[clackers]

Yes, same use case as for me when recording my music performances/practice.

Well, no company has ever made a camera just for you, Madbrain, especially just to support a single uninterrupted take.

They make them for the bulk of their customers.

I'd like a K3-III where I can switch off the accelerator noise reduction, but they're not going to stop the production line to accommodate my request!

[madbrain]

Well, no company has ever made a camera just for you, Madbrain, especially just to support a single uninterrupted take.

They make them for the bulk of their customers.

I'd like a K3-III where I can switch off the accelerator noise reduction, but they're not going to stop the production line to accommodate my request!

Of course no manufacturer is making cameras just for me. But recording video uninterrupted isn't some far-fetched use case scenario specific to me. It seems to be sufficiently important to enough people that Panasonic has chosen to allow it. Samsung did on their Note 20 Ultra smartphones, too. Only Pentax knows why they haven't chosen to do the same.

[awscreo]

Would be interesting to see a pro shooter review the video capabilities.

[clackers]

It seems to be sufficiently important to enough people

Obviously not!

[stevebrot]

Certainly not perfect, but recording unattended for 29min29s is a heck of a lot better than 7 minutes. Night and day difference, IMO. One is somewhat usable, at least with a remote control. The other is not.

Remember, on the Nikon, there will be a momentary interruption every 4 GB.

What puzzles me is the purpose for this rant. You started this thread with three questions, one of which is fairly easily answered. The first will be answered by the first owner to read this thread. We already know the pixel dimensions (3840 × 2160) and the 30p frame rate and a bit of math will allow an estimate of minutes to 4 GB. Bit rate is a cool thing to know and will likely be one of the early metrics to surface. Sure enough, by post #11 all three questions are answered and none are a surprise.

In the course of the discussion it becomes clear that it is a no-win proposition for the K-3 because the 4 GB limit would always present well before the 30 minute mark with any "acceptable" bitrate. The 4 GB* and 30 minute limits both being stupid (and in the printed specs), there is no reason for joy in Pentaxland.

Fair enough...buyer beware! If you want to do an extended 30 minute 4K unattended take you had best not buy a K-3iii.


Steve

* I did a bit of sleuthing and near as I can tell, the 4 GB limit comes courtesy of the Milbeaut processors used by both Pentax and Nikon.

[stevebrot]

Would be interesting to see a pro shooter review the video capabilities.

I know that Lauren is very interested in the K-3iii video and may post her assessment at some point. Commercial videography is her career and she is very candid about the plus and minus points of her tools. I suspect that she will be less concerned about 4 GB limits, but more so regarding lack of clean HDMI out. That is the missing video feature I would favor.


Steve

[repaap]

I know that Lauren is very interested in the K-3iii video and may post her assessment at some point. Commercial videography is her career and she is very candid about the plus and minus points of her tools. I suspect that she will be less concerned about 4 GB limits, but more so regarding lack of clean HDMI out. That is the missing video feature I would favor.


Steve

I can clean the display already with my K-1 for HDMI. Only problem so far for me has been that video it self, from HDMI or from SD card has not been good enough. Now from what we have seen, video quality has been increased quite a bit, even if it still is 8-bit 4.2.0 colour. But the thing is, readout from sensor has been increased. It is not ’ideal’ which would be around 100mbit/s but it is not far off. This could mean that HDMI could boost continious shooting up to several hour/untill camera overheat. We will have to see what that HDMI will be able to transfer. If it is restricted to FHD or lower or if it could be even higher? I’m fine with FHD through HDMI. Having flat profile should give quite nice result. From what has been seen so far 4K is perfectly usable from K-3III..

[madbrain]

* I did a bit of sleuthing and near as I can tell, the 4 GB limit comes courtesy of the Milbeaut processors used by both Pentax and Nikon.

Where did you find this info ? I write software for a living, and that has included firmware too. I doubt the type of processor used has much to do with file system operations.
I haven't worked on camera firmware, but there is no reason for file system code to be baked into the chip. This should be something easily fixable in firmware. Many camera manufacturers have updated file system code in firmware over the years to support larger SDXC cards and exFAT, including Pentax on some models. It's probably just lazy programming that they haven't allowed for writing individual files >4GB on those exFAT cards. There is likely no technical reason it can't be done.

[Dave L]

Where did you find this info ? I write software for a living, and that has included firmware too. I doubt the type of processor used has much to do with file system operations.
I haven't worked on camera firmware, but there is no reason for file system code to be baked into the chip. This should be something easily fixable in firmware. Many camera manufacturers have updated file system code in firmware over the years to support larger SDXC cards and exFAT, including Pentax on some models. It's probably just lazy programming that they haven't allowed for writing individual files >4GB on those exFAT cards. There is likely no technical reason it can't be done.

Unless, as mentioned early in the thread, overheating would happen often enough for it to be a problem with this camera in certain environments, and the manual does warn of this possibility in the video section.


Rather than spend more development time and money to 'fix' that problem, and push up the camera cost even more, they may well have made a straightforward business decision to cut out the frills (frills for most of their intended market) and to stick within a predetermined camera size and price point. Similar thinking may have influenced their decision to omit a flippy screen, GPS and even built in flash... all of which would have been useful to some people.

[stevebrot]

I haven't worked on camera firmware, but there is no reason for file system code to be baked into the chip.

There is no reason to assume the 4 GB limit has anything to do with filesystem, at least not that on the SD card. You might want to research what features might be leveraged from the Milbeaut processor and the limitations of those features. Are the same lazy programmers working for both Nikon and Pentax such that Nikon chooses to chunk their video files rather than simply let them go large? (Pretty sure that Canon enforces similar rules.)


Steve

[takumin]

Vlog #30 ?????? PENTAX K-3 Mark III ?Vlog???????? - YouTube

Thank you for watching my video

[madbrain]

Unless, as mentioned early in the thread, overheating would happen often enough for it to be a problem with this camera in certain environments, and the manual does warn of this possibility in the video section.

But the operator could restart the camera manually ASAP, and if they do, the camera must protect itself against that and abort the recording, so it still needs to have a heat sensor to be able to do that.

[gatorguy]

Thank you for watching my video

What lens were you using. I couldn't zoom close enough to read it.

[madbrain]

There is no reason to assume the 4 GB limit has anything to do with filesystem, at least not that on the SD card.

On the contrary, there is every reason to assume that - historical remnants of the FAT32 file system, which limits files to 4GB in size.

You might want to research what features might be leveraged from the Milbeaut processor and the limitations of those features.

Would you mind enlightening me on what you found ?

Are the same lazy programmers working for both Nikon and Pentax such that Nikon chooses to chunk their video files rather than simply let them go large? (Pretty sure that Canon enforces similar rules.)

Clearly not, since Nikon and Pentax implemented things quite differently. One chunks files, while the other records to a single file and then stops.

[Dave L]

But the operator could restart the camera manually ASAP, and if they do, the camera must protect itself against that and abort the recording, so it still needs to have a heat sensor to be able to do that.

You omitted most of my post though i.e. "Rather than spend more development time and money to 'fix' that problem, and push up the camera cost even more, they may well have made a straightforward business decision to cut out the frills (frills for most of their intended market) and to stick within a predetermined camera size and price point. Similar thinking may have influenced their decision to omit a flippy screen, GPS and even built in flash... all of which would have been useful to some people."

And the D850 is a full frame, physically larger and considerably more expensive camera, even more so when first released. Perhaps a K1-iii will in due course satisfy more of your and some others' requirements, perhaps any technical issues can and will be overcome by firmware upgrades in due course, but Ricoh's priorities were clearly elsewhere.