Pentax have just unveiled a mirrorless version of their K5 called the K-01. The video on a K5 was pretty much an afterthought, it will be interesting to see what they have done with this new mirrorless version.
http://www.pentaxforums.com/news/pentax-k-01-officially-announced.html
Chris
Taken from Imaging Resource:
Movie mode. When Pentax debuted the K-7 SLR back in 2009, it was a little ahead of the game, being the first to offer aperture control for video capture. Since then, its video functionality hasn't developed as quickly as the rest of the market, and recent models have rather lagged the competition when it came to video capture capabilities. The company has clearly put quite a bit of work into resolving that for the K-01, and its movie-mode functionality has received quite an overhaul.
Like the tiny Pentax Q, the K-01 now records videos with more modern H.264/MPEG-4 AVC compression, which is rather more space-efficient than the archaic Motion JPEG compression used in its SLR cameras. (Of course, it also takes a more powerful computer to edit, and some might argue that Motion JPEG has the potential for higher image quality, but with the Pentax K-5 requiring as much as 600MB of storage per minute of video captured, it was clear that a more modern compression format was needed.)
The K-01 also bests Pentax's enthusiast flagship in terms of video frame rate, being able to capture Full HD (1,080p; 1,920 x 1,080 pixel) video at a rate of 30 frames per second, where the K-5 was limited to 25 frames per second. Better still, it's possible to opt for frame rates of 25 or 24 frames per second, if that better suits your target for the recorded video. In addition, at 720p (1,280 x 720 pixel) resolution, it's now possible to record at 50 or 60 frames per second. There's still a VGA (640 x 480 pixel) mode, as well, if you prefer to capture in standard-def, and this offers the same frame rate options as the Full HD mode.
That's not all, though. The K-01 now offers a choice of either aperture or shutter-priority capture, where--with the exception of the Pentax Q, which offered a choice of Program or Manual exposure--previous Pentax models have been limited to only program or aperture-priority. (It's not yet clear whether full manual capture is possible with the K-01, however.)
The K-01 also inherits the Pentax Q's ability to create time-lapse movies in-camera, great for making a video of a flower opening, tides ebbing and flowing, or weather patterns in a cloud-scattered sky.
Movie audio has also been revisited, with a built-in stereo microphone in place of the monaural mics of past models, plus a stereo mic jack for external mics. There's also both a wind noise suppression filter, and a manual audio gain control, although we don't yet know how fine-grained this is.
Pentax has also rethought its movie-mode interface, and now offers not only a separate Movie position on the Mode dial, but also a dedicated Movie record button, suggesting that movie capture may now be possible from other modes, as well. (That would be a very worthwhile improvement, as having to change modes makes it less likely you'll be fast enough to grab a spontaneous clip, when an unanticipated opportunity presents itself.)
The Pentax K-01 also includes limited in-camera movie editing functionality. It's possible to split videos in-camera, extract still frames from movie clips, or delete frames from videos.
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Should be on par or better than what Sony offer atm though I doubt huge bit rates or GH2 GOP1 without a hack. I think its a fun camera and there are lots of great Pentax lenses. In body IS is nice as well.
