From the contender of the two trademark companies that design the market leading cameras comes a new and improved DSLR – the Pentax K3. This one has gone a long way to improving over its predecessor and goes as far as deserving Ricoh’s flagship title. Its series of great features and exquisite design come in cheaper than in many other cameras of the same caliber; and while it does showcase several unique aspects that you might not find in other cameras, it’s strongly up to debate whether the Pentax K3 comes in first, before its Nikon and Canon counterparts.
Ricoh advertises their new Pentax K3 as being “the most advanced enthusiast DSLR available”; it falls into the semi-professional category and thanks to the weather resistant lens, dustproof and cold-resistant construction, this is the kind of camera that will follow you to whatever end and guarantees a long lifespan through build alone. Its shutter was designed for 200,000 releases, which is a pretty astounding number by itself when it comes to semi-professional equipment in its price range.
The Pentax digital camera is a DSLR aimed at more experienced users – it is not particularly gentle on amateur users and can turn out to be particularly confusing given its over 30 multiple function external controls. If anything, it could very well be considered a gateway DSLR between entry-level and professional standards.
Following the success of the K-5 II in its own right, Ricoh returns with more proof of how much the series has improved and opens new roads towards exceptional imaging performance.
Pentax K3 Design
Pentax K3 Size, Weight & Materials
Visually, the K3 camera is very similar to the K-5 II model. The external design is about the same but spells professionalism and a straight down to business camera. The DSLR is bigger than what we’ve become accustomed to in Ricoh’s other models – with an overall size of 100 x 132 x 74 mm, it’s marginally larger than the K-5 II but smaller than the Nikon D7100.
The weather-sealed magnesium alloy body of the K3 makes up for a rather heavy camera – it weighs 715 grams without loading the battery and memory card in it, and over 800 grams in full-functioning mode. Given the extra weight, the K3 has been provided with a new, slightly deeper grip coated in a rubber-base material to assure stability. It’s not the easiest task holding the camera up with one hand but the right side features a large thumb-rest allowing you to stay clear of any controls and accidentally alter the intended settings.
Following in K-5 II’s steps, the Pentax K3 is fully protected by the outer body construction: the 92 seals protect the inside from water and dust and the developers guarantee the camera’s functionality at temperatures as low as -10 degrees Celsius.
Pentax K3 Button & Control Placement
When you take your first glance at the Pentax K3, there is certainly a lot to take in. There are buttons and various controls over most sides of its body and for a less experienced individual that will might turn out to be overwhelming and confusing.
The front of the Pentax K3 showcases a RAW / FX button that allows you to set the image to the RAW format that is selected in the menu system in a mere second; you can customize the functionality of this button as well, giving it access to control things like digital preview, composition adjustment and much more.
The autofocus button can be located a little lower on the front of the camera and it supports 3 modes – AF-S, AF-A and AF-C – and it’s accompanied by a manual/automatic focusing switch. You can also locate the pop-up flash controller here.
The left side features I/O ports – the microphone, USB, HDMI, DC-in and a headphone socket that is meant to help monitor the audio during movie recording are all placed here. The right side is where you will find not one, but two SD / SDHC / SDXC card slots – a new addition that will certainly turn out to suffice all of your storage needs. There is also another slot on this side but it’s only for an optional wired remote control.
The bottom of the Pentax K3 hosts the battery compartment – which is lockable and keep the D-LI90 battery protected, as well as the tripod mount and contacts for the optional battery grip.
The top of the DSLR displays something that has changed since the Pentax’ previous iteration: the mode dial is slightly different than the K-5 II’s in the sense that the previous method of locking it (holding down the central button of the dial to be able to rotate it) has been replaced by a new lock switch that can be unlocked, allowing you to then freely spin the dial. It’s a lot more comfortable to use and doesn’t strain the position of your hand as much as the previous model did.
Pentax K3 Viewfinder & LCD Screen
Another major improvement of the K3 model is the pentaprism optical viewfinder that aims for no less than 100% scene coverage and 0.95x magnification. This is a step up from the K-5 II which only showcased a 0.92x magnification viewfinder and allows this model to be on par with the Nikon D7100 in this respect. Only EVF and Olympus E-M1 manage to raise the bar even further.
Regardless, the viewfinder is exceptionally bright and shows you precisely what you’d be capturing. With no distortions to speak of, it has suffered a few small changes itself since the previous model – in the sense that the optics and internal coatings have been reworked and that it has received a new diopter adjustment dial.
