terminal on the camera if they want better soundtracks. The table below shows typical recording capacities for an 8GB SDHC card.
|
Mode |
Pixels |
Frame Rate |
Aspect Ratio |
Best |
Better |
Good |
|
Full HD |
1920 x 1080 |
25 fps |
16:9 |
10 m. 55 s. |
14 m. 21 s. |
20 m. 03 s. |
|
HD |
1280 x 720 |
30 fps |
17 m. 35 s. |
26 m. 57 s. |
37 m. 23 s. |
|
|
25 fps |
21 m. 04 s. |
32 m. 10 s. |
44 m. 37 s. |
|||
|
VGA |
640 x 480 |
30 fps |
4:3 |
51 m. 52 s. |
78 m. 18 s. |
106 m. 25 s. |
|
25 fps |
61 m. 56 s. |
92 m. 13 s. |
125 m. 46 s. |
When the mode dial is set to the movie mode, the default setting is Programmed AE, although you can select Av or M modes if you wish to adjust aperture, exposure compensation, shutter speed or sensitivity settings. However, the lens aperture and shutter speed settings are fixed at the start of each clip. The following digital filters are supported: Cross Processing, Toy Camera, High Contrast, Extract Colour and Colour.
Camera adjustments can be picked up by the internal microphones. Being able to add an accessory microphone goes some way towards solving this problem. The up/down buttons on the arrow pad are used to set sound recording levels for the internal microphone, while the horizontal arrows adjust volumes for an external microphone.
The K-01 also supports interval movie recording, in which still pictures are recorded at pre-set intervals and combined into a single *.AVI movie file. It’s only available in movie mode and you can set the start time, shooting interval and total recording time via the camera’s menu.
Playback and Software
Nothing much has changed since the K-5 and the K-01 provides all the standard still playback settings. Pressing the down button on the arrow pad calls up a playback mode palette displaying all available functions.
Like the K-5, the K-01 allows users to add filter effects to images post-capture. It also lets you save the settings for an image captured in the Cross Processing mode as a favourite setting. In-camera raw file development allows users to convert raw files to TIFF or JPEG format.
Movie clips can be divided and unwanted segments deleted. You can also capture a single frame from a movie in playback mode and save it as a JPEG still image.
The software disk contains Silkypix Developer Studio 3.0 for Pentax, which is essentially a raw file converter. If you use the DNG raw file format the raw files from the K-5 can be opened in most popular file conversion applications, including Adobe Camera Raw. And you don’t need the latest Adobe software to support the DNG files.
The Kit Lens
The review camera was supplied with the smc Pentax 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AL kit lens, which we covered in our review of the K-7(INSERT LINK). This lens carries an ‘Assembled in Vietnam’ label and appears to have been built to a price. Despite its plastic mounting plate, overall build quality is good.
We’ve included graphs showing the performance of the lens on the K-01 body as we felt many readers would be interested in our updated findings. Slight edge softening was detected across the kit lens’s aperture and focal length range. Best performance was between f/5 and f/8 for shorter focal lengths and around f/6.3 at the longer end of the zoom range. The graph below shows the results of our Imatest tests.
Lateral chromatic aberration remained consistently within and below the ‘low’ band and we found no obvious coloured fringing in test shots. In the graph below, showing the results of our Imatest tests for chromatic aberration, the red line marks the border between ‘insignificant’ and ‘low’ CA, while the green line shows the edge of the ‘moderate’ CA band.
Note: the difference between the CA settings for JPEGs and raw files confirm CA-reduction processing is carried out automatically when JPEG files are recorded.
Performance
Our main issue with the review camera was its autofocusing performance, which was generally quite slow. This was confirmed by our timing tests and is outlined below.
In the field, hunting was very common, even when the contrast in the scene was relatively high and it often took several seconds for the camera to lock on to a point of contrast in scenes containing soft clouds or large areas of relatively low contrast. This occurred regardless of which AF mode we used.
