Pentax Q Mirrorless Digital Camera Review

Recording Options

The Pentax Q offers video recording in three flavors: 1080/30p full HD, 720/30p regular HD, and standard definition video. The Q utilizes MPEG4/AVC H.264 compression for videos in a .MOV container. The result is about a 10MB video for every five seconds of footage, depending on content and what other features (audio, color modes, etc.) are activated. Find out how the performed in our video image quality test./r:link_to_content

Video Controls

The Pentax Q offers full aperture/shutter control in video recording, set by the rear control dial. Users can alternate between setting shutter speed and aperture by pressing the exposure compensation button. The 8mm kit lens still has a limited aperture range of f/1.9-8.0, but it does offer some measure of control that many compact system cameras do not. The camera's many color modes are not located in the video settings mode, but they are still functional when switching to video mode.

Auto Controls

The Q features a dedicated movie mode on the dial, so it will automatically set exposure by default. This can be changed in the camera's menu, however. The same custom image profiles available when taking stills are also available in video shooting, including the cross processing option, which allows for a combination of effects. This does not include the digital filters such as toy camera, miniature, etc.

Zoom

The Pentax Q does not allow for any sort of digital zoom when recording video and the kit lens is a fixed focal length of 8mm, so there is no way to bring your subject closer with the default setup. There are, however, other lenses available to provide the ability to zoom, though this is done manually.

Focus

Autofocus is available when in video mode, though not while actually recording video. The 8mm kit lens does include a manual focus ring, and this can overrride focus at anytime, including while a video is being taken.

Exposure Controls

If you go into the camera's video shooting menu, the Q offers the option to change exposure to manual, which offers full control over shutter speed and aperture while recording video. The camera offers shutter speeds ranging from 1/30th of a second to 1/2000 of a second, with the full f/1.9-8.0 aperture available as well. The camera can also automatically set its sensitivity, or the user can select an ISO speed ranging from 125-1600.

Other Controls

The Q offers the full range of white balance presets and custom settings in video mode. The control for setting a custom white balance (or selecting a preset) is precisely the same in video as in still photography. The Q also has a neat interval movie mode, which essentially takes the camera's interval shooting setting and puts together a time lapse video automatically, instead of forcing you to do the same thing in a video editing program.

Audio Features

The Q doesn't have much for audio control during video recording, as there's also no mic input on the camera. The built-in mic is a stereo mic, but it only records audio through two pin-hole sized mics on the front of the camera, one of which is very easy to accidentally cover with your pinky finger while shooting. There's no wind cut, level, or audio filtering of any kind. Mercifully, there's an option to forgo audio recording altogether.