Pentax K-01

Pentax continues to surprise, this time with the announcement of the K-01 (pronounced ‘Kay-zero-one’). The K-01 is a compact system camera* with 16 Mpixel sensor, so that is not the big surprise. The surprise is that Pentax did not design a new and smaller lens mount, and did not decrease the lens-to-sensor distance compared to its DSLR cameras. It simply uses the existing KAF mount and distance, which means that the K-01 can use virtually every Pentax K-lens ever made. While that is a great advantage for people already using Pentax gear, it does mean that the K-01 is fairly big compared to competing compact system cameras. It’s not much smaller than a DSLR and its lenses will also not be any smaller, which makes one wonder what should make this camera so compelling compared to a DSLR. One advantage of compact system cameras over DSLR cameras should be that they are smaller, but apparently Pentax doesn’t feel that is really so important. * Some sites continue to use the name ‘mirrorless camera’, but I think it’s silly to use a name defined by what a product does not contain. You could also call these cameras ‘coffee maker less’, because they do not contain a built-in coffee maker either.