[southlander]

My other lens that has similar but not so serious issue with K-3 III is F135.

I wonder if the F135 has a few quirks with how it integrates with the camera’s AF systems. A couple of years back I bought one from a member on this forum but struggled to get it to reliably focus with my K-1. Particularly in live view I seem to recall, which surprised me. In the end, I returned it to the seller. I had a couple of theories as to what might have been the cause, it was ultimately just speculation.

[pjsaure]

I have a Pentax K3III too.
When I see so many problems due to its decalibration, I realize that mirrorless is the perfect solution, and OM-1 is fantastic for wildlife, as I have seen in so many reviews and opinions.

Be cautious with reviews. The OM-1 seems to be a great camera, and I kind of regret buying a OM-D E-M1 Mark III recently for my partner.
But a few years ago, I gifted her an original E-M1 as an upgrade for her E-M5 mainly because AF was supposed to be so much better. Yeah, right… Turned out to be barely any better, and I honestly even preferred my K-5 IIs AF with the HD 55-300 for wildlife, that’s saying something. I had a much better keeper rate, even for birds in flight.
The MkIII is definitely better in this regard, but still not as much as I hoped it would be based on some reviews.

[StigVidar]

Be cautious with reviews. The OM-1 seems to be a great camera, and I kind of regret buying a OM-D E-M1 Mark III recently for my partner.
But a few years ago, I gifted her an original E-M1 as an upgrade for her E-M5 mainly because AF was supposed to be so much better. Yeah, right… Turned out to be barely any better, and I honestly even preferred my K-5 IIs AF with the HD 55-300 for wildlife, that’s saying something. I had a much better keeper rate, even for birds in flight.
The MkIII is definitely better in this regard, but still not as much as I hoped it would be based on some reviews.

In my opinion, K-5 IIs was one of the better from Pentax regarding AF and for me it was a step back when it was replaced with a K-3. I ended up with buying a used K-5 II.

[repaap]

To me it seems very weird that there is ’so many’ decalibration problems? Then again only lens giving me any problems so far has been my HDTC1.4 … and now that serms to be solved with new FW. Then again. None of my previous cameras had any that kind of problems.. What I mean is that is there really so many problems? Really, especially with this K-3III?

[kodai84]

Same here with 1.41.
I won't be doing anything about it, though.
The logistics and heartache just aren't worth the bother for one lens - that possibly won't behave any differently when it comes back.
All my other lenses are fine.

If it's just one lens that you can't seem to get working, one thing you might try before sending it in for repair would be to try cleaning the contacts between the lens and the camera first (just to eliminate the "low-hanging fruit").

[house]

What I mean is that is there really so many problems? Really, especially with this K-3III?

The curious thing is that most of the reports are about specific lenses that work on on other bodies.Perhaps there's more lens specific af software in firmware than I imagined. The only explanation I can think of is that the all new software isn't tuned well enough for all lenses yet.

[Mutters]

If it's just one lens that you can't seem to get working, one thing you might try before sending it in for repair would be to try cleaning the contacts between the lens and the camera first (just to eliminate the "low-hanging fruit").

It's not that it doesn't work, but the inconsistencies in establishing focus.
Thanks for your advice - worth a look!

[phoebus]

For wildlife we must move to Olympus OM-1, this is the best solution.

Maybe, I hope it is easier to live with than the M1x: Which I found to be a technically amazing camera, produced good images most of the time, but the viewfinder was not brilliant and the focussing was not always as perfect as advertised. My biggest dislike was the time it took from putting the camera up to your eye .. to getting a usable image in the viewfinder. Unless you disabled any power saving, there was a period of black screen while it restarted. The K-3iii is not perfect, and the DA* 300 is not quite as good as the Olympus 300, but I can acquire a target (bird, plane, what ever) and track it while simultaneously turning on the camera, getting focus and preparing to take a shot.

I’ve still got the 300 and 12-100 (currently acquired by my wife for her M1ii) so maybe I’ll have another go with OM for wildlife eventually.

