Like so many things in life, there is compromise, and compromise when we least appreciate it. This is the case with the new Pentax K1 36 Mpx camera with the remarkable Pixel-Shift feature. And I’m remarking!
First, it works, which is the good news. The not-so-good news, and for my work it is “bad”news, is that it really is only worthwhile for lenses that are made for the Pentax mount (and talk to the camera) and there are (pardon my opinion) not many lenses in that category that are “that” good yet, as in “well corrected.” I am sure they will come, but I don’t need to buy more lenses!
I have no Pentax lenses from the manufacturer, but I have had a number of Voigtlander lenses in Pentax mount, some of which talk to the Pentax... successfully. These I can work with and I like what I see.
However, although I have all the right adapters for bellows work, the lenses I really want to work with, like the El Nikkor 105mm APO lens, and other exotic lenses, really don’t work, or are, at least for my old aging body and mind, not worth the hassle. So far, I have been unable to find an acceptable (to me) way around this. Perhaps you know one.
These lenses that don’t talk with the Pentax K1 are displayed in LiveView with their apertures always wide-open, with no ability to modify the shutter and have it modify the light in LiveView, and the only way to darken the image is to use a higher aperture, which of course I don’t want to do. The aperture I want is, well, the aperture (and DOF) I want to use for the photo, etc.
Yes, I can guess at what I might want, try to focus with the very narrow depth-of-field of the lens wide-open, take the photo, see how it turned out, and guess again, until I get the result into the ballpark I’m looking for. But, as mentioned, who wants to do that? Apparently not me. I am amazed that the folks at Pentax would not have thought it through, especially as there are scads of non-Pentax lenses out there that are way better than what they offer and that will easily mount on the Pentax K1.
Am I sending it back? I don’t know yet. When I have a lens that talks to the camera, I really like what I see in results and, this is what I feared, but the lenses I have like that are not the best glass. I just ordered the Sigma 35mm ART lens in Pentax mount, which is a pretty good lens from what I hear. I already have a ton of great lenses that would do fine on the Pentax in Pixel-Shift mode, and I don’t want to buy a lot more lenses, most of which don’t exist yet.
All I can say is: how thoughtless of my needs those Pentax-company folks are. I queried the Pentax forms, and they are very responsive (and Gung Ho!), but the best they have come up with is: I should use the aperture to control light, and forget about the shutter.
Well, the aperture in my work is not how I control light. The shutter does that. They also suggest that I can use the -5EV to +5EV to adjust light, but that is not enough IMO.
Anyway, that is where I am today. Any ideas anyone?
Here is a shot taken with the Pentax with the Voigtlander 90mm APO lens and one taken with the Nikon D810 and the El Nikkor 105mm APO lens.