Manual focusing was the only option in low light levels. Unfortunately, manual focusing was not made easy by the limited facilities of the kit lens and the focus peaking function wasn’t much help in many situations. This is a pity the overall performance of the camera at high ISO settings is particularly good.
Pictures taken with the review camera were similar to those from the K5, which isn’t surprising as the cameras’ sensors are the same. Images were sharp and the colour balance appeared natural with the default Bright Custom Image setting.
Imatest indicated some colour shifts and altered saturation in JPEG files taken with this setting. Raw files were less affected but saturation was boosted for warmer hues. The Natural setting reduced overall contrast slightly and delivered more subdued colour rendition in JPEGs. (Raw files are easily adjustable during conversion.)
The review camera’s normal dynamic range appeared able to handle most types of lighting with the default settings. The HDR (high dynamic range) extended the normal range a little but didn’t provide a significant advantage over raw file capture. This mode only works with JPEGs and needs the camera to be kept steady during the second or so while the three shots are recorded and you can’t adjust many camera parameters when it’s engaged.
The default level of sharpening was slightly higher than we found with the K5 but not excessive and many images benefited from a little unsharp masking before printing. Imatest showed JPEG resolution to be slightly above expectations for a 16-megapixel camera, while DNG.RAW files converted into 16-bit TIFF format with Adobe Camera Raw with no additional processing were significantly higher overall.
Our tests revealed a slight decline in resolution as sensor sensitivity was increased, particularly with raw files. JPEG resolution declined steadily from ISO 400 but raw files maintained a relatively high resolution up to ISO 3200 before a gradual decline. The graph below shows the results of our Imatest tests.
We found little noise in JPEG files in out long exposure tests at night with noise only becoming visible at around ISO 3200. Between ISO 3200 and ISO 12800 granular noise increased very gradually. Shots taken at ISO 25600 were slightly soft and grainy-looking but usable for printing up to A5 size.
Flash exposures were generally very good and evenly balanced across most of the camera’s sensitivity range. Slight over-exposure occurred at ISO 25600 because the camera’s maximum flash synch speed is 1/180 second, although the review camera stuck with 1/100 second for most flash exposures. Aperture settings weren’t adjusted to compensate for higher sensitivity.
Auto white balance adjustment was above average with shots taken under fluorescent lighting showing no evidence of colour casts. The slight orange cast in shots taken in incandescent lighting was easily correctable with even basic image editors. Both pre-sets came close to neutral colour rendition and there’s plenty of scope for in-camera tweaking of colour balance.
Video quality was as good as we found with the K-5, if not slightly better, particularly with 720p and VGA clips. Soundtracks were clear but lacked some stereo ‘presence’ and wind noise was picked up in outdoor recordings. (You can attach a stereo microphone to rectify these deficiencies.)
Our timing tests were carried out with an 8GB SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC UHS-1card, one of the fastest on the market. Unfortunately, the review camera appeared unable to capitalise on its speed and turned in a fairly average set of response times.
It took just over a second for the camera to power up. Shot-to shot times averaged 1.5 seconds without flash and 2.4 seconds with. Flash recycling times averaged 2.3 seconds. We measured an average capture lag of 0.6 seconds. Pre-focusing reduced the lag to around 0.2 seconds.
It took 1.6 seconds on average to process each Large/Premium JPEG image, 3.4 seconds for each raw file (DNG) and 4.5 seconds for each RAW+JPEG pair. In the high-speed continuous shooting mode, the review camera was able to capture 10 frames in 2.1 seconds. It took 8.4 seconds to process this burst. With the low-speed mode, 10 frames were recorded in
Continuous shooting of raw files is only available with low-speed capture. Only six DNG.RAW frames were able to be recorded in 4.1 seconds before capture rates showed signs of slowing. It took 11.5 seconds to process this burst. Only four RAW+JPEG pairs were recorded in 2.7 seconds, with the camera taking 11.1 seconds to process this burst.
