It arrived today. Haven't read the manual and only a few test shots to ensure it's not DOA. One of the primary reasons (excuses?) for the purchase was the K3 II didn't give satisfactory results over ISO 800 (I've been in many low-light scenarios lately). Since the K3 III has ISO 1,600,000 it's got to be better, right? Yeah, absurd quoting unusable figures like that so a quick test was in order. All photos taken with the same lens, f/2.8, varying focal lengths, handheld, auto-focus, and without shake reduction. More photos were taken but these were the best of the impromptu shoot.

Neither Adobe nor ACDSee liked the PEF RAW files so theses are JPG straight from the camera. Mostly... When necessary, the info was removed form Chester's tag and I underexposed on ISO 1600 (added +2/3 stop in post). RAW files are now set to DNG so hopefully that issue is taken care of. Crops are 100% and 99% of the camera settings are exactly how it came out of the box.


More testing is needed but I think ISO 6400 on the K3 III is close to ISO 800 on the K3 II.


Full album here if anyone cares to look at the full sized images.
K3 III Test photos | Flickr

ISO 6400


ISO 6400 - 100% crop



ISO 3200


ISO 3200 crop


ISO 1600 (underexposed so +2/3 stop added in post)


ISO 1600 crop (underexposed so +2/3 stop added in post)


ISO 800


ISO 800 crop


ISO 400


ISO 400 crop

[Unregistered User 8]

Wow !!!....................

[aurele]

This is better than the K1 @6400 iso, no doubt. WOOOOW !

[wkadruje]

have you stopped at 6400 because that''s the usable limit? (out of habit I try not go higher on KP, then again, been doing the same with K-30, I think earlier I was was stopping at 3200 and 1600 with gx-1s)

[Rondec]

Impressive performance there. I usually don't go over iso 6400 on my K-1s and looks pretty similar to me.

[aslyfox]

very nice

and that is from a dog person

[jspi]

have you stopped at 6400 because that''s the usable limit? (out of habit I try not go higher on KP, then again, been doing the same with K-30, I think earlier I was was stopping at 3200 and 1600 with gx-1s)

Mostly the cat's decision. I started at 6400 and the cat decided to leave after 400. Assuming I got to 100 and the cat was still cooperative, I may have tested higher ISOs.

---------- Post added 04-24-21 at 12:35 PM ----------

very nice

and that is from a dog person

Tried to get dog shots too but that's not easy. He's mostly black so cameras have trouble figuring out what's a nose, dark eyes,and the ears. The K3 III did find focus easier than the K3 II but where it focused was inconsistent. My Panasonic m43 has the same issue wit the dog. So does my phone. The fact the K3 III seemed to find a focus point fairly easy is promising (K3 II would hunt and not always find focus).


Focus is something else I've noticed, it seems faster to lock. Sometimes I have focus and am not sure it did anything due to how quiet it was about doing it (quiet and lack of hunting).

So far I'm not impressed with the new shutter button and I prefer the K3 II in this area. It works fine but there a more define half-press on the K3 II. Combine silent focus and minimal tactile feedback of a half-pressed button... There was a handful of extra shots because I wasn't sure if I had pressed far enough to focus. Obviously, this was only when focus had minimal change from the previous shot. This is something I can adjust to and it's not like a few errant clicks is going to fill my SD card (holds over 2000 RAW). Of course button feel is personal preference as long as it works as intended.

[SimplyCreativePhotography]

Thanks for sharing. Nice to see that they are finally being delivered.

[sergysergy]

I try not to use more than 800 in my cameras but the K3iii looks very good at high ISOs. Too bad the model left

[Larrymc]

Mostly the cat's decision. I started at 6400 and the cat decided to leave after 400. Assuming I got to 100 and the cat was still cooperative, I may have tested higher ISOs.

---------- Post added 04-24-21 at 12:35 PM ----------



Tried to get dog shots too but that's not easy. He's mostly black so cameras have trouble figuring out what's a nose, dark eyes,and the ears. The K3 III did find focus easier than the K3 II but where it focused was inconsistent. My Panasonic m43 has the same issue wit the dog. So does my phone. The fact the K3 III seemed to find a focus point fairly easy is promising (K3 II would hunt and not always find focus).


Focus is something else I've noticed, it seems faster to lock. Sometimes I have focus and am not sure it did anything due to how quiet it was about doing it (quiet and lack of hunting).

So far I'm not impressed with the new shutter button and I prefer the K3 II in this area. It works fine but there a more define half-press on the K3 II. Combine silent focus and minimal tactile feedback of a half-pressed button... There was a handful of extra shots because I wasn't sure if I had pressed far enough to focus. Obviously, this was only when focus had minimal change from the previous shot. This is something I can adjust to and it's not like a few errant clicks is going to fill my SD card (holds over 2000 RAW). Of course button feel is personal preference as long as it works as intended.

Great captures, impressive results!! Just out of curiosity why turn the S/R off when hand holding at slower shutter speeds? Using BBF might help out with your half-press problems. Over all I'm very impressed and I can't wait till mine gets here.

[Belnan]

Very impressive, much improved over the K3, very similar to Full Frame. Now I guess we have to decide if the little bit of extra depth of field control is that important.

[mtkeller]

Great captures, impressive results!! Just out of curiosity why turn the S/R off when hand holding at slower shutter speeds? Using BBF might help out with your half-press problems. Over all I'm very impressed and I can't wait till mine gets here.

I would definitely agree with turning on back button focus. I use it exclusively, and the new shutter button is a dream compared to the K-70 once I turned off the silly default half press to focus setting. (And the new shutter sound…yeah, there’s a reason all the ambassador videos have them just listening to the shutter sound…that reason is not because someone at Pentax told them to do it.) BBF does take a solid day or two of shooting to get used to. Switching to a new camera is the perfect time to do it, since you have a bunch of other muscle memory things to adjust!

[Michail_P]

Outstanding results. What a fantastic performance! Pentax really shines!

[reh321]

You must be much more cautious than I am - I often use 12K as the upper limit on my KP {I often use 'TAv' mode} with little concern these days.

[barhan7]

Great, and I want one!