The camera rear is home for the 3.2 inch LCD panel – which now has a high resolution of 1,037K dots, a great viewing angle and has switched to a 3:2 aspect ratio, wildly different than the 4:3 present on the previous K-5 and K-5 II of the Pentax series. It appeared to fare extremely well in any type of environment, whether we’re talking about outdoors with high levels of brightness or indoors, in artificial lighting. In comparison to other top DSLR models, this is probably one – if not the best LCD panel you will find attached to a camera.
There’s a lot you can change about the way images are displayed on the LCD – starting with brightness, saturation and color. Those can be calibrated to match the settings of the receiving medium that your photos and videos will be ending up on.
You can also find a great deal of information displayed on the LCD albeit most of it will revolve around basic shooting settings. By using the navigation pad and rear e-dial, the Pentax K3 allows you to change a large number of settings directly on the screen without having to enter the menu. This may not sound like much – and a little complicated if anything, but once you get accustomed to the way it works, it will probably save you time and make settings navigation a lot easier.
The Pentax lenses incorporated in the K3 camera are a DA 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 ED AL (IF) DC WR kit.
Pentax K3 Features
Sensor – The Pentax K3 features a 23.35MP APS-C CMOS sensor manufactured by Sony, a certain hop up a few steps from the 16.2 MP sensor featured in the previous K-5 II. Although this chip accounts for slightly lower resolution that we have noticed in the predecessor, it brings with it a number of great features that make the Pentax K3 worthwhile and a great candidate for your next DSLR. The sensor’s maximum resolution is 6016 x 4000, but other viable resolutions include 4608 x 3072, 3072 x 2048 and 1920 x 1080.
Image stabilization is implemented for most Pentax K mount lenses, whether newer or older, manual focus ones; compatible lenses are Pentax K-, KA-, KAF-, KAF3-, 645-and 67-system lenses when accompanied by an adapter and other screw-mounted lenses. Image stabilization – also known as a Shake Reduction system – is a feature that helps reduce and even nullify the slight blurring of images that may occur in photos taken at slow shutter speeds. You can turn on this feature in the menu to compensate for any occurring camera shaking – you are notified if the image is shaky by a blur icon in the viewfinder that will appear regardless – even when the image stabilization mode is off.
One of the catchiest features of the Pentax K3 is probably the anti-aliasing simulator. Something that you may not find in every one of your day-to-day cameras, in the lack of an actual optical anti-aliasing low-pass filter the camera uses the image stabilization sensor-shift system to simulate the filter instead. Pentax explained that the way this works is that the anti-aliasing simulator works by applying “microscopic vibrations to the image sensor unit at the sub-pixel level during exposure” – thus creating an amount of blur equal to the one you would get if you would use an optical anti-aliasing filter. To top it off, the AA simulator also has two modes for shooting with it – Mode 1 or Mode 2 – that allow you to adjust the level of the effect.
The lack of an anti-aliasing filter is an improvement in resolution, but comes with one downside: an increased risk of moiré patterning. However, the discreet blur created by AA simulator also functions in that direction – and combats moiré. Pentax claims that this feature is best used with shutter speeds under 1/1000 seconds.
Autofocus is yet another key point of the Pentax K-3 DSLR. The camera presents a SAFOX 11 TTL 27-point autofocus system. If that is not impressive by itself, then know that no less than 25 out of 27 are cross-type sensors. Cross-type sensors feature two-dimensional contrast detection, providing higher accuracy when shooting. The other two, vertical-line sensors are positioned above and below the rest in order to detect the light flux. The AF mode button allows you to switch between manual and autofocus, while the one right below it will allow you to change between single and continuous autofocus or switch between focus modes – auto, selectable point, spot, etc. The Pentax K3 seems to be faring well to static imagery when set in continuous AF mode, but seemed to be struggling partially to subjects in motion – more specifically, subjects moving towards the camera itself – falling into the trap of taking a long time to refocus, even if the K3 detects the subject correctly.
The Pentax K3’s processing engine makes up for a continuous shooting speed of up to 8.3 frames per second: 3.0 for low, 4.5 for medium and 8.3 for high to be precise. In various testing scenarios, the K3 DSLR happened to even exceed the advertised speed, even when a RAW format was used. At high speed mode however, the camera seemed to be a little slow when it came to re-entering playback mode and restarting a new session of full-speed burst shooting. In addition, an important aspect of the Live View of the K3 when shooting at high-speed is that the LCD only displays the most recently shot photo, instead of the real-time image that is being photographed.