Conclusion
While the K-01 merits an Editor’s Choice nomination for its imaging performance, the sluggish AF system in the review camera prevents us from recommending it wholeheartedly. We hope this flaw ““ and the body design faults we’ve identified ““ will be corrected in future versions of this camera.
Congratulations to Pentax for producing a compact camera body that supports existing lenses. Owners of Pentax DSLRs should be delighted! We looks forward to seeing future generations of this potentially great little camera.
Buy this camera if:
– You already own a suite of Pentax K-mount lenses.
– You’re seeking an interchangeable-lens compact camera with superior high-ISO performance and a high sensitivity range.
– You would enjoy a camera with lots of creative in-camera adjustments.
– You’d like to be able to record HD video clips with stereo soundtracks.
Don’t buy this camera if:
- You don’t have a suite of Pentax-compatible lenses.
- You’re a sports photographer.
- You want fast autofocusing in varying light levels.
- You’re not interested in in-camera processing to obtain special effects with JPEG files.
SPECS
Image sensor: 23.7 x 15.7mm CMOS sensor with 16.49 million photosites (16.28 megapixels effective)
Image processor: PRIME M
A/D processing: 12 bits/channel
Lens mount: KAF2 bayonet stainless steel mount
Focal length crop factor: 1.5x
Image formats: Stills ““ DNG.RAW, JPEG (Exif 2.3), RAW+JPEG; Movies ““ MP4 (AVC h.264), AVI/MJPG for Interval Movie
Image Sizes: Stills ““ 3:2 aspect: 4928 x 3264, 4224 x 2816, 3456 x 2304, 2688 x 1792; 4:3 aspect: 4352 x 3264, 3840 x 2880, 3072 x 2304, 2304 x 1728; 16:9 aspect: 4928 x 2776, 4224 x 2376, 3456 x 1944, 2688×1512; 1:1 aspect: 3264 x 3264, 2880 x 2880, 2304 x 2304, 1728 x 1728; Movies: 1920 x 1080p at 30/25/24 fps, 1280 x 720p at 60/50/30/25/24 fps, 640 x 480p at 30/25/24 fps
Image Stabilisation: Integrated Shake/Dust Reduction sensor-shift system
Dust removal: SP coating plus ultrasonic vibration of low pass filter
Shutter speed range: 1/4000 to 30 sec (1/3 or 1/2 steps) plus Bulb
Exposure Compensation: +/- 3 EV (1/3 and 1/2 steps)
Exposure bracketing: 3 frames, up to +/- 3 EV in 1/2 EV steps
Self-timer: 2 or 12 seconds delay
Focus system: 81 Point TTL Contrast Detection AF
Focus modes: AF Single (w focus lock, focus/release priority selectable), Face Detection AF, Tracking AF, Manual
Exposure metering: 1024 segment TTL image sensor metering with multi, centre-weighted and spot modes
Shooting modes: Auto Picture, Scene (SCN), HDR (JPG only), Flash Off, Bulb (B), Metered Manual (M), Aperture Priority (Av), Shutter Priority (TV), Program (P), Movie
Picture Style/Control settings: Bright, Natural, Portrait, Landscape, Vibrant, Radiant, Muted, Bleach Bypass, Reversal Film, Monochrome (including film filters, infrared, sepia toning), Cross Processing (creative random effect generation)
Colour space options: sRGB, Adobe RGB
Custom functions: 16
ISO range: Auto: ISO 100-12800 (1, 1/2, 1/3 steps), expandable to ISO 100-25600, auto ISO range selectable
White balance: Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Fluorescent (D, N, W, L), Tungsten, Flash, CTE, Manual; WB fine adjustment available in all modes
