Pentax K-01 Hits Broadway

Brought the K-01 into the City over the weekend to catch a friend on the opening night of her performance in the production Romance The Play. Beforehand, met another friend for a quick dinner and then a quick dash through Times Square to get to the performance...








We were over 15 minutes late for the play, so these shots were taken at a brisk walk, thus the ISO6400 to get the shutter speed up. If you've never been to Times Square, it's a tough place to take a bad photo, especially since they've made it more pedestrian friendly. There's so much there to catch the eye or the lens.

The K-01 did fine in the "run-n-gun" situation. I suppose the IS helped keep things sharp, and the high ISO capability of the sensor makes it possible. These are JPGs too, so they'll look a bit mush when pixel peeped, but who cares? I'm having fun with the camera being quick and responsive.

The play was in a small theater off Broadway. I set the K-01 on my lap, turned off Auto Shut Down and Auto Sensor Cleaning or whatever they are called. I also didn't want to draw attention with the AF motor and the AF light, so I focused manually with Focus Peaking. Results are sharp and clean at ISO1600. And even though the K-01 shutter is quiet, I waited for moments where there was either enough noise on-stage or laughter in the audience to snap my shots. I found out later that photography was prohibited. Oops! With that in mind, the K-5 would have been the wrong tool for the job, as I would have drawn attention to myself with either bringing the camera up to my eye or via the noises of the dancing mirror in Live View. Would Micro Four-Thirds have been a better choice, particularly the fancy new OM-D mated with the Olympus 45mm F1.8? Maybe - the tilt screen might have helped, but it also might have drawn unwanted attention. And while the Oly 45 is a great lens, it's a little shorter than my DA70mm F2.4 Limited (90mm EQ vs 105mm EQ) and if anything I wanted a slightly longer lens. Frankly, I can't think of another camera that would have been more appropriate for this situation.



Afterwards, we joined the cast and crew for a celebratory drink. Here the light was worst of all - typical dark New York bar - and I pushed the ISO to 11. Actually to 12,800. This is one situation where I wish the DA21mm was F2.4 of F2.0 instead of F3.2, but that kind of speed doesn't come at a price - either in size or cost.



If you're in the NYC area this week, go see the play. It's quite good.
Overall, it was a fun evening and it was no problem throwing the K-01 into the Timbuk 2 and bringing it along.