[Robot camera]

Their review will be so biased as to be unusable, so why do you factor it in to your process?

dansamy, and CDW, I'm after the noise test results, which give actual figures. I already have figures for my K20D and the K5 (and other competitors to the K5) which I gathered when my brother was after a DSLR. I'm a bit of a one for low light photography and I have reached the limit of what the K20D can do. My brother went for the K5, by the way.

Written opinions are one thing, but test results with numbers and comparison photos that I can examine are evidence. In any event, I have been reading test reports for over forty years now and know how to read between the lines.

[Joojoo2010]

K3 did get 2x or more votes than any other dsrl model!! Looks like pentaxricoh knows better than others what they are doing

[normhead]

It's simple why viewers voted it the camera of the year. Canon and Nikon have stopped bringing their innovation to APS-c, they've fallen behind, and their customers want to give them a kick in the pants and tell them to catch up. IN body SR alone is worth hundreds of dollars per lens in the real world. The AA filter, though a gimmick, that many of us will never use, is fantastic PR, and 24 Mp brings APS-c up to the resolution of most FFs. That doesn't mean that any of these folks are about to switch, but it does mean they like what they see.

Even though it looks from some posts that some folks would happier if Pentax had been buried in a landslide, so they could have said "I told you this would happen and here's why it happened.. blah blah blah". All I can say is my condolences. Maybe Pentax will lose the next poll and you can have your say. I know it would kill you to say something nice about Pentax, so it's good you were able to dwell on the negative even though Pentax came out on top, ... tough luck this time, but these things happen.

[rbefly]

I'm not sure why so many people still take DPR reviews, or lack of them, so seriously, as if they are the Holy Grail of photography reviews. They are not. DPR, along with DXOMark, Imaging-Resource, and any number of other sites, offer enough viewpoints on any given product that one can pretty much get a real sense of a camera's worth. You don't have to wait for DPR to give it a blessing

Hello CDW,
I didn't want to see a K-3 full review released before the poll for the actual content, but to represent fairness and equal treatment. Although some may disagree, I view DPR as very snobbish and unfriendly towards Pentax, not quite a P-hater, but not far from the mark. This shows in many ways, some subtle, others (like the omission of a full review when three Nikon offerings, all released after the K-3, were reviewed and on the poll), glaringly obvious. Members (both here and on DPR) believe the recent Gold awards to the K-5II and K-5IIs (IIRC) were indications that things may be changing, whereas I see them as tokenism and 'too little, too late'.
Whatever your viewpoint, it remains clear that DPR made a huge error by the delay, to a camera that won such a landslide victory on their own poll. The half-hearted semi-apology and promise of a review 'soon' on the poll final commentary is proof of that awareness. If it also serves as a rude awakening for their onerous and dismissive editorial policy, so much the better! One can only hope.
As far as the upcoming review being a blessing, ain't gonna' happen. The 2 major competitors, Nikon D7100 (85% overall) and Canon 70D (83% overall) are the benchmark for APS-C and you can nearly bet the K-3 won't top those numbers. Whether the unspoken reason is direct advertising $$, editorial policy, pressure from Amazon sales and ad income, brand/snob appeal or readership/membership number-crunching, who knows? The only way the K-3 would be awarded a score higher than 85% is if DPR felt they had to prod Nikon or Canon to 'catch up' with the many features and advancements (or, find similar ones they could claim as original) of the K-3.
And I don't think DPR is in the position of 'telling' Canikon anything, quite the opposite.
So, while the new review may laud and praise the many new features, they will somehow find a way to award the K-3 an 82% overall. Good, but not as good as a real camera.
Same as it ever was.
JMO YMMV
Ron

[normhead]

So, while the new review may laud and praise the many new features, they will somehow find a way to award the K-3 an 82% overall. Good, but not as good as a real camera.
Same as it ever was.

Ya, but they haven't even finished the review yet, so how exactly does that work?

[monochrome]

@Ron:

The price of being different is wearing the disdain of the Romans as a Badge of Honor. The joy of being different is when a Roman tells you, under his breath in a private moment, "It takes a lot of brass to shoot Pentax, even if it is the better camera."

Of course, the Roman then hangs you by your toes from the nearest tree and "liberates" your Pentax.

Pretty cynical set of replies, no? Just thought it was valuable pr.

[normhead]

Pretty cynical set of replies, no? Just thought it was valuable pr.

Some people just hate valuable PR.
They want their version of "reality", it may not have anything to do with everyone else's reality, but at least it's theirs.

[rbefly]

Ya, but they haven't even finished the review yet, so how exactly does that work?

Hi Norm,
By using the word 'somehow', I was being kind. Another word could be, by 'cheating' or 'lying', perhaps minimizing the good features, maximizing the other points like lens selection, flash sync max speed, lack of dealer support, lack of 3rd party support, etc. Overlooking (deliberately or otherwise, your call) features as they have in the past (user mode, in camera shake reduction, green button, TAv mode, many more) by 'mistake' or genuine unfamiliarity with the brand.
In other words, everything they've done in the past, only this time they'll have to work a little harder.
Then again, they've had more time.
I'm not a cynic, I just have a good memory.
@ Monochrome, I'm happy to pay that price. I just won't do it in silence.
Ron

[7samurai]

I can't wait to see Pentax start advertising "Voted Best DSLR for 2013 (dpreview)".
How it got the votes doesn't matter. People won't remember it in a few weeks. But the title will hang around through 2014.
If it gets more people to look at Pentax, I'm all for it. You can't ignore the momentum this gives Pentax.

[Kunzite]

Interesting... DPReview has now a new poll, "Which is the best of the best? Vote for your product of the year" - in which you can vote one of the winners in each category.
Right now it's:

Fujifilm X100S 22.3%
Olympus OM-D E-M1 34.3%
Pentax K-3 21.2%
Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM | Art 11.7%
Sony Cyber-shot RX100 II 10.6%

[monochrome]

Darn. We should have paid those vote gnomes for another month.

[zmohie]

Interesting... DPReview has now a new poll, "Which is the best of the best? Vote for your product of the year" - in which you can vote one of the winners in each category.
Right now it's:

Fujifilm X100S 22.3%
Olympus OM-D E-M1 34.3%
Pentax K-3 21.2%
Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM | Art 11.7%
Sony Cyber-shot RX100 II 10.6%

I think DPR stuff do not want k3 to be a winner!
k3 is the winner in the former poll though DPR now pass on best of the best then best of the winners and so on!!!

[Kunzite]

Darn. We should have paid those vote gnomes for another month.

I don't know about gnomes, but - if the need arises - I think I can gather 13 dwarves and a burglar.

[monochrome]

I really don't think the K-mount qualifies as One Ring to Rule Them All