K-3 III First impressions

**K-Three** · 06-06-2021, 05:57 PM - **1 Like**

My tax refund was essentially the purchase price, my wife kept watching me look at it and telling me to get it so she did not have to worry about a Father's Day gift.
My first new body since a new K3 in early 2014; so 7-years. Have mostly been buying glass with my "Fun Money" in the mean time. Arrived Thursday afternoon, writing this on Sunday evening.

Wow, lots to this thing, It's almost intimidating, so many options and possibilities. I know a lot of it is in the K3 I've had, and been using near daily since I bought it. I have that camera set up with the user modes, that I use regularly as starting points, and I rarely stray out of those basic functions. Been spending time getting this new body into similar condition.
It feels good in my hands, as all Pentax bodies have. The extra wheel taking a bit to get used to, so many possibilities!
Already had the latest v1.01 firmware, some of the first electronic gear I've bought in a while that did not need an immediate upgrade.

The touch screen is nice, when I remember to use it, too used to the 4-way controller for menu navigation.

Am blown away with the higher ISO capability, Attached photo was just messing around indoors, Tesla napping on my wife's lap, a single reading lamp,

ISO 12800(!), 1/125th @2.8, cropped down too. Little to no noise, Need to mess with this more, find acceptable limits, I've rarely shot the K3 above 10,000. Can see good use with longer lenses and chasing birds.

The big back screen is very nice, ability to brighten/darken it good too, (I don't think my K3 does?)

Some (very) minor nits:
The touch screen does not seem sensitive enough in the corners, get good action from it in the center, but fail to make contact in the corners frequently, might be me, I have similar issues with my iPhone.
Why, oh why, did they have to switch the card slots? 7-years of muscle memory pulling out the front (#1) card from the K3, now #1 is closest to the back.
I want the joy stick to do more than control the focus points, (maybe it can?) seems like another good menu navigation tool, especially with gloves on?
A bit annoyed with no stand-alone battery charger, understand cost cutting, but on a higher end camera? I have a couple already, but for someone not already in the Pentax ecosystem, it's barrier.
It came set to record jpeg, and I shot a few with it that way before noticing, then switched to RAW, but did not check the RAW format, default is PEF, so I ended up with a bunch of unreadable images in anything but DCU5, which is still the buggy, unfinished, unintuitive, crash prone piece of software I remember. Really surprised Adobe is not supporting the K3III files yet (didn't their DNG converter used to work on PEFs?). Apple, I'd be surprised if they ever do. Have it set to DNG now and all is good, working friendly with OS X Photos, my main image handler now.

Still lots of exploring and testing to go, I'd like to hear other's reactions to this new bit of gear,
I need some time and decent weather to try out the pixel shift and also get some birding done, see how it likes long lenses, and get the focusing tuned. Expect some fun times ahead with it.

Tesla · 06-06-2021, 06:44 PM

Enjoy your new camera! I just got mine a couple of weeks ago. I'm having fun learning everything. Nice shot of your cat. I like his name!

**K-Three** · 06-06-2021, 06:50 PM

Originally posted by Tesla

Nice shot of your cat. I like his name

My Son's doing, Named for the inventor, not the cars,
We're on Bainbridge, what corner of the Evergreen State are you in?

Tesla · 06-06-2021, 06:59 PM

Originally posted by K-Three

My Son's doing, Named for the inventor, not the cars,
We're on Bainbridge, what corner of the Evergreen State are you in?

I'm also using the name because of the Inventor. I had a cat named Tesla, and so did my cousin. I live near Arlington in Snohomish County.

**aslyfox** · 06-06-2021, 09:57 PM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by K-Three

. . . I'd like to hear other's reactions to this new bit of gear, . . .

this thread might be of interest to the OP

Originally posted by FozzFoster

I'm patiently sitting here watching my K-3 III charge.
Figured I'd talk about my short time using it with the battery's pre-charge.

Initial Reaction:. . .

Initial Reaction: K-3 III - Page 16 - PentaxForums.com

mtkeller · 06-06-2021, 11:19 PM - **1 Like**

Regarding Adobe support, they release updates to Lightroom/Photoshop/Adobe Camera Raw quarterly, and you don’t get anything other than critical bug fixes in between. Next update is due in late June/early July. I have zero doubt that the K-3 iii will be fully supported for PEF and that we’ll have the Adobe ____ raw profiles. Hopefully some camera matching profiles. Ideally, we’ll get some fancy profiles that match the various Custom Image settings, but I am not holding my breat.

**K-Three** · 06-07-2021, 05:00 PM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by K-Three

did not need an immediate upgrade.

Almost as soon as I wrote that, v1.02 was announced,
I should know better,

hongman · 06-18-2021, 03:54 AM

Sounds like you are in for some fun.. Thanks for your initial thoughts, and Tesla looks like a good kitty too..!