What I find surprising about the K-3iii is how many of my lenses required fine tuning. My K-1 can reliably focus pretty much any with 0 adjustment.

[idontstairs]

1) did you reset either the AF adjustments in the menu or reset the whole camera? Many of us have discovered that for whatever reason, it seems to be a necessity after a firmware update.
2) The update says nothing about Live View. The improvment is for AF accuracy and stability for OVF shooting only.
It is possible that there is an issue with your particular K-3 III but I would reset it first and go from there.

Sorry af.c auto through the viewfinder is 100% constant failure. Looks like someone smeared vaseline on the 15mm lens. -10 all the way to +10 doesn't fix focus. two copies of the 15mm limited neither work on my k-3iii.

FA* 50mm F/1.4 is also the same when focusing. low and to the left if something moves from right to left. i can try to photograph a huge freight train and the camera with af.c to the closest thing, the ground, and never even try to focus on a moving freight train. low and to the left. on the ground. live view. or through the viewfinder. still doesn't select auto focus points at all sometimes. firmware 1.41.


my k-3iii has become the worst thing i ever spent $2,437.00 on.

---------- Post added 03-12-22 at 08:27 PM ----------

AF improvement in this FW is in OVF mode, not in LV. Other than that I don’t know..but this is what you can read from Ricoh page when you look at what they have improved

Sorry I should have made it clear that focusing my 15mm limited lens, both copies, through the viewfinder of my k-3iii result in images that look like someone has smeared vaseline all over the lens. someone said increase you depth of field. lol. i can use my fujifilm x100v and shoot at f2.2 with a softening filter on the lens and it is still sharper and has more depth of field than anything either of my 15mm limited lenses can do. i have used a lens calibration chart and tried from -10 all the way to +10 on both lenses and neither did anything.

the 15mm lenses work fine on my KP, K3, and k5-II, besides the known soft in the corner issues. the lenses work in af.c on all 3 of those cameras. through the viewfinder.

i didn't see any improvements in auto focus on my k-3iii solely using the viewfinder a couple of days after my original reply.

the camera still focuses on the closest object and if the focal point is in between the huge gaps in the auto focus points it won't even select an auto focus point.

[tduell]

I took my K-3 Mark III and DFA 150-450 out for the first time since upgrading firmware to v1.41, and most, but not all, shots using AF-C were badly out of focus. There were subjects that were quite clear of everything except in the lower 5% of image, and even though I focused on the main subject, focus ended up on the closer item in the lower part.
I've not had the camera behave like this prior to v1.41, but can't say for sure that it's due to v1.41, I may have been having a bad day.
Probably need to do some careful testing.

Cheers,
Terry

[ThorSanchez]

Yesterday I set up my calibration target and checked out the K-3 Mark III with the 55-300 PLM, the 20-40 LTD, and the DA 21mm LTD. They were all spot-on with no adjustments, except for the 21 which I tweaked one notch to the left. Almost no change whatsoever from the calibration with previous firmware version(s).

---------- Post added 03-13-22 at 11:24 AM ----------

Sorry af.c auto through the viewfinder is 100% constant failure. Looks like someone smeared vaseline on the 15mm lens. -10 all the way to +10 doesn't fix focus. two copies of the 15mm limited neither work on my k-3iii.

FA* 50mm F/1.4 is also the same when focusing. low and to the left if something moves from right to left. i can try to photograph a huge freight train and the camera with af.c to the closest thing, the ground, and never even try to focus on a moving freight train. low and to the left. on the ground. live view. or through the viewfinder. still doesn't select auto focus points at all sometimes. firmware 1.41.


my k-3iii has become the worst thing i ever spent $2,437.00 on.

