[hjoseph7]

What would you have done differently on the new K-3 III ?. The upgrade is good, but could have been better in my opinion...

[pschlute]

What would you have done differently on the new K-3 III ?. The upgrade is good, but could have been better in my opinion...

Please share your wisdom

[stevebrot]

Please share your wisdom

What they said ^ ^ ^


Steve

[MikeStnly]

I am quite happy with mine. I have stopped obsessing over the equipment and reviews. Now I just read and watch videos on technique and how to capture better photos - there is so much in the camera to learn - different types of bracketing, interval shooting, double exposures... why worry about something that could have been better when there is so much to utilise as it is - it will probably take a year to become proficient with all the features.

[gatorguy]

Nothing about the K3III design bothers me. The layout of controls isn't cramped as it can be on other bodies, button placement is logical with enough room between them to avoid accidental presses (for the most part). Excellent balance with the newer Pentax glass, nice weight and feel, premium materials and build. Excellent grip....

I can't really think of anything that needs improvement in that regard.

[cmohr]

I wish the dial that goes from photo to LV then Movie was like the K-1's.

[Joetitch]

Way too many AF points. That silly joy stick. The over large pentaprism hump. The OVF which is too bright outside in the sun. I need to get a job in the design department of Pentax so that they can get it right for once. Did I mention the screen which has a wide viewing angle which allows people to see what I'm doing over my shoulder?🤪

[ivar_bg]

A normal pentaprism, built in flash and tilting screen...

[MikeStnly]

I wish the dial that goes from photo to LV then Movie was like the K-1's.

You can program a button for 'one touch LV' Then you don't need to use the dial.

[cmohr]

You can program a button for 'one touch LV' Then you don't need to use the dial.

Exactly what I did about 10mins after I got the camera. So the dial becomes basically superfluous. They could have left "Movie Mode" on the Mode dial, Thus as I said, that dial would have been better if it was like the K-1.

[ehrwien]

I think the play button is in a weird spot, not that easy to reach between the wheel and the rubber eyecup.

[jslifoaw]

Here's my recent experience, especially compared to the K-1 II:

Some minor annoyances (the first two may be partly user error):

1) GPS - it's a bit inconvenient to have to unlock my iPhone and open the Ricoh app to sync each time (I haven't figured out if I can automatically sync and activate the phone GPS when I power on the camera), but the phone acquires a signal much faster than the built in GPS of the K-1 II.

2) Eye sensor - I found it behaves very inconsistently. Sometimes the LCD stays off because it thinks I have the camera up to my eye when I actually don't, even with the various calibration sensitivity options. It became annoying enough that I disabled it.

3) Non-flippy screen - slight annoyance once in awhile but didn't really miss it except in some above/below my head situations combined with glare that made the LCD too hard to see from an angle. In good light, the viewing angle of the large LCD makes it very usable from off-angle.

4) Movies - the 4k video quality is good but not outstanding (slightly soft), and is only 30fps SDR (and I think it's h.264 only). The (C-)AF is generally poor, though passable with PLM lenses. The touch screen also helps since you can move the focus point around easily and instruct the camera to focus. My iPhone 12 does better video in terms of video quality, frame rates, and HDR, though with very limited configuration in terms of controlling exposure and lens selection. However, the K-3 III is still a big improvement over the K-1 II.

5) Button nitpick - I don't mind the control dial for LV (I configured one of the upper left buttons to mimic LV on the K-1), but I prefer the design of the 645z where the right thumb controls a button that activates LV while shooting, or deletes a photo when reviewing.

The good stuff:

1) Burst rates and AF - neither the K100D nor K-1 are good examples of speed by comparison, but this is the first DSLR I've owned where I've found the burst rate and AF good enough to use for subjects in motion. The joystick also makes this very efficient - the old 4-way controller seems archaic by comparison. The buffer clears fast; with a good V60+ card I only experience the camera stop taking photos once, and after a couple of seconds I could shoot again.

2) Advanced hyper program - I hope they can add this to the K-1 II via firmware. It adds an extra layer from P -> Av/Tv -> TAv meaning I can essentially leave the shooting dial on P

3) The menu - the overall structure is transposed and organized differently from older cameras including the K-1 II but it's easy to get used to and I rarely need to configure anything since there are so many physical buttons that can be customized

4) S.Fn - this takes some getting used to, but over time I found this to be a very powerful way to control key settings without taking my eye away from the viewfinder. I use it a lot to configure the burst rate between single/L/M/H.

5) Electronic shutter from the viewfinder - can help with shutter shock in some situations. I wish the K-1 II had this because the shutter shock issue is very unpredictable with that camera and I have many ruined shots from the blur it induces.

6) Reliable build - it handled getting pretty soaked from 20kn waves in a zodiac boat in Antarctica while it was snowing, and long after other people gave up on using their cameras. Wiped off and dried out indoors. Of course, I was using it only with WR and AW lenses, and I don't expect it to survive a dunk in the ocean.

7) Touch screen and joystick - I didn't appreciate them until I had to switch back to the K-1 II.

8) OVF - I barely notice any differences compared to the K-1 II, but my older APS-C DSLRs (especially the K100D) now feel like tunnels. I'm still holding out hope that Pentax will find a way to make a hybrid EVF with a transparent OLED sensor readout just below the prism.

[gatorguy]

I think the play button is in a weird spot, not that easy to reach between the wheel and the rubber eyecup.

I moved mine, swapping places with the bottom d-pad button. Then the OK button becomes 100% zoom and back so that preview controls are all in one place. I also changed the function of the SR button to Live, and the Lock button became the Viewfinder light.

Love the customization for camera controls.

[Fogel70]

What would you have done differently on the new K-3 III ?. The upgrade is good, but could have been better in my opinion...

I would have named it differently than K3 III.

[Paul the Sunman]

I think the play button is in a weird spot, not that easy to reach between the wheel and the rubber eyecup.

I agree with this, notwithstanding the ability to reprogram it.