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Anyone using a K-3?

raycox

Member
Well, I have been the owner of a K3 for three days now. I currently own a K5 and 645D, so I am not new to the Pentax system.
My first impressions of the camera are all good. It appears that the camera is more responsive and I particularly like the fact that it can use two data cards. I have not had the opportunity to use an Eye-fi card yet but that is my intention.
I am confident enough with the camera to use it tomorrow evening to photograph the attendees at a Christmas function. Each attendee is entitled to a 5x7. Should be a good test or total foolishness. (Not totally foolish, will take the 645D as backup)
 

tsjanik

Well-known member
I'll be interested in your impressions. I too have a 645D and K-5. The K-3 appears to be quite a camera on paper, but currently overshadowed by the Sony.
 

raycox

Member
My overall first impressions are good. I have used the camera for general all around usual snapshots. Lots of snow out there so I have been a little limited with outdoor images. Will try for a few eagle images over the weekend if the weather cooperates.
Very pleased with the camera for studio use. Studio cameras have all been Nikon, but would not hesitate to use this in the studio. I have the camera set to record DNG and jpeg of each shot. The color and exposure accuracy are right on. Images take very little post processing. Tried the AA settings but these do soften the image. Setting 1 does an OK job with a portrait, but really is not necessary. Moire has not been an issue yet although I am sure I will find some sooner or later. If so, will try the AA settings.
The thing that I notice most is that you had better have good technique, lots of resolution will show just how good you are! Ray
 

Charles Wood

New member
I also own a 645D and a K5. I've been seriously thinking of upgrading the K5 to the K3. Aside from the additional resolution, it seems to offer an almost perfect feature set for my needs and shooting style. Amazingly, it's ranked #1 DSLR of the year on DP Review reader poll.
 

tsjanik

Well-known member
I also own a 645D and a K5. I've been seriously thinking of upgrading the K5 to the K3. Aside from the additional resolution, it seems to offer an almost perfect feature set for my needs and shooting style. Amazingly, it's ranked #1 DSLR of the year on DP Review reader poll.
That is surprising, considering how little mention of the K-3 I've seen - hence my question; launching with the A7r was unfortunate timing.
 

baudolino

Active member
I've been using the K-3 for a about a week now, but only had a chance, until today, to shoot it with the FA 300/4.5 lens (which is a great piece of glass). I finally got a used FA 35/f2.0 from ebay on Thursday, did some shooting today. Preliminary conclusions: great colours, fantastic detail, have to wrap my mind around the best AF approach as I am missing optimum focus a lot of the time. Could also be that the FA35 f2.0 needs some micro adjustment; will run tests tomorrow. I also got the battery grip and I am trying it with the 6 LR batteries - curiously, the camera doesn't even start with no battery in the body, just running on the grip. Admittedly, I am using 5 Lithium batteries and one rechargeable; will try to give it one more Lithium, but still, it should show some action even now, in my view.
 

MalcolmP

New member
Hi Tom,
my first impressions are-
its a k5 on some sort of super drug:)
not meant to be a trite comment at all,its just better in pretty much every way imho. and coming from the k5 mk1 its a heck of an upgrade for me atleast.
I've seen it said that the high iso performance is not as good as the mk11s and I trust some of the folk who have said that(Jim R.in particular) however its too early for me to say.what I will say though is that based on what I,,,,feel?, the files are so malleable that any noise can be dealt with in p/p(and downsizing perhaps) and the detail your still left with makes it a mute point for me.
Another review -Amateur Photographer,said it is only out resolved by Nikon 800e and medium format.Perhaps that is pre Sony 7r but its still something of a compliment.it certainly is true of the standard D800 that Barbara(my infinitely better half)has,she doesn't frequent DPI so I'll get away with that;).
I've got the K3 at a busy time for me so I've not realy had time to take too many pics with it but attatched is a rubbish snap, shot at iso 800,pushed in parts about a stop and a half so iso2000 ish.The grumpy old git on the left(as you view) is me,hardwork getting myself to look that old and grumpy:rolleyes:.obviously been p/p'd to my tastes but as the crop shows imho,you want detail in your files?you got it!
I think you hit the nail on the head with the Sony reference(I'm sure the 7r is great by the way),if the K3 said sony or canikon instead of Ricoh on the back and they put it in a redesigned body then the popularity would rise to where it deserves to be(that's the Pentax story though isn't it?).Personaly its a great package as far as I'm concerned and I don't mind if it looks like the k5mk1,afterall that is/was a great camera.When I get more time,over xmas hopefully I'll get more pics and be more specific in my thoughts.
Regards
Malc
 
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tsjanik

Well-known member
Thanks for the thoughts Malcolm, I guess you like the camera :thumbup:

Hi Tom,
my first impressions are-
its a k5 on some sort of super drug:)............
Malc
Perhaps you've inhaled too much sawdust :D. Those are quite the beams you're making - a cabinet for photo gear?

Best,

Tom
 

raycox

Member
Well, I took the new K3 to the party. Everyone was entitled to have their picture taken. 200 shots later and not a clinker in the bunch.
To say the least I am one happy camper with this camera. Worked flawlessly. Tons of resolution, quick, quiet and NO moire in any of the myriad of different exposures @ f9.0, iso 400
I set the camera to record a DNG to card one and jpeg to second card. It didn't even breath hard.
Opening the raw files in Camera Raw they were nearly dead on. Only slight color balance adjustment due to off color walls reflecting. + 1/3 stop adjustment (thought the Sekonic was lying to me), no need to sharpen.
I know it's only our first date, but I already think this is going to be a long relationship.
 