The image quality of the Pentax K-3 is pretty much astounding, given its self-chosen enthusiast DSLR title. Shooting in RAW naturally will earn the best results, with a shockingly great quality especially at low ISO, while shooting in JPEG doesn’t fall behind too much. Noise reduction is something that will handle itself extremely well until ISO settings of around 1600 but then becomes more than more visible, especially when the images are magnified at 100%. Shooting at night is eased by the minimum shutter speed of 30 seconds, along with the Bulb mode.
The D-Range featured on the Pentax K3 allows you to correct the highlights and shadows before shooting an image. It’s not necessarily something that you’ll be using all the time, given that it’s mostly meant for strongly contrasting lighting in images taken at low ISO settings, but it’s placed at your disposal as another way of improving the quality of your images. On the same note, high dynamic range capture is an option as well. This allows you to take photos with three different exposures and then combine the best exposed part of each into the final result. This, however, is a relatively tricky thing to do as photos taken in HDR mode only earn you great results when making use of a tripod or stable surface when shooting – otherwise the photo may contain blur due to movement. Similarly, HRD is not a wise choice when it comes to subjects in motion.
The dust removal mechanism incorporated in the Pentax K3 basically moves the low-pass filter that is in front of the CMOS sensor at a very high speed, removing the particles. If the cleaning is not 100% efficient, you can make use of the in-built feature called “Dust Alert” that will display your sensor on the screen, along with where the dust is located exactly. If the dust removal mechanism is not capable or removing all the dust particles, you can use the built-in sensor cleaning feature to lift the mirror and clean it manually with the use of blower brushes.
Start-up time for the Pentax K3 has also improved: the process that starts with turning the camera on and until the camera is ready to take a photo will only take roughly a second. If there’s any area where this DSLR will elicit some concerns out of you is the Wi-Fi capability. Depending on whether storage or having to immediately upload your photos is a definite must or certain not for you, this may prove to be a bit of an issue. However, the developers have designed an optional wireless SD card named FluCard that provides remote control of the camera through the use of smartphones or tablets – something that you will very rarely find as an integrated feature on most systems.
The Pentax K3 is ultimately powered by a 1860 mAh Lithium-Ion D-LI90 rechargeable battery, the same power pack that we have seen in previous models such as the K-5s and K-7. At this power you can get as many as 720 shots with one charge, according with CIPA standards. Alternatively, there is an optional D-BG5 battery grip that you can purchase, which will allow you to either hold an additional D-LI90 or 6 AA batteries. Charging the Pentax K3 to full will take somewhere around 6 hours – making the battery a tad slow when it comes to recharging.
Lastly, the K3 also allows video shooting in 1080p which has been upgraded to the H.264 format. Audio monitoring is done through the headphone socket featured on the camera by using external microphones. There is one option that allows you to shoot frames of up to 4k resolution, namely the “Interval Movie Record”, but what it does is simply take photos at regular intervals and then combine them into a movie. With a shortest interval duration of 2 seconds, that’s a very occasional feature you’ll be using. However, the K3 will not allow you to shoot for longer than 25 minutes considering that the camera automatically turns off to avoid overheating. On the upside, the camera offers manual exposure during video capture and a partial use of the autofocus modes – you can set it up before you start shooting and it will automatically turn off once you hit the record button.
Pentax K3 Price & Verdict
The Pentax K3 is currently sold in three kits: the kit that includes the DA 18-55mm WR Lens you will find for $899 and the DA 18-133mm WR Lens version goes for a little over $1k ($1039 to be exact). There is a third variant that was built but only 2000 units of this model were released. The latter is the premium silver edition that includes a special battery grip and strap and was initially sold for $1599.
All in all, the Pentax K3 is a great camera that heavily weighs more pros than it does cons. While the Wi-Fi issue and the fairly limited video capture capability may hinder you if that is one area where you focus your attention to, the K3 does amazingly well in every other respect. You get great, high image quality, great ergonomics, an impressive set of features and shooting optimization and an astonishing autofocus system.
The series is undoubtedly moving in the right direction with the addition of the K3, managing to create a semi-professional but modestly self-proclaimed enthusiast DSLR that give its Canon and Nikon counterparts a run for their money. In the DSLR sector, the Pentax K3 is surely a flagship that is definitely worth upgrading to and far more than just a gateway camera. However, if by purchasing it you would change systems, it’s recommended to you take all of its features in consideration before making a move.
