The Pentax Q project - and where is the winter?

November is over and out. Normally it should be winter here in Stockholm around this time. Last year we had 50 cm of snow here in Stockholm in the beginning of December. Today we had 7 degrees Celsius and no snow so far; well I guess it’s just fair after last year’s winter, which was one of the hardest in the last 40 years. I live just 100 meters from Lake Magelungen, and there was ice on the lake until the 24^th of April this year. The lake was covered with ice for about 5 months, and that is very unusual.

Well enough about weather and ice, well it was quite cold shooting with the Pentax Q during November (even though I only did about 30 minutes of total shooting). It is time to conclude the Pentax Q project and try to figure out what this camera is all about and if it is something for street photography. Well for starters I could say that it is very stealthy, except for the shutter, that is audible, something I am not used to as a Fuji X100 shooter. Compared to other cameras it is still quiet, but definitely louder than the ninja shutter of the X100.

It is not fair to draw any big conclusions after only this short time of use and only 33 frames in the project so far. I have decided to continue with the Pentax Q project as a side project until next summer and then come back and give a more proper review of the Q as a street camera. But I can at least give you a first report about my findings.

Pentax Q speaks the same language as any other professional Pentax cameras out there (such as the K-5-series and the new K-3) and that is the language of “take me seriously, I am serious”. The menus are straight forward and informative, the physical buttons on the camera body makes the essential controls easy to handle, there is no need to dig into the menu system now and then. When the camera is set up and ready to go – everything is at the top of your fingertips. The camera is very comfortable in the hand, even after extensive period of shooting; so in this way it is a perfect companion for street work. There is one setting I would have liked to see on the outside though, and that is the AF/MF control; that setting is in the menu, but just one level down and very fast to access.

The lack of a viewfinder was probably the biggest challenge for me so far. I usually shoot almost exclusively through the viewfinder while using the X100, so not having this possibility was a bit of a challenge for me. But I am doing some street shooting with my Canon S100 from time to time so it didn’t really feel awkward. The Canon S100 I mostly use at the wide end (24-35 mm equivalent), which make the framing a bit more natural for me. With the 01 standard prime, which is equivalent to about 47 mm, I had to be more careful when I framed the shot.

At first I struggled with the slow auto focus of the Q, and was using pre-focus. Later on I did some testing with manual focus with the assistance of focus peaking, but I can’t really draw any conclusions from this training so far. I found the Q to be more a camera for non- or slow moving subjects. But with better training with the focus I can see it be useful even for other situations too.

What about image quality? That 1/2.3 inch sensor must be limiting? Well, not really! Sure there are limitations in the dynamic range and color depth. The noise handling at higher ISO should be a disaster? Yes and No – yes, you do lose some fine details when going above ISO 800, but you gain a beautiful film like grain structure. I LOVE the “noise” the Q puts out between ISO 800-3200, it’s one of the most organic “grain like” noise I have ever seen on a digital camera, and I am used to the X100 excellent noise at high ISO. It somehow reminds me of the noise that comes out of the X100, but again, not really. The Q has a rawer feel to it, it’s hard to explain. But I hope it comes through in some of the photos I put up on the blog.

This post is getting long, but I will come back and discuss more about “Mr Q” in the future. It is for sure an interesting camera for street photography, that is able to produce a very unique style of images, that has a certain feel to them, and I really like it!

Finally, here are some more photos made with the Pentax Q during November.