| Author: | | Pentaxian Registered: May, 2016 Posts: 3,726 | | Review Date: October 10, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $730.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | solid and reliable, good performance | | Cons: | | | Years Owned: 6 months
Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 9
Autofocus: 9
Features: 10
Value: 10
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 8
New or Used: New
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I use this camera most often with the 15, 40 and 70 limited lenses, but I have other as well. I've used this camera for street shots, landscapes, concerts, news, indoor sports, regular holiday photos, macro, a few astrophoto attempts... works well for a lot of things! Paired with a light lens, it's comfortable to hold and literally run around with  The interface is well thought and the body has enough physical cues to let you learn where all buttons are without looking. It performs predictably and reliably (accurate af and exposure, good dynamic range, large raw buffer, etc). It has lots of useful features and they've been covered extensively by others, so I'll just say that they work well.
| | | | | | | Forum Member Registered: February, 2014 Location: Zagreb Posts: 73
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 21, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $1,200.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Build quality, WR, Tons of features, customizabile | | Cons: | Video quality, heavy | | Years Owned: 2
Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 10
Autofocus: 10
Features: 10
Value: 10
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 10
New or Used: New
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The the best Pentax APS-C DSLR on the market (at the time of writing). Pentax crammed all the features you could want from a prosumer DSLR and them some, making it the best bang for buck out there for an enthusiast/pro photographer. I'm gonna skip on specs as you can find that anywhere, and just describe my experience with it:
The AF works in complete darkness, it's fast and accurate. Tracking moving subjects works well, but for pro sports/wildlife photography you may want to looks elsewhere. The lack of built in flash is important only for amateur flash photographers, as the rest use an external flash anyway. The camera is built like a tank, and can take a beating, and the Weather resistance is excellent, as expected.
I had a Pentax K-500 before and I dreamed of a D810. Since getting the K-3 II, learning to use it effectively and getting some good glass for it, I no longer want or need a Full frame DSLR's. The results I can achieve with this are 99.999% the same as any Full Frame DSLR, for a fraction of the cost and weight/size. Enough said.
People looking for high quality video from their DSLR should look elsewhere, though. Despite it's pro features such as a mic/headphone jack, this is not a video camera by any stretch. Low bitrate, aliasing and no IBIS during video pretty much destroy any video capability it could have had. Also, the body is surprisingly heavy for such a small camera, but if using Pentax limited primes it's still a quite light setup overall.
Here are a few shots I've taken with the K-3 II:
For more examples, check out my Flickr Page | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: October, 2012 Location: Colorado Posts: 1,437 | | Review Date: October 1, 2015 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | GPS, no flash, pixel shift, image quality, image stabilization, handling, | | Cons: | No flash, menus are too croweded | |
I'm pretty pleased with this camera. It's only con is that it lacks a flash. That is also, truly, a pro.
If you've used any of the recent K-series prosumer bodies, you're already familiar with how this camera works, handles, and interfaces with the user. What this body has that others lack is the on-board GPS and the pixel shift function.
Pixel shift is an interesting function. It's for only some circumstances: motionless camera, motionless subject, and steady lighting. I thought that would make pixel shift ideal for architecture. It has worked well for interiors but poorly for exteriors. Building movement and heat-related air density changes are enough to cause a zipper-like pixel shift alignment error effect.
Here are some sample images:
Pixel-shift sample
 | | | | | Forum Member Registered: July, 2015 Posts: 53 | | Review Date: September 29, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $1,100.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Much improved AF over K5II and earlier | | Cons: | high ISO perfomance worse than K5II | | Years Owned: 3 months
Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 10
Autofocus: 9
Features: 10
Value: 9
Image Quality: 9
Noise: 8
New or Used: New
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The good:
AF is considerably improved over K5II and earlier cameras (can't compare to K3). None of my lenses need any micro adjustment, they all focus spot on. It also seems to track face in viewfinder when using continuous AF, subject tracking is also way better than K5II.
Someone said AF in Canon 7D MkII was better - for 650 USD more I'd expect it to be much better.
Metering seems better as well, I don't need to adjust exposure in Lightroom as much as I had to with K5II.
Improved ergonomics, especially placement of back AF button, right where you need it under the thumb.
Menus - I find them easy to use and navigate. Tried friend's Canon 5D III and couldn't figure it out so easily.
USB3.0 makes transferring files much faster than before.
Less good:
ISO over 1600 worse than K5II at 100% magnification, but at print size still very good.
Overall it's a step forward from K5II.
Mine was within affected serial numbers when it comes to power off issue but got resolved in 7 days by Ricoh UK service centre.
I'm very happy with it.
