Pentax MX-1 review – Viewfinder, LCD and video
With no built-in viewfinder, all image composition and review happens through the MX-1’s 3in LCD screen. The display offers the 920,000-dot resolution expected on a model of its class, and in terms of resolving details there’s little to fault. The feed is clear, colourful and bright, and the display’s viewing angle is pleasingly wide (although this is arguably less of a concern on a camera with an articulated display).
When composing images at the telephoto end of the lens in darker conditions, stability is pleasingly maintained, and shooting information is helpfully rotated whenever the camera is used in the portrait orientation (although this can be disabled if desired). When playing back images immediately after their capture, however, the camera often displays a ‘Data Being Recorded’ message, which temporarily prohibits any further operation. Given this is the case with even particularly fast SDHC cards, it would appear that the processor isn’t quite as fast as it could be.
Although the MX-1 is perfectly capable of recording clean and smooth video footage, with few bothersome artefacts and reasonable audio quality, it is let down by a noisy optical zoom, the sound of which isn’t masked by general ambient noise. The metering system also takes a while to catch up with any changes in focal length, altering exposure in noticeably defined steps rather than with the expected fluidity.
