[Breakfastographer]

Nah, the K-1 can get you nice A4 prints at ISO 25K with half a minute of NR work. Being able to shoot 1/400 in dim light with a relatively slow f/4 tele knowing the camera has your back is priceless.

I don't understand where the "nah" is coming from. Are you disagreeing with something I wrote?

---------- Post added 10-28-20 at 08:24 AM ----------

Of course it can but it's not the same. It's a luxury having both in the viewfinder. The D780 basically just embraced that principle by doing everything the z6 can in the live view including it's AF system. After all the EVF is just "tiny live view"

You can make your rear display into a viewfinder if you want.

[FozzFoster]

I'm curious how the K-3 III will handle heating issues - especially now with 4K capabilities - that seems to be a common problem with the current mirrorless mania video taking.

[Serkevan]

I don't understand where the "nah" is coming from. Are you disagreeing with something I wrote?

Ah, I understood that you didn't think there was a difference in high ISO between APS-C and FF - I agree that it's not relevant in most cases, but it's great to have the extra IQ when you do need it. Sorry for not making it clearer

[repaap]

I'm curious how the K-3 III will handle heating issues - especially now with 4K capabilities - that seems to be a common problem with the current mirrorless mania video taking.

It won’t have any problem. It is just 4K 24/30, and propably 8-bit, maybe 10 bit. Simply to get that -video&4K- checked. It is as usual, camera for photography, with video if one need it now. Will be better than you get with any other Pentax digital DSLR before.

[LeeRunge]

I have a mixed relationship with "computational tricks" I can see myself potentially being on board as long as they don't falsify the image. Hallucination is one thing to currently look out for and avoid - it's the basis of Topaz Denoise AI, among others. Luckily, PRIME from DxO is still the better alternative.

The 26 megapixel sensor already has trouble competing with the previous 24 megapixel one. From my observations, it seems to likely depend on whether they go full monkey on the PDAF pixels like Fuji did.

The lastest DXO prime is pretty nice. I agree on keeping it a true "negative" and not a cooked weird file. I see potential there though. It's all just a very advanced HDR mode.


I feel like sensors hit the wall from about the K-5 era onward for performance other than a few ISO tricks in accelerators and BSI. Really it's been add megapixels, keep previous ISO and DR if able.

[jpzk]

Having been through an entire series of Pentax cameras, K10D, K20D, K7, K5 and now a K3, I am really hoping that the new AF system of the K3 III will be much improved and that the handling of high ISO be better than that of the K3.
The K5 was (still is) better in that department (high ISO).

As I mentioned earlier, only time will tell how the performance(s) is (are) when the K3 III becomes available and thoroughly tested.

[LeeRunge]

If it counts, I started roughly two years ago. Around me were Canon, Sony and Nikon users.

I chose Pentax specifically because of the OVF, ruggedness and IBIS, although I'd lie if I said that the much lower price of (used) older flagships didn't play a part. The ergonomics felt right from day 1 and I'm not in need of super fancy AF, so that's never been a problem.


Then I made the mistake of getting several M-series lenses, which quickly morphed into buying a K-1 and the 77 Limited, so now you'll have to pry my stuff from my cold dead hands

They got you lol. The used lens market was a big plus for me when I started with them. It was Weather sealing and IBIS that drew me in.

The controls are still the best in any system overall IMO. I'm still making faces at the D-750 once and a while with it's layout compared to the K-3 which seems to have everything as it should be and I'm very happy the replacement K-3 body is similar.

[mee]

I quote from their presentation:

"We are confident that it will meet your expectations as a lifetime partner for your photographic experiences."

Giving you a lifetime camera is Pentax' play, and it is certainly not Nikon's play with the Z5, or the rather flimsy (sorry but it's true) Z50.

No, you misread. They didn't say lifetime camera. They said lifetime partner for your photographic experiences.

And even that is marketing hyperbole.


There is no such thing as a lifetime (digital) camera and Ricoh doesn't even know if they'll be launching cameras in 40 or 50 years. That's like saying there is a lifetime computer (since a digital camera is just a specialized computer). But we all know the hardware ages and eventually fails as the tech also gets past by the following updates. Brands come and go and sometimes come again too.

I don't think Ricoh is going anywhere for at least a decade or more in the camera market. But what that looks like it anyone's guess. What matters, to me at least, is what the system looks like today. Because I'm alive here today.

And how many of them have truly excited you? Canon created a bit of a stir with the 28-70mm because it was f/2 and another very interesting take at the idea of a stack of primes. Other than that, mirrorless lenses are struggling with a variety of technical issues that I have written plenty about.

