[Serkevan]

I have always been of the opinion that you don't release beta software or products. I think there have been many companies who tried (Cyberpunk 2077 most recently?) but the bang you get for getting something out the door is significantly over powered by the antagonism generated by something doesn't work the way it should for the first two or three months after release.

I feel that this is relevant here (both with regards to CP2077* and the K-3iii):

"A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad"

*Cyberpunk CLEARLY needs at least a year more of work, and it's a disgrace that it was allowed to even ship.

---------- Post added 01-13-21 at 03:57 AM ----------

Apparently, they have enough cameras to play with, themselves, but not for selling. It's like for the MZ-D. Ricoh may decide that they don't release the K3III at the last moment, they may decide to redesign the camera with a flippy screen.

Come on, the MZ-D had a terrible sensor that was never going to work. It was so bad that it outright killed Contax and quite possibly was the death blow to Pentax Corp.
The K-3iii is, you know, actually functional

[Kunzite]

I have always been of the opinion that you don't release beta software or products. I think there have been many companies who tried (Cyberpunk 2077 most recently?) but the bang you get for getting something out the door is significantly over powered by the antagonism generated by something doesn't work the way it should for the first two or three months after release.

The game industry is a bit special, in that the launch date is usually firmly set by marketing - and the poor devs have to make it happen. While Cyberpunk 2077 was allegedly (didn't try it) particularly bad, I wonder if there are any AAA games which are released in a "final" form.

But that doesn't have anything to do with Pentax.

[biz-engineer]

But that doesn't have anything to do with Pentax.

Nikon didn't postpone the release of their Z7 because autofocus screwed on backlit subjects. They released it and had a lot of good reviews, even Nikon fanboy defending that Z7 autofocus worked well. If you were a Z7 user, hummm well, you had to delete some OOF shots. Of course , this kind of things are accepted for leading brands, but not for Pentax.

[Kunzite]

Nikon didn't postpone the release of their Z7 because autofocus screwed on backlit subjects. They released it and had a lot of good reviews, even Nikon fanboy defending that Z7 autofocus worked well. If you were a Z7 user, hummm well, you had to delete some OOF shots. Of course , this kind of things are accepted for leading brands, but not for Pentax.

There are bugs and issues, the kind you'd have with any product; and then there's releasing an incomplete product. The Z7, of course, was no Cyberpunk 2077.
But I agree with you that folks are more lenient with other brands.

[repaap]

I see. Thanks for interesting input for the theme guys! I’ll be checking out.

[Kunzite]

By the way, I'm afraid I don't understand anything relevant from the video... is there anyone who can?

[zapp]

The ovely long product release phase is not really the problem here. It is just that Pentax has a fairly slow release schedule to begin with. They released the last camera almost exactly 3 years ago - if you consider the K1ii a full release. The last new camera, also the last APS-C release, is KP 4 years ago. K3ii as top of the APS-C family was released almost 6 years ago.
K3iii will be great, so let´s wait a couple more weeks and buy it to support Pentax.

[gatorguy]

Nikon didn't postpone the release of their Z7 because autofocus screwed on backlit subjects. They released it and had a lot of good reviews, even Nikon fanboy defending that Z7 autofocus worked well. If you were a Z7 user, hummm well, you had to delete some OOF shots. Of course , this kind of things are accepted for leading brands, but not for Pentax.

For a camera you said you have no interest in (and posted you would be looking at spending a few thousand with Nikon and Canon instead this year) you certainly have a lot to say about it.

You weren't buying the K3III no matter what performance or features it offers, so it would be appreciated if you'd not try quite so hard to discourage the rest of us from any interest with such regular Pentax negativity

[biz-engineer]

The ovely long product release phase is not really the problem here. It is just that Pentax has a fairly slow release schedule to begin with. They released the last camera almost exactly 3 years ago - if you consider the K1ii a full release. The last new camera, also the last APS-C release, is KP 4 years ago. K3ii as top of the APS-C family was released almost 6 years ago.K3iii will be great, so let´s wait a couple more weeks and buy it to support Pentax.

