Unashamedly Grabbing At The Big Screen For the New Pentax

Locked away as I am in my medieval tower, with nothing to do but weave tapestries and comb my long golden locks, I am somewhat at a loss as to how I am to get information and images to tell you about the new Pentax full-frame camera - the K1. Fortunately I have the internet and no sense of shame and have recently discovered how the screen-grab mechanism works. I am confident that the medieval tower will defeat any copyright lawyers that come after me and as the whole idea is to sell more pentax K-1 cameras, I don't suppose the wholesalers will mind.

Well, it was a long time coming, but is apparently reality rather than promise - a full 24 x 36 mm frame Pentax DSLR camera. It has the general shape of the smaller Pentax cameras and the same lens mount, so users of the current lenses  - and legacy lenses as well - can experiment and see if they have the pleasant surprise of a lens that covers the whole sensor area. Apparently some of the Limited Edition Pentax lenses do.

It runs a 36.4 megapixel CMOS sensor and no AA filter for maximum sharpness. ISO up to 204800. There's a 5-axis shake reduction system and 36 AF points.

I'm particularly taken by two ergonomic features; the swinging and skewing LCD screen at the back with stabiliser rods, and the Operation Assist Lights that let you see where the latches and controls are in the dark so you can change lenses in a theatre at night. Very good idea!

Dual card slots, WiFi, GPS, 1080 video,and the ability to automatically sense if you are using crop-frame lenses and to narrow the usable area of the sensor accordingly.

Note that the press release mentions 12 new full-frame lenses but the only details are a 15-30 f:2.8 and a 28-105 f:3.5-5.6.

The shape in the press pictures is pure Pentax and as this has always been pretty good to hold in the past, there is no reason to think it different for the larger sensor.

We await developments gleefully.