What was first just a rumor has now been officially announced. Pentax confirms the upcoming release of their newest model, the K-01, which is a K-mount mirrorless interchangeable lens camera and the first of its kind in the industry. The K-01 comes standard with a new ultra-thin DA XS 40mm F2.8 kit lens, which reduces the camera’s size to close to that of a point-and-shoot while delivering the same image quality of a high-end DSLR thanks to its new Prime M engine. Boasting ultimate flexibility, the unit natively supports the entire SLR lens lineup, all current DSLR Pentax lenses, legacy and manual lenses, as well as third party ones. Users will enjoy full HD and 720p video recording up to 60fps with its 16.28 Megapixel CMOS sensor. In addition to this, we also have not yet seen an 81-point contrast-detect autofocus system as the primary autofocus mechanism on a K-mount camera.
Although it will probably not replace your DSLR just yet, the release of this new Pentax camera on March 15th (not sure when it’s released in the Philippines) is a good start and truly something to be excited for. The K-01 will be available in black, white, and yellow at a price of USD$749 (approximately Php 31,500) for the body only and USD$899 (approximately Php 37,800) with the 40mm kit lens included.