---------- Post added 03-12-22 at 08:27 PM ----------



Sorry I should have made it clear that focusing my 15mm limited lens, both copies, through the viewfinder of my k-3iii result in images that look like someone has smeared vaseline all over the lens. someone said increase you depth of field. lol. i can use my fujifilm x100v and shoot at f2.2 with a softening filter on the lens and it is still sharper and has more depth of field than anything either of my 15mm limited lenses can do. i have used a lens calibration chart and tried from -10 all the way to +10 on both lenses and neither did anything.

the 15mm lenses work fine on my KP, K3, and k5-II, besides the known soft in the corner issues. the lenses work in af.c on all 3 of those cameras. through the viewfinder.

i didn't see any improvements in auto focus on my k-3iii solely using the viewfinder a couple of days after my original reply.

the camera still focuses on the closest object and if the focal point is in between the huge gaps in the auto focus points it won't even select an auto focus point.

Certainly sounds like your camera is in need of repair or factory adjustment. Sorry.

As I'm typing I have my Mark III sitting in front of me with the 15mm LTD mounted. I took a couple test shots and they appear sharp and in-focus using the OVF and whatever autofocus fine adjustment I dialed in with software version 1.21, if I recall correctly. Haven't touched that for the 15mm in a few versions.

[Mikesul]

Srry to hear that you are having problems. I have been using 1.41 on several of my lenses without problems. To check I took out my 15 and my 150-450. Both performed perfectly. I checked both a several apertures and the 150-450 throughout its range. It looks like the problem is something with your set up, not the firmware.

[repaap]

Sorry af.c auto through the viewfinder is 100% constant failure. Looks like someone smeared vaseline on the 15mm lens. -10 all the way to +10 doesn't fix focus. two copies of the 15mm limited neither work on my k-3iii.

FA* 50mm F/1.4 is also the same when focusing. low and to the left if something moves from right to left. i can try to photograph a huge freight train and the camera with af.c to the closest thing, the ground, and never even try to focus on a moving freight train. low and to the left. on the ground. live view. or through the viewfinder. still doesn't select auto focus points at all sometimes. firmware 1.41.


my k-3iii has become the worst thing i ever spent $2,437.00 on.

---------- Post added 03-12-22 at 08:27 PM ----------



Sorry I should have made it clear that focusing my 15mm limited lens, both copies, through the viewfinder of my k-3iii result in images that look like someone has smeared vaseline all over the lens. someone said increase you depth of field. lol. i can use my fujifilm x100v and shoot at f2.2 with a softening filter on the lens and it is still sharper and has more depth of field than anything either of my 15mm limited lenses can do. i have used a lens calibration chart and tried from -10 all the way to +10 on both lenses and neither did anything.

the 15mm lenses work fine on my KP, K3, and k5-II, besides the known soft in the corner issues. the lenses work in af.c on all 3 of those cameras. through the viewfinder.

i didn't see any improvements in auto focus on my k-3iii solely using the viewfinder a couple of days after my original reply.

the camera still focuses on the closest object and if the focal point is in between the huge gaps in the auto focus points it won't even select an auto focus point.

Alright, sorry to hear it. Even if my K-3III does work very well, does not necessarily mean that yours does. Perhaps somethign is off, sounds like it. I have only FA limiteds and they seem to be okay, and A speed is what it has been...what is odd is that cargo train thing, like really. Hope that you'll get it fixed

[phoebus]

Sorry af.c auto through the viewfinder is 100% constant failure. Looks like someone smeared vaseline on the 15mm lens. -10 all the way to +10 doesn't fix focus. two copies of the 15mm limited neither work on my k-3iii.....

Just a quick question. Why are you using AF C with a wide angle lens that is only truly sharp in the centre and has field curvature? AF S single spot on what you want in focus would make more sense to me. I've used the DA15 Ltd on my K-3iii and not had any issue using AF S. AF C generally uses multiple points and therefore I suspect it never finds a good solution with the complex image produced by the DA 15. Even if the target is moving, with an F4 wideangle, the DoF is massive compared to the time the K-3iii takes to focus in AF S.

[kshapero]

Yes. I am.