Pentax K-S1 sheds light on your dSLR options

Pentax's outlook for expanding its market beyond the Pentaxian faithful brightens this fall -- literally. Its line of S1 products, seemingly targeted at non-traditional photographers, launched earlier this summer with the Q-S1 , now continues with a dSLR that sports a carnival-ride of colorful lighted controls. The K-S1 also features a reworked design that's intended to appeal to restless phone photographers, but without many internal compromises. At $800 for a kit with the 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 lens, it directly competes with the small Canon EOS Rebel SL1 , and the more staid Nikon D5300 . (UK and Australian pricing were not available, but a direct conversion would be about £480 or AU$860.)

Pentax K-S1 glows in the dark (pictures)

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The company made some interesting design choices for the K-S1. Colored, glowing lights on the grip, the power/shutter button, and the big OK button on the back indicate video versus still modes as well as increase visibility in the dark. Pentax also moved the mode dial to the back, making it big and vertically oriented, for operation with your right thumb, similar to virtual mode dials. Pentax reasoned that phone camera users are accustomed to having all their controls on a single plane, and in addition to allowing for a more compact body, it's pretty comfortable and sensible. My one concern is the dial's proximity to the thumb rest where it likely will be subject to accidental turning.

Although the front of the camera looks fairly traditional -- save the Cylon lights on the grip -- the way the front curves out to form the grip rather than indents into the body makes it appear and feel a little different. It's solid, though I admit to liking the indented grips more.

It has some features that will appeal to traditionalists, including a nice large viewfinder with 100 percent scene coverage, a perk that's rare in this class of cameras. Like the D5300, there's no OLPF (optical low-pass filter) to slightly blur edges in photos. The K-S1 does incorporate the K-3 's antialiasing-compensation option, which simulates a low-pass filter by physically offsetting the sensor to slightly blur jaggy edges and fix moire -- that's the reason cameras have OLPFs to begin with. However, it doesn't work in movie mode, which tends to be where you need it a lot.

Unsurprisingly, it has a lot in common with the K-50, including a lot of Pentax staples like sensitivity-priority mode (Auto ISO with manual shutter and aperture) and the green button (which resets exposure settings to custom defaults in each mode). But there's also enough extra to merit the higher price. It also offers built-in stereo audio rather than mono like its competitors.

And, of course, it comes in colors. The retail options will be white, blue and black, with another nine colors available. By cutting back from the usual cornucopia of color options, the company will be able to keep some of each in stock in regional warehouses to minimize ship delay, something Pentax has encountered in the past as a barrier to buying alternative colors.

My take

I like the idea of the lighted controls, but only if they're configurable; for instance, I'd like to keep the lights in the back, but axe the one on the grip and on the shutter/power button so it's not as ostentatious in dim environments. Unfortunately, I think Pentax failed to take the phone-interface metaphor far enough. If you really want to make phone photographers comfortable, the camera at least needs a touchscreen and built-in Wi-Fi. The K-S1 does ship with a Flucard, but what if it gets lost or damaged?

Physically, it's small but surprisingly heavy, which also matters to a lot of potential buyers.

As an entry- or even midlevel dSLR, it looks like it offers quite a lot compared to the competition, but I suspect Pentax will probably have to do more than move a few controls around and light it up to attract the unconventional photographers more than its traditional dSLR buyers.

Comparative specifications