Knorp

Well-known member
While I'm still shooting the K5IIs, I wonder whether we could have a new thread.
Now, I'm not suggesting a specific K3 thread, but preferably a more generic K thread so all K owners can join in.
There are really not that many here anyway ...
Or we can ask the mods to rename the current K5 thread.

Any suggestions, gentlemen ?

Kind regards.
 

tsjanik

Well-known member
Good suggestion Knorp. Perhaps "Fun with the Pentax K series"? In some ways I find postings based on equipment used very limiting and yet I understand why people using the same camera have more interests in common; threads based only on the image seem less active - maybe we're all gearheads :).
 

Charles Wood

New member
I took the plunge and ordered a K3 on Monday for next day delivery. It is caught up in the UPS nationwide delivery fiasco currently going on. I'm bummed, was hoping to have it to play with today.
 

D&A

Well-known member
Good to hear about the initial success of the new K3. Although I shoot with the 645D, I not longer shoot with any of the Pentax 35mm DSLR's having done so since the earliest first models they offered and each model since then in a professional capacity. This extended my use of Pentax from the earliest days of both their 6x7 system and film SLR's.

As background: I've previously owned, and extensively tested and used virtually their entire FA full frame lens line since their inception into the market place and there are some incredible optics that they designed that even surpassed some of the great optics of Nikon which I was utilizing too in a Nikon system. Unfortunately many of them had severe performance issues on most of the early models of their DSLR's, and there was no way to adjust for front or back focus at the time, among other camera-lens issues that developed. This combined with a less than stellar Af performance of the vast majority of their DSLR's under both low light and certain types of stage and performance venue lighting, the system eventually had to be abandoned for serious use. Up to that time I had a close working relationship to the Parent Pentax Corp and they too acknowledged the shortcomings I observed in both testing and real world use.

Nice to see how they've made such great strides. It's no wonder the files out of the camera are near "ready to use"..including the Raw's. That's the way its been with the 645D and I have no doubt they've extended this to the current K3 and recent cameras. There will always be a fondness for that companies products even though ownership has changed.

I will follow this thread with interest. Thanks all for posting your thoughts.

Dave (D&A)
 
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Charles Wood

New member
I received my K3, updated it to the new 1.01 release. My findings concur with others that it is more demanding than the K5 (which I also own along with a 645D). It seems to be a given that as resolution goes higher, image blur or lens issues become far more evident.

Even though there is only an 8 meg difference in sensor size, the K5 seems far more tolerant of sloppy technique or marginal optics. I find I have to give some thought when handholding the camera and consciously slow down. Machine gun shooting style doesn't really work with this camera, in my opinion.

My Pentax 16-45 and 55-300 lenses are marginal, at best. Soft corners, slight mis-centering alignment in manufacturing, etc., are all quite visibly evident. On the other hand, my 645 lenses (35, 55, 75, 120 macro, 200mm) work well with 645/K adapter.

I like the color rendition of SilkyPix version 5.0 supplied with the camera but find it slow and cumbersome to use. LR 4 seems to work satisfactorily with the DNG files. Noise is a bit more noticeable from the K3 files, even at ISO 100, but seem to be easily managed with the controls in LR. Files are quite malleable, as someone else said, and more akin to what I see from my 645D than from the K5.
Certainly the K3 is closer to medium format performance territory than Pentax has ever ventured before with a small format DSLR.
 

baudolino

Active member
Shouldn't we have a "Fun with Pentax K-3" thread now? I think so and, in a good tradition of this forum, would like to contribute a photo of my dog Bruno (sorry, no cats in our house). Taken today with the F* 300mm/4.5 lens which is a fantastic optic (1/250s/f5.6, ISO400). I find that the camera, in combination with Pentax lenses, delivers very saturated and contrasty images - sometimes even a bit over the top (portraits). But other times, that's what one wants. A bit like Kodachrome or Velvia, not so great for portraits but shines in low contrast light.

 

baudolino

Active member
And here is one taken with the same lens (F* 300/4.5) at ISO 1600 (1/320s/f5.0). Handheld. There is some noise, but boy, this lens is not a razor, it's a scalpel…!



With the same lens, a few more abstracts:

Sunset in the reeds (1/500s/f5.6, ISO200)



Geese formation (1/1000s/f5.6, ISO800, SilverEfex Pro2)



Escape through the clouds (1/320s/f5.0, ISO200, ColorEfex4)

 

tsjanik

Well-known member
Here's an FYI. In my search for user experiences with the K-3 and justification to buy one :), I found the following post on Fred Miranda forums from Roger Cicala, of LensRentals. Intresting that he is using a K-3, considering he has access to more equipment than most of us will see in our lifetimes.

RCicala wrote:
I've had mine for about a week (personal camera) and absolutely love it. I'm shooting mostly the DA 300 and it's superb (replacing my 6D and 100-400 as my 'hanging by the back door wildlife camera').

I've got a preorder in for the Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 which I think will be great on this camera.

In the meantime I'm making do with a Samyang 14mm, Sigma 50mm f/1.4. Really like the Samyang, OK with the Sigma.

The K3, for a fairly small camera, really fits my hands well, and I've found the menus very intuitive.
Pentax K3...anybody notice? - FM Forums
 
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