Before I introduce myself I’d first like to say a big thank you to you all for the many interesting and informative threads on this forum and to apologise for my slightly long initial post…
I’m UK based and my photography is mainly railways/trains (hence Deltic), landscape, architecture, nature and travel. I was lucky enough to have a Canon A1 as my first SLR, followed by a T90 (which I pretty much wore out!), then fairly briefly an EOS30V and then a Pentax K20D. After over 14 years of use the Pentax has proved itself to be a very rugged and reliable camera although more recently its metering has become a little variable and with only really a useable ISO 800 limit it can be a little restrictive for capturing fast trains in poor British weather.
So after quite a lot of deliberation and a certain amount of saving I took the plunge and bought an open box S1 and 24-105 lens. And what a camera to behold! From what few photos I have taken image quality is superb with accurate exposures. But why an S1? Well, quite a bit was gut instinct as I was impressed by the camera from launch and wanted something rugged and full frame, plus the useful range of the kit lens which probably covers me 95% of the time. I’m not particularly hung up on the perceived issues of focussing, didn’t fancy anything by Sony or Canon and to be honest sometimes like to be a bit different - I still drive a 31 year old Citroen BX GTi for example.
Some may say why not buy a Pentax K1, but I felt that was a bit dated, nevertheless capable. The main contenders were the Nikon D780 (but lacks IBIS), D850 (ditto and expensive) and Z6 (only 24-70 kit lens) and of course the S5. Ironically I have just ordered a scanner for work which comes with a D850. In truth the lighter S5 might have been a better choice, but only comes with a 20-60 lens and not quite as good an EVF as the S1. The reality is I really wanted the S1…
That said it really is a step up from the K20D, not least because I have zero experience of video and it is very complicated - do we really need all those features?! I just have to learn a different workflow and checks. For my first shot of a train I’d got a lot of the settings wrong yet the S1 was less dim witted than me and nailed the shot.
Concerns! On the first day I got the camera when switched on I noticed a fan like noise (presumably the IBIS), with the camera a getting warm and which continued even when on standby effectively draining the battery in 3 hours. After the first day the noise/heat was only evident when using the camera or but stopping when on standby or switched off. Is this normal behaviour for the S1? It is a bit disconcerting and makes for dreadful battery life.
Apart from that worry my only really gripes are the weight, a lens cap that too easily comes off and the really badly placed video button unless you have enormous thumbs. But I have a number of questions, some of which are along the lines of I can do this with the K20D, how can I do that with the S1?
Jonathan
I’m UK based and my photography is mainly railways/trains (hence Deltic), landscape, architecture, nature and travel. I was lucky enough to have a Canon A1 as my first SLR, followed by a T90 (which I pretty much wore out!), then fairly briefly an EOS30V and then a Pentax K20D. After over 14 years of use the Pentax has proved itself to be a very rugged and reliable camera although more recently its metering has become a little variable and with only really a useable ISO 800 limit it can be a little restrictive for capturing fast trains in poor British weather.
So after quite a lot of deliberation and a certain amount of saving I took the plunge and bought an open box S1 and 24-105 lens. And what a camera to behold! From what few photos I have taken image quality is superb with accurate exposures. But why an S1? Well, quite a bit was gut instinct as I was impressed by the camera from launch and wanted something rugged and full frame, plus the useful range of the kit lens which probably covers me 95% of the time. I’m not particularly hung up on the perceived issues of focussing, didn’t fancy anything by Sony or Canon and to be honest sometimes like to be a bit different - I still drive a 31 year old Citroen BX GTi for example.
Some may say why not buy a Pentax K1, but I felt that was a bit dated, nevertheless capable. The main contenders were the Nikon D780 (but lacks IBIS), D850 (ditto and expensive) and Z6 (only 24-70 kit lens) and of course the S5. Ironically I have just ordered a scanner for work which comes with a D850. In truth the lighter S5 might have been a better choice, but only comes with a 20-60 lens and not quite as good an EVF as the S1. The reality is I really wanted the S1…
That said it really is a step up from the K20D, not least because I have zero experience of video and it is very complicated - do we really need all those features?! I just have to learn a different workflow and checks. For my first shot of a train I’d got a lot of the settings wrong yet the S1 was less dim witted than me and nailed the shot.
Concerns! On the first day I got the camera when switched on I noticed a fan like noise (presumably the IBIS), with the camera a getting warm and which continued even when on standby effectively draining the battery in 3 hours. After the first day the noise/heat was only evident when using the camera or but stopping when on standby or switched off. Is this normal behaviour for the S1? It is a bit disconcerting and makes for dreadful battery life.
Apart from that worry my only really gripes are the weight, a lens cap that too easily comes off and the really badly placed video button unless you have enormous thumbs. But I have a number of questions, some of which are along the lines of I can do this with the K20D, how can I do that with the S1?
- The K20D has a useful dust alert function which records an image of any dust on sensor if you take a photo of a sheet of white paper, very helpful for cleaning. I guess if one were to take a stopped down image of a clear sky or a sheet of paper that might work similarly on the S1.
- On the on/off switch of the K20D there’s a very useful/convenient preview function that records an image with histogram and highlights any very underexposed areas. I can find this information on the S1, but is there any way of doing the same with more simply as one function?
- Something that I think is unique to Pentax is the TAV mode which allows one to set both the shutter and the aperture, with ISO automatically selected. On the S1 I guess shooting in manual with auto ISO would replicate this.
- This might be due to my ignorance but it’s not clear from the manual when one should or shouldn’t use the electronic or mechanical shutter. Would not always using the electronic shutter cause less vibration and/or wear and tear?
- More of an observation but it seems odd that in Intelligent Auto mode that there’s no “action” or “sport” mode. Again I might be missing something here but the S1’s algorithms in various modes always seem be aimed at keeping the ISO low rather than what the user might think is the best shutter speed or aperture. I seem to recall that on the much simpler K20D one could customise the camera to go for higher shutter speeds or smaller apertures.
Jonathan
Ha!
