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…

Say Cheese


Lady Liberty has seen better days

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.

Romance the Play
Krista Miller in "Romance the Play"
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.

Pentax K-01 @ ISO12800
Pentax K-01 goes to NYC (ISO12800)
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.