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: June, 2015 Location: Iasi Posts: 14
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 27, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $1,143.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | built quality, ergonomics, innovative features, battery life, price tag, | | Cons: | focusing system, clumsy menus, no built-in flash | | Ergonomics: 9
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 7
Autofocus: 5
Features: 9
Value: 10
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 8
New or Used: New
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I have a history of film cameras, and after switching to digital, I went through Nikon D7000, Canon 5D mk II and Canon 7D mk II.
I miss the simplicity of film cameras. I moved to Pentax hoping to find that.
I also miss the amazing focusing speed and focus area coverage of the Canon 7D mk II. more of that below.
I have yet to discover the usefulness of the GPS as opposed to a built-in (fill) flash.
The menus are nothing short of boring, and that could have been saved with a custom My Menu feature where you could save your most used few sub-menus, instead of trying to guess their position on the Info screen, let alone browsing thru all menus for the same result.
Focus points are all cluttered in the middle of the frame and quite slow in real time action. I'm sort of used to that from the 5D2, where using the centre point became almost natural. Using one of the wheels to select a focus point would have been much more efficient, but I understand the reason of not putting that in.
I have used the camera with the Sigma 18-35/1.8 and the Pentax HD 70/2.4. I was expecting more from the Sigma and less from the Pentax lens. It was the other way around. I was not very impressed with the Sigma, but I was blown away by the Pentax, despite its noisy and lazy focus. Sigma is way below slow and lazy anyway. Perhaps a firmware update will fix that at some point...
High ISOs are not impressive, even in DNG post-processing, but that's not unusual for APSCs. Still, the K3-II does a much better job at that than its Canon brother, 7D2.
I've mentioned good ergonomics, but I'm only referring to the compact camera style multi function directional buttons down to the not-quite-under-the-thumb position. OK, the ISO, EV compensation, AF and AE buttons are also in good spots, but that's about it. And their grip versions are a different story.
I actually have no complaints with using both hands for viewing or deleting pictures, Nikon has the same thing and it's fine, even if Canon managed to put everything on the thumb side of the camera (7D2). Using the camera for everything with one hand only is exhausting, especially with grip on and a massive lens mounted. I don't check every picture I take, but when I do, I'm happy to give my right hand some rest.
Battery life is impressive. I ran well over 2000 DNGs on two batteries (one in the body, one in the grip, with the grip one first on cue).
I never use the original strap, I always use a slingshot, and the K3-II with grip has a weird balance compared to the Canons, which always hang straight, with the lens in the desired direction. The K3-II tend to turn with the lens inward, a bearable thing with the 70/2.4 attached, not so cool with the huge Sigma on, which will always hit the hip while walking. No running.
I'll come back with some links to original DNGs from a recent trip to Danube Delta to see for yourself.
| | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: September, 2009 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 7,594
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 5, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $990.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Everything Good on K-3, GPS, Pixel Shift High Resolution, Better low light focus, faster focus | | Cons: | No built in flash | | Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 10
Autofocus: 9
Features: 10
Value: 10
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 9
New or Used: New
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This is a minor but welcome update of the outstanding K-3 which has been the top of the line Pentax DSLR for almost two years. Although a few people had some trouble with GPS locking up and the camera not turning off, it seems that most of us have had trouble free cameras. For my use, which is mainly outdoors, hiking and exploring the canyons and mountains of he southwest, the addition of in camera GPS is a big improvement. I have used the OGPS-1 since it came out but have always found it somewhat inconvenient to use since I sometimes forget to bring it and when it is on the camera there is no flash possible without kludgy workarounds. Now we can have full time GPS (including track logging) and still attach a flash when necessary. Astrophotographers will also benefit from the built in astro tracker functions. I have never tried this but may try some star photos on my next overnight in the desert. I have only experimented briefly with the Pixel Shift feature but it works smoothly and quite quickly. I tried several hand held shots which were at best not as good as other handheld photos taken without pixel shift and most of the time suffered from severe blurring. But that is what the manual says so there is no surprise. I do not use a tripod often but I plan to try this feature out with a tripod more frequently soon. The photos I took with Pixel Shift and a tripod were sharp but I am not yet convinced that it is worth the extra hassle for my type of photos. Tracking does seem to have improved a bit for me. I have managed a higher percentage of successful BIFs with this camera than I have gotten form my K-3. That is subjective but I am convinced. I include a duck BIF for illustration (K-3ii DA*50-135). It is one of a half dozen keepers from about 9 shots taken in a burst. SOOC crop only. 
I have given the camera a high rating because, for me, it is as good as the original K-3 which I have been using since it was introduced and includes several nice improvements.
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