Flash: Retractable P-TTL auto popup flash, GN 12 (m /ISO 100), 28mm equivalent coverage
Flash modes: Auto, Auto + Redeye, On, On + Redeye, Slow Sync, Slow Sync + Redeye, Trailing Curtain Sync, Off
Flash exposure adjustment: -2 to 1 EV
Sequence shooting: Approx 6 fps (JPEG only, Continuous Hi), Approx 3 fps (Continuous Lo); Interval shooting 2-999 shots in intervals of 1 second to 24 hours
Storage Media: SD, SDHC, SDXC (UHS Speed Class 1 supported)
Viewfinder: No
LCD monitor: 3-inch TFT colour LCD with 921,000 dots, approx 170 ° horizontal/vertical viewing angle, brightness/colour adjustment
Playback functions: Mode selection: One Shot (no data, standard data, detailed data, histogram, colour channel histogram), Multi Image Display (4, 9, 16, 36, 81 thumbnails), Magnification (up to 16X, scrollable, quick zoom), Movie Playback (no data, standard data, detailed data), Image Rotation, Bright/Dark Indication, Copyright Info, Calendar Filmstrip, Folder, Save RAW Data From JPG (if available in buffer memory), Select & Delete, Slideshow; Mode palette: Image Rotation, Digital Filter, Resize, Cropping, Index, Protect, Slideshow, Cross Processing, RAW Development, Movie Edit, DPOF
Digital filters (playback): Monochrome, Extract Colour, Toy Camera, Retro, High Contrast, Shading, Invert Colour, Colour, Tone Expansion, Sketch Filter, Watercolour, Pastel, Posterization, Miniature, Soft, Starburst, Fisheye, Slim, Base Parameter Adj
Movie edit: Movie Divide, Delete Frames, Save JPEG
Interface terminals: USB 2.0 hi-speed, AV out, HDMI out (Type C, Mini), 3.5mm stereo mic in; Video out: HD (via HDMI) NTSC, PAL
Power supply: D-LI90 rechargeable lithium-ion battery; CIPA rated for approx. 540 shots
Dimensions (wxhxd): 122 x 79 x 58 mm
Weight: 480 grams (body only); 560 grams with battery and card
TESTS
JPEG image files
Raw image files converted into 16-bit TIFF format with Adobe Camera Raw.
SAMPLES
Auto white balance with incandescent lighting.
Auto white balance with fluorescent lighting.
30-second exposure at ISO 100; 18mm focal length, f/3.5.
8-second exposure at ISO 6400; 18mm focal length, f/5.
8-second exposure at ISO 12800; 18mm focal length, f/6.3.
4-second exposure at ISO 25600; 18mm focal length, f/7.1.
Flash exposure at ISO 100; 55mm focal length, 1/30 second at f/5.6.
Flash exposure at ISO 6400; 55mm focal length, 1/30 second at f/5.6.
Flash exposure at ISO 12800; 55mm focal length, 1/60 second at f/5.6.
Flash exposure at ISO 25600; 55mm focal length, 1/100 second at f/5.6.
Close-up with 55mm focal length; ISO 100, 1/60 second at f/5.6.
Close-up with 45mm focal length; ISO 400, 1/60 second at f/7.1.
Av mode; 55mm focal length; ISO 100, 1/320 second at f/6.3.
P mode; 55mm focal length; ISO 100, 1/50 second at f/5.6.
P mode; 50mm focal length; ISO 100, 1/100 second at f/5.6.
P mode; 55mm focal length; ISO 800, 1/120 second at f/8.
Av mode; 42mm focal length; ISO 100, 1/60 second at f/11.
Still frames from Full HD video clips.
Still frame from 720p HD video clip.
Still frame from VGA video clip.
Rating
RRP: AUD$799 US$749.95 (body only); as reviewed with 18-55mm lens – AUD$849, US$899.95
- Build: 8.2
- Ease of use: 8.5
- Autofocusing: 7.5
- Still image quality JPEG: 9.0
- Still image quality RAW: 9.0
- Video quality: 8.5
