[mtkeller]

DPReview's studio comparison tool has some K3 III and KP shots. Although the low-ISO K3 III shots are blurred, the higher ISO shots are good enough for me to draw the conclusion that K3 III is nearly a stop better than KP (and way better than the Fujis).

Yes, the DPR ones where they don’t have the mysterious shutter shock that no one has been able to reproduce as well as some made by Japanese retailers shortly before the release of the K-3 iii show about a stop better performance of the K-3 iii. In particular, the magenta cast as one increases ISO is noticeably worse in the KP, even at moderate ISO levels. That said, the KP’s performance is already quite good, so someone looking purely at improving IQ isn’t going to find a terribly compelling case for the K-3 iii unless they routinely need to use higher ISOs. The OVF, capable AF.C, higher fps, Bluetooth connectivity for geotagging without O-GPS1, and two card slots, however, are distinguishing features from the KP that might make someone pick the K-3 iii. (The ergonomics are also indisputably excellent, which I don’t think anyone has ever claimed about the KP.)

---------- Post added 08-03-21 at 08:10 ----------

but it's overheated very fast . today was around 85 , i was outside camera in shade and was doing macro , as soon i switch to live view it's start overheated . don't kill the messenger ................))))))))))))))

There is something wrong with your camera. I spent hours out hiking in Badlands National Park with temps in the 90s in direct sun and no shade to be found anywhere. Even with Bluetooth on for geotagging almost constantly and occasional live view usage, I never had the camera warn me about heat.

[Lloyd_Christmas]

In his video review:

The other two cameras also got hot. Is a flip out screen really a good heat sink? That's what he is assuming without facts.

The "pinky" finger thing was just ludicrous.

The images turning purple: Could the Sigma coatings be causing this? If so, a firmware update could fix this issue.

---------- Post added 08-03-21 at 09:43 AM ----------

... I never had the camera warn me about heat.

Thanks for posting this!!!!

I have not seen this issue because I have a tendency to overheat way before the camera!!!

I can kind of see his point that weather sealing can have an unwanted consequence (holding heat in)....but even cameras that are NOT weather sealed -> Does the heat escape through those tiny seams between parts? NO.
There would have to be a perforated grill and an internal fan...like a laptop PC. His assumption falls apart here.

Pentax engineers certainly tested this and designed heat sinks. That I can be confident in.

[AfterPentax Mark II]

Thanks for your elaborate answer. But as Ricoh states there is an improvement in image quality it is to Ricoh to proof it. I for one think Ricoh's statement is just a remark you find in a brochure when a new camera, computer or any other apparatus is brought to the market. Just advertorial language. But both nixo2002's and Ricoh's remark are subjective, until proven otherwise. Like you I am not likely to buy the K-3 Mark III, not even as the price drops. And as far as I know I am not a shareholder so it is of no interest to me how good or bad that new camera performs. But the language Ricoh uses to make us interested has the danger in it that people get disappointed in day to day photographing, because the camera they bought is not up to their expectations.

[syyrmb]

In his video review:

The images turning purple: Could the Sigma coatings be causing this? If so, a firmware update could fix this issue.


.

I don't watch his video anymore, but if the "turning purple" thing you're referring to is the magenta cast shown after pushing exposure, that's Adobe (or whatever raw processing software)'s fault, Lightroom just can't set the Black Point right. Rawtherapee users could fix this in a second by changing "Raw Black Point" parameters in the Raw tab. Though I've played with K3 III underexposed sample images with RT and found it just fine.

[house]

Cameraville is not the most accurate or diligent tester. The purple thing is interesting though. I tried a few available raws and they behaved well with rawtherapee. Would be interesting to investigate this further. Is it an Adobe issue or something else? When he did a similar test with the K-1 it crushed the Sony and Nikon. The latter cameras going all strange with the colours.

Edit: oops crossposted with syyrmb above.

[DonV]

Would anyone expect Ricoh to claim that the IQ of the K3iii was the "same" as the KP- I would not; the marketing honcho would have a stroke!

Of course there is practical IQ and "absolute IQ", a term I just made up- which would be measured by a specific test.

I respectfully submit is physically impossible to take the same photo under identical "real world" conditions as requested in a couple posts above with two different bodies with all else being unchanged-
just the time to change the body and re-shoot will result in subtle changes in the conditions of the photo- maybe more maybe less than the difference to be determined by the test. JMHO.

[syyrmb]

Yes, the DPR ones where they don’t have the mysterious shutter shock that no one has been able to reproduce as well as some made by Japanese retailers shortly before the release of the K-3 iii show about a stop better performance of the K-3 iii. In particular, the magenta cast as one increases ISO is noticeably worse in the KP, even at moderate ISO levels. That said, the KP’s performance is already quite good, so someone looking purely at improving IQ isn’t going to find a terribly compelling case for the K-3 iii unless they routinely need to use higher ISOs. The OVF, capable AF.C, higher fps, Bluetooth connectivity for geotagging without O-GPS1, and two card slots, however, are distinguishing features from the KP that might make someone pick the K-3 iii. (The ergonomics are also indisputably excellent, which I don’t think anyone has ever claimed about the KP.)

---------- Post added 08-03-21 at 08:10 ----------



There is something wrong with your camera. I spent hours out hiking in Badlands National Park with temps in the 90s in direct sun and no shade to be found anywhere. Even with Bluetooth on for geotagging almost constantly and occasional live view usage, I never had the camera warn me about heat.