Optically and on build? Most of them. But excitement doesn't keep companies in business. Sales do.

If I were to go to into a mirrorless system, I'd likely pickup a few primes and a couple zooms. That's my general layout.

Again, I don't know what to take away from that question-rhetorical answer pair, but perhaps that is the intention.

Thinking negatively of the person with which you're communicating is a poor position to start a discussion, no? But if you don't understand it, you don't have to comment about it. It isn't a debate where all points have to always be countered and battled.


Just a friendly discussion on camera hardware... I thought.

[someasiancameraguy]

Definitely agree that Pentax is pivoting from the value oriented market into a more niche category.

But for professional shooters like myself the price - as the specs are now - is a bit high. Hopefully the spec sheet fills out on release and the camera becomes more compelling. At the moment I'm not sure if I'm entirely willing to pay the premium for 'muscle memory' levels of intuitiveness in my shooting process.

[reh321]

You can make your rear display into a viewfinder if you want.

Only if you are willing for the size of your camera to balloon.
My Q-7 is basically as large as my K-30 once I have done that.

[gatorguy]

I'm honestly asking the question of what do they offer in 2020 that makes them unique?

A dedication to creating the absolute best shooting experience on a DSLR when every other camera maker is rushing to mirrorless.

For me the connection to my subject just isn't there on a digital camera screen and it absolutely affects both my compositions and capture times. Yes I've tried Sony, wanted to see what all that eye-focus talk was about. Wanted to like it too, with an A7II in my hand and the owner making me a great offer. I didn't like it. At all. And the vaunted eye-focus wasn't better than my own focus technique.

Personally I'd miss so many shots on a mirrorless. I can lift the camera, focus on an eye, and shoot my K-70's in a matter of three seconds or less as a rule (except for those few adventurous lenses). No joke. In fairness I'm a couple seconds slower with the K1. On the other hand, I watch experienced Sony shooters I hang with who take far longer just to compose at some event while I've rattled off two or three shots in the meantime. Which of us is more likely to find a keeper?

IMHO there's 10's of thousands of photographers who feel the same: They can't or won't shoot mirrorless. For those folks Pentax is declaring we get you.

So if you want mirrorless take your pick from a half dozen companies all fighting each other for attention, and FWIW I do like what Fuji is trying to do. Hope they stick around. Sony? I predict that within three years they'll have rid themselves of the camera division. Nikon? IMO they're trying to do too many things in too many directions with their resources shrinking. Canon? Canon will be Canon just as Leica will be Leica. Pentax makes the right choice staying out of that MILC parade. IMO splitting their limited resources would have been the fastest route to fail.

[LeeRunge]

Only if you are willing for the size of your camera to balloon.
My Q-7 is basically as large as my K-30 once I have done that.

That's basically what EVF has always been to me in miniaturized form. I think Canon and Nikon dove in because Sony's eating up of market share really scared them and continues to do so.

There will be some segment of the market that continues to prefer OVF and we'll see if Canon and Nikon stick around with Pentax to meet that market or they just go all in for mirrorless. I think the assumption is the later but it's not written in stone. The D780 was just released to include mirrorless improvements so that's kinda an indication that they may look at this as a split market and support both by once and a while adding what was developed in the Z line to the DSLR's.

[Wheatfield]

If all three systems were laid out in front of prospective buyers, why does anyone think Pentax will be the top choice currently?

People were probably asking the same question of Leica in the 1960s - 1990s, but here we are. They did well enough.

[mee]

That's basically what EVF has always been to me in miniaturized form. I think Canon and Nikon dove in because Sony's eating up of market share really scared them and continues to do so.

There will be some segment of the market that continues to prefer OVF and we'll see if Canon and Nikon stick around with Pentax to meet that market or they just go all in for mirrorless. I think the assumption is the later but it's not written in stone. The D780 was just released to include mirrorless improvements so that's kinda an indication that they may look at this as a split market and support both by once and a while adding what was developed in the Z line to the DSLR's.

Nikon reps already said earlier this year that they aren't leaving DSLR support anytime soon as they are still their financial bread and butter. They will only transition over more fully if Z picks up more fiscal weight. So Pentax will have competition, if it proves true, for many years to come in this segment.

I think the next decade is going to be very transitory for a lot of product brands and lineups. Should be interesting watching it all play out

[mee]

People were probably asking the same question of Leica in the 1960s - 1990s, but here we are. They did well enough.

Leica Leica Leica

Pentax is not Leica. It doesn't have the history or the mystique to the broader market as Leica has.