We shouldn't forget that Pentax is only the brand name of one of the product lines of Ricoh Imaging. They didn't quite stop working on cameras between the K1II release and the K3III, I believe they worked on the Ricoh product lines such as GRIII and other things (Theta, automotive, industrial etc..). Now that Pentax is a brand name and not a standalone business group, they can stop making Pentax products for a few years, and come back to it when they see that there is a technological breakthrough worth making a new camera model. Other pure play camera leading companies aren't is the same situations, they must make new cameras and new lenses or die.

[repaap]

We shouldn't forget that Pentax is only the brand name of one of the product lines of Ricoh Imaging. They didn't quite stop working on cameras between the K1II release and the K3III, I believe they worked on the Ricoh product lines such as GRIII and other things (Theta, automotive, industrial etc..). Now that Pentax is a brand name and not a standalone business group, they can stop making Pentax products for a few years, and come back to it when they see that there is a technological breakthrough worth making a new camera model. Other pure play camera leading companies aren't is the same situations, they must make new cameras and new lenses or die.

Do you mean companyes, like canon?(does make nice printers too), Panasonic(electric gadget you name it), Sony...you know this propably does leave only couple names on that list of your and that is BS. No mater wha big brand there is, they do have big mother company taking care of them, or not. If you are bored, it is hardly our problem. If you think about even for a small moment what Ricoh has been doing for Pentax brand and how they are making it still and developing hand to hand wih their own products(GR and K-3mk.3 does share things) you know this is just for your own pleasure to argue with these things.


more of my observation from the video we did see...

K-3 mk.III is not hybrid camera, but they seem to have made that difference nore narrow. More interesting is increased performance, which is evident on this video and I suspect that there will be more. There were several pentaxians on that video and I did recognise atleast one who made nice pictures with HD DFA*85 when it was about to be released. On that square he was blasting it away with 85 + K-3 really trying what it is all about. trying to follow football across and action.

[Kunzite]

The ovely long product release phase is not really the problem here. It is just that Pentax has a fairly slow release schedule to begin with. They released the last camera almost exactly 3 years ago - if you consider the K1ii a full release. The last new camera, also the last APS-C release, is KP 4 years ago. K3ii as top of the APS-C family was released almost 6 years ago.
K3iii will be great, so let´s wait a couple more weeks and buy it to support Pentax.

Yes, the slow releases in the last years is a big problem, as it pushed people's patience to the limit.
My guess is they decided to jump on a new generation platform - hardware and software, and releasing new old-tech camera would have slowed that down.

[UncleVanya]

Just an observation. Cyberpunk 2077 was said to be buggy because it was designed around the new platform and most users were forced to use it on the older platform. My son has issues with it on his Xbox One S... but the new Xbox Series X he got in early January made almost all the issues go away. The game was released to users who largely lacked the intended hardware likely because marketing told them they had to make it work due to the slower than anticipated release of the new hardware.

Perception is it was just buggy, reality is more complicated. The same is true about camera releases. Pentax has always been a very cautious company, I suspect the slower than expected release is justified within their risk tolerance.

[deus ursus]

We shouldn't forget that Pentax is only the brand name of one of the product lines of Ricoh Imaging. They didn't quite stop working on cameras between the K1II release and the K3III, I believe they worked on the Ricoh product lines such as GRIII and other things (Theta, automotive, industrial etc..). [...]

Sooo .... What you're saying is that inbetween developing Pentax cameras the guys in the Pentax development team are developing other stuff, like ... copiers?

[termy]

By the way, I'm afraid I don't understand anything relevant from the video... is there anyone who can?

Out in the open, the chap was testing AF. On his friend walking at a quicken pace, and there's one part where it looked as if they tried out the AFC on a small gal on a bicycle.

They were very pleased with the resulting images they managed to capture, commenting that most if not all came out nice and sharp.

when there's "cluttered background", it probably might confuse the AF somewhat.

The AF / AFC portion was the only portion that interest me, thus, didnt pay much attention on other portions.

And yes, the guy did mention "A星八十五" (at the earlier part of the vid), which means "A*85".

NB: naturally, i am just condensing it into the very brief explanation above. If want a detailed thing of what they commented / observed for that portion, will have to go thru it again, as i only went thru it once and noted the main things.

[cdwyz]

Very cool.