[AquaDome]

The viewfinder screen of your K-3 is actually plastic, not glass. Don't use alcohol to clean it or it will turn white. Trust me on this.

[Larrymc]

Yes looks grainy and almost like a a finger print ridge pattern at top and bottom but they are not finger prints. iv'e also noticed what could be dust or could they just be larger speckles on the finder. or am i just to fussy ?

You're not fussy at all. You can get trash on top of the focus screen and it will show up in the view finder but not in the photo. If you have set your diopter correctly when you look through the view there should be very little graininess. To set your diopter use a prime lens and auto focus on a well defined target then rotate the little wheel just to the upper left of the red LV (live view) button while looking through the view finder till you get the proper diopter focus

The focus screen can be removed and then cleaned with a lint free lens cloth, you just have to work carefully and pay attention to how everything fits back. Stay away from andy sort of chemical to clean the screen. I had to clean the focus screen on my K-50 but so far not my K-3. here is a link to how to remove the focus screen on a K-10 and my K-50 was exactly the same and I suspect the K-3 is too. quite simple to do --Pentax K5/K7/K10D/K20D/K30/K50/ISTD/K-S1/K-S2 Focusing Screen Installation Instruction-- or take it to a shop and pay to get it cleaned.


Larry

[JimJohnson]

To set your diopter use a prime lens and auto focus on a well defined target then rotate the little wheel just to the upper left of the red LV (live view) button while looking through the view finder till you get the proper diopter focus
Larry

I have found it more reliable to actually remove the lens, half-press the shutter release button to turn on the in-viewfinder data display, and adjust the diopter so that the displayed text is sharpest.The data is supposed to appear sharp at all times regardless whether the lens is correctly focused. Removing the lens avoids any distractions from the scene.

Viewing a scene through the lens to set the viewfinder diopter assumes that AF is dead-on for that lens, when in fact you may need to tweak auto-focus in the menu.

[Larrymc]

I have found it more reliable to actually remove the lens, half-press the shutter release button to turn on the in-viewfinder data display, and adjust the diopter so that the displayed text is sharpest.The data is supposed to appear sharp at all times regardless whether the lens is correctly focused. Removing the lens avoids any distractions from the scene.

Viewing a scene through the lens to set the viewfinder diopter assumes that AF is dead-on for that lens, when in fact you may need to tweak auto-focus in the menu.

Sounds reasonable