Pentax K-1 Expert Review - Performance

Pentax K-1 Performance

The performance section is where we look at the image quality performance of the camera. Additional sample photos and product shots are available in the Equipment Database, where you can add your own review, photos and product ratings.

Speed - We took a number of shots to test the camera's responsiveness, from switch on to first photo, shot to shot, focusing speed etc. We take a number of shots and then use the average to ensure accurate and consistent tests, making it easy to compare with other cameras.

Tested with the 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. The camera can shoot at 4.4fps (JPEG) and 4.6fps (raw), although we only managed 29 JPEG (Fine) shots, and 14 raw (DNG) shots before the camera slowed down, which is less than the Pentax specified 70 (JPEG) and 17 raw. You can choose between recording PEF (Pentax raw files), or Adobe DNG raw files.

Pentax K-1 Sample Photos

Sample Photos - Photos taken with the Pentax K-1 show very good colour with good levels of saturation, and we used the camera on the "Natural" mode. Images could benefit from slight sharpening if we were being picky, although this could easily be corrected by adjusting the in camera settings. Exposure was reliable and there were a number of options to expand dynamic range recording. The options include D-Range compensation: highlight correction, shadow correction. You can also shoot HDR images handheld, with a variety of options including: auto, HDR1, HDR2, HDR3, advanced HDR, exposure bracket value adjustable, and automatic composition correction function. There are Skin tone options: Off / Type 1 / Type 2 and using these the camera smooths skin after you've taken the image.

Pentax K-1 Lens test images

Lens Performance - The camera has built in lens correction options for: distortion correction, peripheral illumination correction (vignetting), lateral chromatic aberration correction, and diffraction correction. We took photos with just diffraction correction and lateral chromatic aberration correction switched on. We were impressed by the performance of the new Pentax-D FA (full-frame) lenses, and with the 15-30mm f/2.8, 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8 there is a good zoom range, with a constant f/2.8 aperture available. 

The image stabilisation (IS) system uses sensor-shift shake reduction (SRII), and works with any lens attached to the camera, letting you take photos at a slower shutter speed than normal. For manual lenses the camera you can set the focal length manually. There is also a 5-axis electronic level function which is displayed in the optical viewfinder (OVF) and on the LCD screen (Horizontal and vertical). 

There are a fairly wide range of full-frame Pentax lens options available to purchase, and APS-C lenses working in crop mode on the K-1. You can use any K mount lens from Pentax, including old and discontinued lenses that were released before digital cameras existed. 

Using the Pixel Shift Resolution mode, you end up with a 160-180MB raw (PEF) file compared to the more normal 40-55MB for raw (PEF) files, JPEGs are around 15-20MB. Using this mode, the camera takes 4 shots at slightly different pixel positions and combines them so that you get a sharper image, with better colour detail, although there is the risk of ghosting with moving subjects (like tree branches). Olympus use a similar system for 40 / 50 megapixel images, and this too has issues with moving subjects.

Pentax K-1 ISO test images

ISO Noise Performance - The camera's ISO range goes from ISO100 to ISO204800. Noise is low from ISO100 to ISO3200, with some more noise creeping in at ISO6400. At these lower ISO settings, you may want to use the custom noise options to set the camera to lower noise reduction to retain as much detail as possible. However, we'd still be happy using the camera at ISO12800, as noise is quite grainy (and some would say film-like), with very few red, green and blue dots spoiling the image. Noise performance at ISO12800 is reasonably good, with a slightly better result from the Pentax K-1 when compared to the Nikon D810 (with the D810 showing more red, green and blue noise). At ISO25600 noise becomes stronger and we'd recommend avoiding this setting and higher, unless you were going to process the raw files yourself or resize the images for use on the web. ISO51200 may still provide a usable result (just about) if you processed the image further, but noise gets quite unpleasant at ISO102400, and at ISO204800.

Noise options include show shutter speed NR (for slower than 1 second): Auto, On, Off, and High-ISO NR: Auto, Low, Mid, High, Custom, Off. Custom lets you choose how much noise reduction is applied at each individual ISO setting, and the options are Off, Low, Mid, High. 

Pentax K-1 White-balance test images

White Balance Performance - Auto White Balance (AWB) gives a warm result under tungsten light with the multi-area AWB giving a more accurate and less warm result. The tungsten preset gives the most accurate result. AWB gives good results under fluorescent lighting, with the multi-area AWB giving a slightly better result. There are four different fluorescent presets available, although most of them give a colour cast, and for more accurate results the use of manual white balance is recommended. Alternatively you can adjust the auto white balance settings yourself. We left the AWB in tungsten light set to strong correction, there is also the option for subtle correction. 

Pentax K-1 Digital filters

Digital Filters - There are a number of different Custom image settings including: Auto Select, Bright, Natural, Portrait, Landscape, Vibrant, Radiant, Muted, Flat, Bleach Bypass, Reversal Film, Monochrome, Cross Processing (Random, Preset 1-3, Favorite 1-3). You can also customise these, and the camera lets you adjust saturation, hue, high/low key, contrast, highlight, shadow, and sharpness (with additional options for fine sharpness or extra sharpness). Another option is the Clarity setting which is off on default settings, but has 4 levels from 1 to 4.

There are also digital filters: Extract Color, Replace Color, Toy Camera, Retro, High Contrast, Shading, Invert Color, Unicolor Bold, Bold Monochrome, with a few more available in playback when editing raw files. We've shown a number of different examples above. There's also the option to adjust the composition: ±1.5mm up, down, left or right (1mm when rotated); 1 degree of range. There is a Colour Moire correction option in playback that can be used to reduce colour moire in images, although we did not notice the need for this in our shots. 

Video - There is a built-in stereo microphone, although if you want to record higher quality sound, you can use the mic and headphone sockets on the side of the camera. There are options for setting the recording sound level, wind noise reduction and headphone volume. ISO100 to ISO12800 is available, and you can choose between recording using the full-frame or using an APS-C crop for FullHD video recording. In the video mode you have access to the custom image settings, and there is a "Flat" option available which will be of interest to those that want to adjust video later. Video quality was good, and the built in image stabilisation did a good job keeping video steady, even when recording handheld.