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Pentax has launched a quartet of recolored versions of its K-1 Mark II DSLR, which was first released in 2018 and is currently the company’s flagship K Series camera. The K-1 Mark II J Limited 01 DSLR seems to be available only in Japan, which was also the case for the company’s previous J Limited camera. The Pentax KP J Limited in 2019 was well-received, so Pentax has opted to develop J Limited as a formal factory brand.
The K-1 II J Limited 01 will be built on a made-to-order basis and comes with numerous changes compared to the mass-produced K-1 II. The Limited version must be hand-built due to the special color painting and parts changes, which cannot be performed in mass production.
The K-1 II J Limited 01 has a custom wood grip carved from North American walnut. The grip is hand-finished by craftsmen from Miroku Techno Wood Co., Ltd. This same group also crafts wooden handles for luxury cars. The wood grip, which has a nine-layer coating, is dyed using ‘high-grade ink.’
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Rubber grips are also used on both sides of the main camera body. The dimpled rubber has an improved design, which Pentax states offers a better grip than previous models. The grip has a special ‘J Limited 01’ mark applied.
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Citizen Watch Co., Ltd.’s surface hardening technology, Duratect Gold, is applied to the lens mount. This process uses ionized titanium and gold to improve surface hardness and give the mount a more sophisticated, elegant appearance.
The K-1 II J Limited 01 has a removable top cover with a different silhouette than the standard pentaprism. In a translated press release, Pentax says, ‘A brass “top cover A” can be layered on top of the resin “top cover B” to create a W top cover structure that allows the appearance to be changed according to the lens to be worn and the style of the day.’
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Pentax, in cooperation with photographers Kazutoshi Yoshimura and Takukei Seo, has added special shooting modes to the J Limited 01. The modes, PH-mode Yoshimura and PH-mode T, reproduce the photographers’ settings when capturing landscapes images.
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Other features and specifications are identical with the K-1 Mark II, including the camera’s 36MP full-frame image sensor, 5-axis image stabilization, 33-point autofocus system, handheld Pixel Shift mode and 1080/30p video recording.
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The Pentax K-1 II J Limited 01 is available for order in Japan now, with shipping expected to begin at the end of April. The K-1 II J Limited 01 is available in black and gold, viridian, scarlet rouge and LX75 metallic colorways. Precise pricing information is unavailable at this time.
Author:
Jeremy Gray
Source: Dpreview
