[Winder]

I have shot 1300 frames using my old K-5 battery. I had read that battery life was a lot shorter on the K-3, but I think that is worst case. I don't use the AA filter or LiveView and I bet they both consume a lot of power. I'm still showing 2/3 power, but I'm not sure how accurate the battery meter is.

I'm not liking the mode dial lock switch. I use a Black Rapid strap and the camera hangs to my right with the grip up. The lever brushes against my coat and unlocks and then the dial moves. I never had a problem with the metering switch moving or the old dial lock. I'm not sure this is an improvement. I set it on U1 and locked it and twice I found it unlocked and once my mode switched to U2 without me knowing.

Image quality is very good. This shot is at ISO 1000 in a convention center (Mercury Vapor bulbs) and you can see finger prints on the jar. The JPEG appears to be showing color moire in the black cloth, but its not showing up in LR on the original. The SR is good enough that I could "sample" around 20 different bourbons and still get sharp shots.

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[mattt]

Hah, bourbon doesn't give you the shakes until the next morning

[JinDesu]

You sound like you are really liking this camera!

[Dr_who]

1300 frames and you only post one image. Your such a tease!

[Kunzite]

1300 frames and only one image - that's an awful keeper rate, Pentax is doomed!
Someone had to say it Have fun with the camera!

[Col]

1300 frames and only one image - that's an awful keeper rate, Pentax is doomed!
Someone had to say it Have fun with the camera!

You're going to hurt his feelings if you've taken no notice of his AF-C thread. That's at least 5 more... keeper rate taken a large jump.

[rawr]

I had read that battery life was a lot shorter on the K-3

720 images is what they say for the K-3, without flash usage, but it's never exactly clear what they include in the testing re LiveView, AF assist light, top LCD illumination, type of lens mounted, in-camera processing options etc.

I was a bit worried that all the extra processing horsepower and electronic doodads in the K-3 would turn it into a battery hog. If you've gotten 1300 frames out of it, with juice still left in the battery, that's very promising indeed.

[Col]

720 images is what they say for the K-3, without flash usage, but it's never exactly clear what they include in the testing re LiveView, AF assist light, top LCD illumination, type of lens mounted, in-camera processing options etc.

I was a bit worried that all the extra processing horsepower and electronic doodads in the K-3 would turn it into a battery hog. If you've gotten 1300 frames out of it, with juice still left in the battery, that's very promising indeed.

Here you go... have fun http://www.cipa.jp/english/hyoujunka/kikaku/pdf/DC-002_e.pdf

[rawr]

Here you go... have fun http://www.cipa.jp/english/hyoujunka...f/DC-002_e.pdf

Thanks! So basically most of the factory defaults would be 'On' when doing the CIPA battery usage tests.

So if you turned off all the defaults for focus assist, top panel LCD light, instant review on the rear LCD etc, battery life would probably improve even further. But stuff like whether you use a screw drive or SDM/HSM lens falls outside of the CIPA test scope. (I've found SDM/HSM does suck more juice than screw-drive after a few hours of continuous use).

[RonHendriks1966]

Great, looks like a descent camera from the guys from Ricoh

[calsan]

Thanks for the good news on battery life.
I had been concerned - unnecessarily!