Pentax Tell us all about your Pentax Q - and please add your photographs!

Dead thread revival. Was just looking through some old archives, and came across some images from my Q, the black Mg original. I think I used one of the zoom lenses to get this one.

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I had one a few years ago. I think it was the battery life that led to my disenchantment with it. Still tempted to get a Q7 but they’re only available from Japan, it seems, and Brexit is overwhelming the customs service as it is...anyway, here’s a selection.
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After seeing all of the relatively cool - and often incredible - images and photographs which various members have been taking with their Q's - and after having admired John Flores's Q photography for literally years and years - and after having a close friend who is also a neighbor who sang me the praises of his Q for years ...... I couldn't resist - and have finally taken the metaphoric plunge, and am buying a Q7 from another Pentaxian who, coincidentally, wanted to downsize his quiver at the same time.

I should be getting mine within a week, more or less.

More to follow, hopefully... :dance4:
 
I had the original Q, which I let go because of its small sensor. I've always regretted it because its magnesium body was the nicest Q body of all. Still, I picked up a Q-S1 with the larger 1/1.7" sensor a few years later. That's the second-nicest Q body. I still have that and all of the Q lenses - zooms and primes - except for the "toy" lenses. The kit is virtually unused. Still wondering what to do with it.
 
Adding this for posterity...

Back in 2017, I rode a motorcycle from NJ to Tennessee for a motorcycle rally and then out to Idaho for a story on The Great American Eclipse. My goal was to capture a photo of the total eclipse for the story but I could not take a lot of gear because of the bike. In addition to the Lumix kit I generally traveled with (two GX85s + lenses), I added a Pentax Q with a kit lens plus the DA 55-300 on a K to Q adapter.

Of the 13 photos used to illustrate the published story, 5 were taken with the Q7.

Lumix
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Selfie in lower left taken with Q7

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River/fishing photo taken with Q7
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Total eclipse photo taken with Q7
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Riding photo in lower left and bike on ferry photo lower right taken with Q7
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I don't travel with the Q system as much as I used to, but it delivered the goods when I needed it to.
 
Adding this for posterity...

Back in 2017, I rode a motorcycle from NJ to Tennessee for a motorcycle rally and then out to Idaho for a story on The Great American Eclipse. My goal was to capture a photo of the total eclipse for the story but I could not take a lot of gear because of the bike. In addition to the Lumix kit I generally traveled with (two GX85s + lenses), I added a Pentax Q with a kit lens plus the DA 55-300 on a K to Q adapter.

Of the 13 photos used to illustrate the published story, 5 were taken with the Q7.

Lumix
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Selfie in lower left taken with Q7

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River/fishing photo taken with Q7
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Total eclipse photo taken with Q7
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Riding photo in lower left and bike on ferry photo lower right taken with Q7
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I don't travel with the Q system as much as I used to, but it delivered the goods when I needed it to.

Hey, John! Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this. Your Q7 photos are crazy good, and your text is even better. What a great trip! and you made me (and I'm sure many others) feel like we were along for the ride with you.
 
The casual pic - when my partner became an emergency and I had to rush her to this place.
Due to Corona people had to wait outside an ophthalmologist´s rooms on the pavement.
They had to keep their distance and wait to be called inside by a security guard.
Without Q7 I would have missed the image

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Went shopping at the local market which has a lovely organic fruit & vegetable department, which is normally overseen by a stuffed toy monkey; but in the interests of maintaining safe health protocols during the pandemic, even the simian must wear an appropriate face covering--

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The primate is also the custodian of a box of thin latex gloves, for customers to use when handling individual fruits or veggies---

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He seems to be keeping an eye on everyone and everything around him---

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All the preceding were taken with the 01 prime lens mounted on my Q7; and all taken with the lens opened to maximum aperture, f/1.7, which as you can see, gives respectable results.
 
Over on Pentaxforums, there's a long 82 page thread called "The Reach of the Q". It's last posting was in November of 2017 by our very own John M Flores. I participated in the thread for a short while in 2014. My own attempts with long lenses and the Q were less than exemplary; some guys got really good images with the Q and long lenses, but my best adapted image efforts with the Q came from a Pentax 50mm f1.4 (another pin-sharp lens I let go in one of my gear purges). Here's a pic of the Q mounted onto a Rokkor 30cm lens with a loupe attached to the Q. Even with the loupe, I was never able to achieve satisfactory focus with this setup; it was just too jumpy, even with the tripod. But it still looked cool.

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I find that my Q7 can create images with an almost transcendental 'vibe' to them---

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In fact, the Q7 lends itself to the creation of a whole variety of different monochrome/black&white 'looks'---

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The macro capacities of its small sensor let one get in quite close to one's subject, provided that one can convince one's subject not to move around too much---

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The inexpensive little fish-eye lens is worth picking up for its distorted but cool angles---

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If I remember correctly, the FOV of the 8.5mm 01 Prime lens is equivalent to 47.5mm - which makes it the Q's nifty-fifty - and it's one of those lenses that, the more you use it, the more you want to use it. In spite of the much greater depth-of-field of its small sensor, the lens still produces halfway decent semi-bokeh effects---

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I honestly don't mind the lack of a viewfinder; and the camera's almost ridiculously tiny size (I think it made my old Ricoh GRDiii look almost giant) makes people one is photographing relax and smile and stare in disbelief: 'Is that really a camera? But it's sooo small.'
I was fortunate enough to be given a second Q - this one the original Q - and in spite of its even smaller sensor, it can create great photos too.
Damn. Guess I'm going to have to start Q'ing up again ;)
 
Just picked up my Q + 01 kit locally partially because of the price, but more to do with the amazing sample images posted by its users on this forum.

It's such a small, well built machine for picture making. I am astounded at how much fun this thing is.
That's how I feel about my tiny Olympus E-PM2. 250 grams, with a 16 MPx Sony mFTs sensor. Does an amazing job for such a tiny thing.
 
Just picked up my Q + 01 kit locally partially because of the price, but more to do with the amazing sample images posted by its users on this forum.

It's such a small, well built machine for picture making. I am astounded at how much fun this thing is.
Congratulations on your new camera. I looked the Q series up. They certainly look like a beautiful, tiny camera.

Arrgghhh. I just realised that I'm responding to a zombie thread.
Ah well. The things I said apply to the recent posts and posters too.
 
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