[kypfer]

What would I have done differently? … I'd have continued to include all the Digital Filter options that have been available on most/all Pentax cameras for the last 10 years or more!
Having got used to having and being able to take advantage of features like "Water Color", "Posterization" and "Pastel" on site, I now find myself wanting/needing to carry a second body for those occasions that potentially suitable subjects present themselves!
Other than that, it's mostly perfect … Pentax claim to have made great effort to fine tune the ergonomics and for me it's paid off
I've yet to learn to take full advantage of all the features, I suspect there are some features I'll possibly never use, but they're there, just in case … if I can remember that they exist and where to find them
I've not (yet) mourned the loss of a built-in flash, I'm carrying a second body anyway, with an articulated screen, so I've got those options covered.

[mattt]

My only gripe about the K3iii : Why implement the Ricoh GR iii menu system, when the system in previous K digital bodies wasn't broken?

[hjoseph7]

Please share your wisdom

First of all I got my heart set on this camera once the price goes down a little to replace my beloved K-5 IIs which is getting a little long in tooth. with that said,

Here is what I like:
a) viewfinder focus points cover a wide amount of the viewfinder and are not cluttered in the middle
b) Nice an bright magnified viewfinder, although I never complained about the VF on my K-5
c) Nice sounding shutter
d) Modern navigating menu
c) Touch screen AF
d) 12 fps
e) Better AF
f) 4k video although rather limited
g) Decent battery life
h) higher ISO, better shake reduction
j) Dual card slots
k) Joystick

What I don't like or find questionable:
a) Why have touch screen if you have all these new buttons ?
b) The over-done customizable options will keep you reading the manual instead of taking pictures(believe me, the Canon 7D vs. 1 tried the same thing and it flopped)
c) User1 - User5 my God unless you have the camera permanently attached to your hip why do you need all of these options ?? 3 would have been enough.
d) The camera is bigger and heavier than the k5 and k7
e) No pop-up flash, or astro-tracer ?
f) No flippy screen
g) No way to lock the Aperture or Shutter speed as far as I know ?
h) The card slots support different USB's, WTF ???
i) Need to get a new battery grip
k) The outrageous PRICE !
L) Tiny Top LCD
M) Ridiculous Maximum ISO is out of this world(OOTW) !

[pschlute]

:
a) Why have touch screen if you have all these new buttons ?
b) The over-done customizable options will keep you reading the manual instead of taking pictures(believe me, the Canon 7D vs. 1 tried the same thing and it flopped)
c) User1 - User5 my God unless you have the camera permanently attached to your hip why do you need all of these options ?? 3 would have been enough.
d) The camera is bigger and heavier than the k5 and k7
e) No pop-up flash, or astro-tracer ?
f) No flippy screen
g) No way to lock the Aperture or Shutter speed as far as I know ?
h) The card slots support different USB's, WTF ???
i) Need to get a new battery grip
k) The outrageous PRICE !
L) Tiny Top LCD
M) Ridiculous Maximum ISO is out of this world(OOTW) !

Don't buy the camera. Simple.

[gatorguy]

My only gripe about the K3iii : Why implement the Ricoh GR iii menu system, when the system in previous K digital bodies wasn't broken?

I kinda agree. I'm torn whether the new menu structure is better than the old one which I was so familiar with. The K3III menu is better in some ways, a more logical and descriptive structure IMO, but questionable whether it's easier to navigate. Right now I'd toss a coin. But having the menu touch-screen compatible is a plus, as in typing in copyright and photographer info.

[c.a.m]

First of all I got my heart set on this camera once the price goes down a little to replace my beloved K-5 IIs

I own a K-3 Mark III. Like you, I was hesitant to buy it because of the price, but was attracted to its features and performance. It was a major purchase for me.

What I don't like or find questionable: [snip]

Let's see if some of your concerns could be relaxed. Bearing in mind that the camera is a very tightly integrated system, which means that even small changes in certain attributes could perturb other attributes significantly. It's difficult to know whether any desired changes could have been made without seriously compromising the design.