From my limited observation, I believe K3 III's IQ is about as good as you can get on a APS-C sensor for now. It's not just the noise performance is better than KP, but the detail performance also improves, it's not trading noise performance with sharpness, and that's the real deal (to me at least). That said, KP's still good and the high-ISO IQ is very manageable. For its price, KP has the bang for the buck.

[AstroDave]

I respectfully submit is physically impossible to take the same photo under identical "real world" conditions as requested in a couple posts above with two different bodies with all else being unchanged-
just the time to change the body and re-shoot will result in subtle changes in the conditions of the photo- maybe more maybe less than the difference to be determined by the test. JMHO.

Shoot test chart(s) with artificial illumination, using a tripod that doesn't move.

[biz-engineer]

For me, the Pentax K3 mk III looks good, specs and all. The overheating is something to be checked if that's a specific camera unit. The only thing that is a little too high is the price for an apsc camera IMO, but price is not something difficult to adjust over time in case it happens to be too high for its target market. Usually camera prices tend to drop a little over time. Price drop between $1800 and $1600 would look better.

[BigMackCam]

Cameraville is not the most accurate or diligent tester. The purple thing is interesting though. I tried a few available raws and they behaved well with rawtherapee. Would be interesting to investigate this further. Is it an Adobe issue or something else? When he did a similar test with the K-1 it crushed the Sony and Nikon. The latter cameras going all strange with the colours.

I, too, wondered if it was a raw conversion software issue. RawTherapee does very strange purple colour cast things with my Hasselblad HV ARW files. If I run them through Adobe DNG Converter first and load the DNG files into RT instead, they're fine...

Would anyone expect Ricoh to claim that the IQ of the K3iii was the "same" as the KP- I would not; the marketing honcho would have a stroke!

I wouldn't either - but nor would I expect Ricoh to lie outright in their claims. Knowing how some Pentax customers and critics will discover and obsess over the tiniest negative detail, imagine the furore if Ricoh should be found out telling "porkies", and the IQ really is no better I just don't buy it, but I'm absolutely willing to be convinced.

I respectfully submit is physically impossible to take the same photo under identical "real world" conditions as requested in a couple posts above with two different bodies with all else being unchanged-
just the time to change the body and re-shoot will result in subtle changes in the conditions of the photo- maybe more maybe less than the difference to be determined by the test. JMHO.

I've done it frequently in the past, Don, to compare IQ of both cameras and lenses. A sunny, cloudless day is ideal, especially around noon, when a few minutes to swap cameras and transfer the lens has no discernible impact on the light intensity or angle (this is a great time to take colour chart photos for profiling, too). Alternatively, one of those "white-out" days where the sky is obscured by blanket cloud with little or no definition, giving a wonderful diffuse light. You might get a variance of +/- 1/3EV or so, but it's negligible and can be adjusted for with shutter speed. Lastly, as mentioned above, an artificially-lit indoor scene works well. It doesn't have to be a test chart... a room containing various items with coarse and fine details is perfectly serviceable.

The extremely-minor variations resulting from any of these methods are really insignificant, and detract little from non-scientific IQ tests

[Madaboutpix]

Objectivity, reliability, validity: the three hallmarks of meaningful testing. There used to be a time when Li's seemed to be a fresh voice I would occasionally listen to out of curiosity, or for the novelty of it, but I soon came to feel that there were issues with his content in all of the three criteria. I also recall several fishy experiences, to say the least, in the comment sections of his videos.

Needless to say, overheating issues from light use and weird high-ISO colour casts would be worth investigating, but let's see what more qualified and less biased reviewers will have to say on those. At this point, I have no reason to fear that the K-3 III will produce anything but gorgeous and highly malleable DNG files when used with serious Pentax glass, and will give me significantly better high-ISO files than my current K-3. His complaints about the grip ergonomics struck me as plain ridiculous, at least for a medium hand size like mine. There would be a lot more to unpack about this and his other videos, but frankly life seems too short to waste undue time on that.

[c.a.m]

Not a good look..

... for the reviewer, I'd say.

The video features questionable methodologies; uncontrolled, non-repeatable 'tests'; no exploration of the post-processing effects; unproven assumptions; subjective statements; mocking language -- all veiled in a presentation style that aims to impress and convince lay-viewers.

Edit. Posted same time as @Madaboutpix.

- Craig

[house]

I, too, wondered if it was a raw conversion software issue. RawTherapee does very strange purple colour cast things with my Hasselblad HV ARW files. If I run them through Adobe DNG Converter first and load the DNG files into RT instead, they're fine...

Since its free software it relies on users to supply raw files. See Adding Support for New Raw Formats - RawPedia

Perhaps its not properly supported?

[Mbaez]

Needless to say, overheating issues from light use and weird high-ISO colour casts would be worth investigating, but let's see what more qualified and less biased reviewers will have to say on those. At this point, I have no reason to fear that the K-3 III will produce anything but gorgeous and highly malleable DNG files when used with serious Pentax glass, and will give me significantly better high-ISO files than my current K-3. .

I don't know what's going on with the magenta cast in his tests, I just downloaded dPreview's ISO 400 raw (Li used ISO 400 for his test), pushed the shadows and exposure all the way, and I didn't get any cast with ACR CS6. I remember he said the same thing about the K1ii and I didn't see the cast there neither.
Come on people. someone with a K3iii should make a test about the alleged color cast, it's not that complicated to see if it's real or not.

[mysterick]

His manner reminds me of this car salesman on our local TV. In this case "unselling" Pentax.