Pentax Had a play with the Pentax Q today

Location
London UK
Name
Andy
The rep from Pentax came in today with the Q and let us have a quick play. 1st impressions are that this camera is tiny!! It does actually feel well made and quite solid. The sensor also looks tiny and so do the lenses. We only had the 10mm on the front but it gave a good field of view (roughly eq to 50mm) and the AF was reasonably fast. The camera also had some built in filters similar to the Oly Pen Art Filters.

We saw some image examples which looked pretty good, not the best but not bad at all. Although the lenses are called 'Toy' lenses they are not toys at all. They are proper lenses with the 'toy' name which means something different in Japan. So my final thought is...'A tiny camera that's bigger than the sum of it's parts'. It will be interesting to see how well it sells as the price in my opinion is very high but will hopefully come down quickly. The Q is due sometime in November.

Will I be buying one....nope!:D
 
I tried one today too, it is absolutely tiny! Definately pocketable and smaller than my phone!

I took a few test shots with it and am very impressed. The 01 standard prime (47mm equiv with f1.9) is very sharp. Compared to my LX5, the Q's RAW IQ looks much better - more accurate colour, sharpness and noise performance is much better than I expected.

I'd love to have one for my 'take everywhere' camera, but its RRP is just too high at £600GBP, if it were £450 I'd have bought it by now lol.

I was hoping it would have a DOF scale like the GRD's display on screen, but nope :'( that would have been great for quick on the go street photography.

I'll post more detailed thoughts and some photos later if anyones interested?
 
A few from the Q with 47mm equiv. prime lens. Couldn't resist when I saw it on the dealer's shelf. Shot in "bolde monochrome" and "tone expansion" mode respectively, except for the close up one. The Q offers a plethora of settings, amazing what Pentax packed into this tiny body without compromising on build quality, UI and ergonomics. The lens is sharp, at its best around f4.
 
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