Sporting a highly compact design with champagne gold-colored aluminum alloy accents and a textured leatherette wrap, the Pentax Q-S1 Mirrorless Digital Camera straddles both form and function with its versatile imaging capabilities and sleek appearance. Featuring a 12.4MP 1/1.7" backlit CMOS sensor and Q Engine image processor, the Q-S1 realizes up to 5 fps continuous RAW shooting as well as full HD 1080p video recording. The sensor and processor also combine to provide notable low-light sensitivity to ISO 12800 with markedly low noise levels at all sensitivity values. Also benefitting working in difficult lighting conditions, in-body sensor-shift Shake Reduction works to minimize the appearance of camera shake with any mounted lens.

Helping to further extend the functionality of the camera, a refined body design also sees the inclusion of a programmable Quick Dial, as well as dedicated mode dials for quickly accessing a variety of camera settings. For image monitoring and playback, a large 3.0" 460k-dot LCD monitor is available and features both a 170° viewing angle and an anti-reflection coating to support its use in a wide variety of lighting conditions. A broad array of in-camera imaging effects, including Smart Effects and Bokeh Control, are available to creatively enhance the look and feel of photos and videos, and can be viewed in real time on the LCD.

Included with the camera body is the versatile Pentax 02 Standard Zoom 5-15mm f/2.8-4.5 lens, which provides a 35mm-equivalent focal length range of 27.5-83mm. Its design incorporates four extra-low dispersion elements, as well as a PENTAX lens coating for maintained sharpness and clarity. Its five-blade diaphragm coincides with a leaf shutter design, too, which permits high-speed flash sync with shutter speeds up to 1/2000 sec.