There is article in the April issue of Nippon Camera about using old lenses on the K-3 III. The camera itself was reviewed in the March issue, so this is not about the specification of the camera so much a hands-on experience of using different generations of lens on the camera.
The article points out a few things that make the camera more usable than previous ones for using legacy lenses.
- The ability to set the aperture and use Av and /TAv modes. Also the new behavior in live view mode to let you better preview the image without needing to press a preview button. The user had tried this with Pentax and other brand lenses, as well as adapted medium format lenses. He also liked that FA lenses can now be used with the aperture ring, should you prefer that.
- The use of the five user modes. The article describes how you can set a user mode to correspond to the settings for one of your manual lenses. It means you have a physical switch that can immediately set the focal length and any other customizations you want for that lens. It is possible to name each user mode Ito anything presumably, but one idea is to name it after the specific lens. For example, there was a photo of screen for a user who had names User 1 mode “50/1.4” and User 2 “34/2” and so on. This strikes me as being a very convenient method.
- The last point is just the ease of using the larger OVF, which makes focusing a lot easier.
Combined with all the focusing aids (CIF edge outline, SR, etc.) and other convenient features we are used to, it seems like using legacy lenses will be a real pleasure.
In my case, I went through a phase of buying some M and A series lenses. I liked them and was generally happy with the results, but I always found myself using newer lenses over them because of all the button presses required to set them up. It looks like the K-3 III will make this a lot easier. The one I miss most is the M 135/3.5. It was not a fancy lens, but something that doesn’t have a compact modern equivalent. I can see this rekindling my interest in those old used lenses.
Do you have any lenses you’ll be using with the K-3 III? I’m interested in which ones would be good to pick up for use on APS-C.
Last edited by JPT; 03-19-2021 at 09:50 PM.