Wanderer2 Loc: Colorado Rocky Mountains

The K-1 is alive and has sold well by Pentax standards, which means virtually no advertising. Here is a good review of the camera, better than that by DPR I believe (I disagree with some of their "cons").

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/190-pentax-k-1/322475-pentax-k-1-depth-review.html

I bought a K-1 last year, moving from Canon, my first FF dslr. I use it almost exclusively for landscapes and I doubt there is a dslr on the market that is superior to the K-1 for this purpose, regardless of price. It's dynamic range and resolution are outstanding. No other manufacturer has the pixel shift resolution feature that Pentax has, at least that I know of, and this contributes to great IQ, (and also huge files).

Regarding lenses, Pentax has new 15-30, 28-70, 70-200, and a 150-450, all reported as excellent, which certainly cover my landscape needs. Tamron has a 28 - 85 and 70-200 at lower prices.
Primes are available but I'm not familiar with the focal lengths. It isn't necessary to have hundreds of lenses for sale if the ones a photographer needs are available. Pentax has published a "roadmap" of their planned new lens addtitions.

The build quality of the camera is excellent, Pentax had been updating the firmware regularly, and I have had zero problems with the camera. I haven't regretted buying it for one second!

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Savin' my pennies...

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Who really actually needs tons of lenses. In the film FF days most of us got a long line with a few prime lenses. 20mm, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm/55mm, 85mm, 100mm/105mm, 150mm/200mm. Other than Sports or Wildlife Photographers those were all that one needed, plus perhaps a 50mm, 90mm, or 100mm/105mm Macro Lens. And you don't need all of those, just some of the ones covering that range.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Pentax fans had to wait a long, long time for a full frame model, but they finally got what appears a very good one in the K-1.

36, 42 and 50MP full frame cameras aren't "sports cameras", regardless of manufacturer. The FF sports cameras from Nikon and Canon are around 20 or 21MP. The higher pixel count models are slower shooting.

Pentax biggest problem is lack of full-frame-capable lenses... both OEM and third party. According to B&H website, there are 22 autofocus FF lenses being offered for Pentax right now: 11 from Pentax themselves, 7 Sigma and 4 Tamron. Some of those are "special order", too.

In comparison, there are 119 full frame, autofocus lenses offered for Canon EF/EOS mount: 60 OEM, 33 Sigma, 18 Tamron, 4 Tokina, and 4 Yongnuo.

There are even more for Nikon FX F-mount. 130 total, including 75 Nikkors, 33 Sigma, 19 Tamron, 5 Tokina, and 2 Yongnuo.

Sony A-mount, full frame, autofocus lenses are also somewhat limited, though there's more selection than Pentax. 50 total: 20 OEM, 18 Tamron, 12 Sigma.

Of course, no one buys all the lenses being made for their cameras. But the larger systems are more likely to have a specialty type lens or even several to choose among. For example, both Canon and Nikon have four Tilt-Shift/PC lenses. There are 11 full frame coverage, autofocus macro lenses being made for Canon and Nikon... 8 to choose among for Sony. In contrast, there are only 3 currently available for Pentax.

But, if a system includes the particular lenses YOU need.... Great! Go for it!

OTOH, among these manufacturers, only Pentax offers a medium format camera system, too... Their 645Z and some 16 lenses to fit it are among the more affordable. (Leica offers a MF digital, too... Alongside FF and APS-C mirrorless. Fuji recently introduced a MF digital, too.)

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

The lenses you have listed would be plentiful for most photographers. The 150-450mm would qualify as a wildlife lens. The popularity of the 70-200mm makes sense to have too. And who wouldn't want a 15-30mm wide zoom. Pentax, as one previous thread indicated, has just 5% of the camera market. I doubt this camera will have an upgrade anytime soon. If at all. Mt Shooter says he sells about one a month. That may not be enough, for such a good full frame camera, that had high expectations. You can now get a Nikon D750 for the price of the K-1. $1791.

sandersonjack15

I have the K1, it's the best camera I have ever used. Haven't reached anywhere near its capabilities yet.

Lenscracker

The Pentax marketing was good enough to sell me a K-1. I used Nikons from 1964 to 1974, then I bought into Canons. I still use my Canons and I love the assortment of great lenses I have for them. But, the Pentax camera has features that the Canons don't, features that I really want like switchable low pass filter and tilt-flip screen on full frame camera, and DNG file output. I think Pentax would be vastly more popular if they had the lens selection of Canon. Then you would see much more advertising with the profit money.

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

I am glad you like it. It's a very good camera. Learn all you can about it. It has features that other full frame cameras don't.

sandersonjack15

I have a K1, it's the best camera I've owned. Haven come close to all its potential yet. I'm not a lens collector and the lenses Pentax offers plus the older lenses do me quite well.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

This thread raises several questions that are neither completely separate, nor really connected. To address the question raised by the OP, we should note that Pentax has released three cameras since Jan 2016 - K-1 announced 2/2106, K-70 announced 6/2016, and KP announced 1/2017. The latter two are APS-C cameras said to have good high-ISO characteristics, but I'm guessing that most here are largely unaware of any of these. Pentax is said to be most interested in Home Island sales; in any case, they have no apparent marketing efforts in the U.S.

I am willing to believe that Ricoh purchased Pentax for some good reason, and that Ricoh-Pentax is operating under a plan, but they are notoriously secretive {one Pentax supporter suggested that the U.S. government should out-source secret-keeping to Ricoh-Pentax}

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

As you correctly note, the biggest push for a FF camera from Pentax was Pentax loyalists - many of whom wanted a digital camera that would "allow my lenses to operate as they were designed to"; in other words, they seemed to want their 50mm Takumar to be a standard lens, 35mm Takumar to be mild wide-angle, etc. That is a slight exaggeration, but only slight; many Pentax users are very devoted to their fine older lenses, so they would disagree with your count - they would want to include every M42-mount and every K-mount lens ever made, because complete compatibility is something they treasure and value. They seem to be mystified when others do not take that viewpoint.

sandersonjack15

Bought mine on line from Cameta Camera. Best camera I ever owned

BebuLamar

And you don't have problem with supply right? Someone told me that few people have the K-1 because it's in short supply.

sandersonjack15

I had mine within 3 days of purchase on the internet