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06-06-2021, 05:57 PM - 1 Like	#1
K-Three Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: May 2014 Location: Pugetopolis, WA Photos: Gallery Posts: 938	K-3 III First impressions My tax refund was essentially the purchase price, my wife kept watching me look at it and telling me to get it so she did not have to worry about a Father's Day gift. My first new body since a new K3 in early 2014; so 7-years. Have mostly been buying glass with my "Fun Money" in the mean time. Arrived Thursday afternoon, writing this on Sunday evening. Wow, lots to this thing, It's almost intimidating, so many options and possibilities. I know a lot of it is in the K3 I've had, and been using near daily since I bought it. I have that camera set up with the user modes, that I use regularly as starting points, and I rarely stray out of those basic functions. Been spending time getting this new body into similar condition. It feels good in my hands, as all Pentax bodies have. The extra wheel taking a bit to get used to, so many possibilities! Already had the latest v1.01 firmware, some of the first electronic gear I've bought in a while that did not need an immediate upgrade. The touch screen is nice, when I remember to use it, too used to the 4-way controller for menu navigation. Am blown away with the higher ISO capability, Attached photo was just messing around indoors, Tesla napping on my wife's lap, a single reading lamp, ISO 12800(!), 1/125th @2.8, cropped down too. Little to no noise, Need to mess with this more, find acceptable limits, I've rarely shot the K3 above 10,000. Can see good use with longer lenses and chasing birds. The big back screen is very nice, ability to brighten/darken it good too, (I don't think my K3 does?) Some (very) minor nits: The touch screen does not seem sensitive enough in the corners, get good action from it in the center, but fail to make contact in the corners frequently, might be me, I have similar issues with my iPhone. Why, oh why, did they have to switch the card slots? 7-years of muscle memory pulling out the front (#1) card from the K3, now #1 is closest to the back. I want the joy stick to do more than control the focus points, (maybe it can?) seems like another good menu navigation tool, especially with gloves on? A bit annoyed with no stand-alone battery charger, understand cost cutting, but on a higher end camera? I have a couple already, but for someone not already in the Pentax ecosystem, it's barrier. It came set to record jpeg, and I shot a few with it that way before noticing, then switched to RAW, but did not check the RAW format, default is PEF, so I ended up with a bunch of unreadable images in anything but DCU5, which is still the buggy, unfinished, unintuitive, crash prone piece of software I remember. Really surprised Adobe is not supporting the K3III files yet (didn't their DNG converter used to work on PEFs?). Apple, I'd be surprised if they ever do. Have it set to DNG now and all is good, working friendly with OS X Photos, my main image handler now. Still lots of exploring and testing to go, I'd like to hear other's reactions to this new bit of gear, I need some time and decent weather to try out the pixel shift and also get some birding done, see how it likes long lenses, and get the focusing tuned. Expect some fun times ahead with it.

06-06-2021, 06:44 PM	#2
Tesla Pentaxian Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Washington State Posts: 589	Enjoy your new camera! I just got mine a couple of weeks ago. I'm having fun learning everything. Nice shot of your cat. I like his name!

06-06-2021, 06:50 PM	#3
K-Three Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: May 2014 Location: Pugetopolis, WA Photos: Gallery Posts: 938 Original Poster	Originally posted by Tesla Nice shot of your cat. I like his name My Son's doing, Named for the inventor, not the cars, We're on Bainbridge, what corner of the Evergreen State are you in?

06-06-2021, 06:59 PM	#4
Tesla Pentaxian Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Washington State Posts: 589	Originally posted by K-Three My Son's doing, Named for the inventor, not the cars, We're on Bainbridge, what corner of the Evergreen State are you in? I'm also using the name because of the Inventor. I had a cat named Tesla, and so did my cousin. I live near Arlington in Snohomish County.

06-06-2021, 09:57 PM - 1 Like	#5
aslyfox Seeker of Knowledge Join Date: Aug 2016 Location: Topeka, Kansas Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 24,581	Originally posted by K-Three . . . I'd like to hear other's reactions to this new bit of gear, . . . this thread might be of interest to the OP Originally posted by FozzFoster I'm patiently sitting here watching my K-3 III charge. Figured I'd talk about my short time using it with the battery's pre-charge. Initial Reaction:. . . Initial Reaction: K-3 III - Page 16 - PentaxForums.com

06-06-2021, 11:19 PM - 1 Like	#6
mtkeller Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2019 Location: Sioux City, IA Photos: Gallery Posts: 938	Regarding Adobe support, they release updates to Lightroom/Photoshop/Adobe Camera Raw quarterly, and you don’t get anything other than critical bug fixes in between. Next update is due in late June/early July. I have zero doubt that the K-3 iii will be fully supported for PEF and that we’ll have the Adobe ____ raw profiles. Hopefully some camera matching profiles. Ideally, we’ll get some fancy profiles that match the various Custom Image settings, but I am not holding my breat.

06-07-2021, 05:00 PM - 1 Like	#7
K-Three Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: May 2014 Location: Pugetopolis, WA Photos: Gallery Posts: 938 Original Poster	Originally posted by K-Three did not need an immediate upgrade. Almost as soon as I wrote that, v1.02 was announced, I should know better,

06-18-2021, 03:54 AM	#8
hongman Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2012 Posts: 300	Sounds like you are in for some fun.. Thanks for your initial thoughts, and Tesla looks like a good kitty too..!