Recently I had the chance to inspect the new Pentax J Limited 01, a made-to-order variant of the existing K-`1 Mark II, previously announced in February for the Japanese market and made available to Australia in September 2021. Pentax states: “If there are enthusiastic people who love our product, even if it is 1% of total market, we produce the product.”

Let’s take a look to see what makes this camera so special.

There have been many special and/or limited releases by camera manufacturers over the years, with most just releasing a new colourway. There’s nothing wrong with this, breaking away from the monotonous black body, and allowing the user to introduce a little personality to a sentimental item.

BEAUTY THAT’S MORE THAN SKIN DEEP

The Pentax K-1 Mark II J Limited 01 is available in four colours; Black and Gold, Scarlet Rouge, Viridian and the Silver LX75 Metallic. The latter being my favourite of course, as my most cherished cameras are a silver/black combo, such as the Leica M3, M6, M10, Hasselblad 503CX and of course, my Pentax K-1000 and MZ-60.

A homage to the 75th-anniversary model PENTAX LX titanium. Complemented by grey rubber for the main body, deep black lettering and the glossy Sumi Black wooden grip. This is also the only special model with a silver SR badge among the four colours. Shown here with the two additional top covers.

One might dismiss the new release as only being a new coat of paint on top of an existing model, but there’s more than meets the eye… let’s take a closer look below:

The K-1 II J Limited 01 has a custom wood grip carved 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’. The dimpled rubber has an improved design, which Pentax states offer a better grip than previous models. The grip also has a special ‘J Limited 01’ mark applied.
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.

Branding elements representing the J Limited collaboration and older style AOG (Asahi Optical Group) logo can also be found on the body and top covers, as seen below:

UNDER THE HOOD

Inside this shiny new exterior, the camera’s technical specifications are identical to the K1 Mark II. There is, however, an addition of two special shooting models in collaboration with and honouring photographers Kazutoshi Yoshimura and Takukei Seo.

These two modes are designated on the mode dial as U-4 and U-5:

PH-mode Yoshimura: Suitable for landscape photography; Exposure mode is set to AV aperture priority, and bracketed shooting (2 shots). Requires tripod stabilization.

PH-mode T. Seo: A Bleach bypass based custom mode.

Was this relevant to me? In all honesty, not really. I always find myself reaching for the TAv or Manual modes and dialling in my own settings. But I did start thinking; given the ease of recording user preferences onto an easily accessible U-setting… What would PH-mode Malificent look like?

SAMPLE IMAGES

I had always used a digital APS-C Pentax body, and found a new delight in using the SMC Pentax-FA 77mm F1.8 Limited as a true 77mm (rather than the cropped focal length of 115.5mm on my K-3 Mark III)… check out some images below:

FINAL MUSINGS

I do have a lust for silver cameras, and an appreciation of special releases done right… something that Pentax deserves to be commended on. If I had more full-frame lenses, then the J Limited 01 may have been a serious consideration. (Currently, I only own the SMC Pentax-FA 43mm F1.9 Limited, SMC Pentax-FA 77mm F1.8 Limited and the film era Sigma 28-80mm F3.5-5.6 Aspherical Macro which came bundled with my Pentax MZ-60.)

At the time of writing, the J Limited 01 is now available in Australia, with a wait time of 4-6 weeks due to the Made-to-Order nature of this release. It is priced at $3899 from the Australian distributor CR Kennedy, compared to the cost of $3249 for the standard edition Pentax K-1 Mark II… In my opinion, a fair premium to pay for a little luxury, if that’s your style.

After seeing this release, I’m ever so much more excited for the previewed Ricoh GR III J Limited 02, whenever that becomes available.