"What I don't like or find questionable:"

a) Why have touch screen if you have all these new buttons ?
A. I find the touch screen to be particularly useful for menu operation, as well as selecting focus points in LV.

b) The over-done customizable options will keep you reading the manual instead of taking pictures(believe me, the Canon 7D vs. 1 tried the same thing and it flopped)
B. I've taken an incremental approach. Use the camera, learn and practice some functions, use the camera, etc. Some customization could be ignored.

c) User1 - User5 my God unless you have the camera permanently attached to your hip why do you need all of these options ?? 3 would have been enough.
C. There's even more customization available -- the USER settings can be chosen from up to 10 pre-set "boxes" of functions. However, the user can use as many or as few as desired. 3 is a subset of 5.

d) The camera is bigger and heavier than the k5 and k7
D. I've owned the K-5 and K-3 II. Yes, the Mark III is bigger and heavier, but I don't notice that it's less comfortable in the hand. In fact, I prefer the handling of the Mark III.

e) No pop-up flash, or astro-tracer ?
E. How could these have been incorporated, keeping in mind the tightly-integrated system mentioned above? It is believed that the Astrotracer was not integrated because of the lack of a GPS receiver; apparently there was no place for the GPS antenna (the top plate/cover is metal).

f) No flippy screen
G. Nope. This has been discussed extensively in Pentax Forums. Seems to be a sticking point for some folks.

g) No way to lock the Aperture or Shutter speed as far as I know ?
G. Sorry, not sure what is meant here.

h) The card slots support different USB's, WTF ???
H. Not sure of the design decisions around this one. I assume you mean why isn't the second slot also UHS II?

i) Need to get a new battery grip
I. Regrettably, yes. There have been promotions at some dealers that offered a free battery grip with the camera.

k) The outrageous PRICE !
K. Price is often a show-stopper. What price would you be comfortable with? Could Ricoh Imaging make a reasonable profit at that price?

L) Tiny Top LCD
L. It displays the essential information; I don't miss the larger display of the K-3 II.

M) Ridiculous Maximum ISO is out of this world(OOTW) !
M. I don't think it's essential to use the very high ISO settings, but they are there. I've been satisfied with the noise levels at ISO up to 12,800. I'll go a bit higher if necessary. No more restricting to 3200 max. Woot!

- Craig

[CarlosU]

Auto AF Fine Adjustment a la Nikon D500 but, for each lens, not globally.

If they decide to stay DSLR, at least get rid of front and back focus. In my case the most frequent cause of blurry pictures.

[MikeStnly]

Auto AF Fine Adjustment a la Nikon D500 but, for each lens, not globally.

You can save adjustments for up to 20 lenses.

[CarlosU]

You can save adjustments for up to 20 lenses.

I can do that on my K5 and K3II but only going through a tedious process, and often having to repeat the process after some time.

With the Nikon D500 (and I think with the D5 too) the camera can do it automatically using CD AF as a correct parameter for the adjustment. With those cameras you get only a global correction but I think it shouldn't be difficult to save a correction value for each lens used.

[K2 to K50]

I love mine.
The only thing I can think of to complain about is that as I switch from User through to User 5, the name I gave each custom setting does not show up on the LCD screen, as it does on my KP. So I have to memorise which user setting was for BIFS (burst mode, high shutter speed, medium AF zone), which for tripod use (SR off, lower shutter speed), which for macro (small aperture settings) etc or I need to check which shutter speed, ISO, and Aperture settings have come into play as I change to each User setting. It sort of negates the whole purpose of naming the User settings

[jumbleview]

I would have named it differently than K3 III.

If you live in a free country (do you?) you can name yours as you wish. For example "Eye of Falcon" or "The Last of the Mohicans"

[c.a.m]

The only thing I can think of to complain about is that as I switch from User through to User 5, the name I gave each custom setting does not show up on the LCD screen

You might be satisfied with this work-around : K-3 III: How to display the descriptive USER MODE names -- a work-around - PentaxForums.com

- Craig

[luftfluss]

What I don't like or find questionable:

a) Why have touch screen if you have all these new buttons ?
b) The over-done customizable options will keep you reading the manual instead of taking pictures(believe me, the Canon 7D vs. 1 tried the same thing and it flopped)
c) User1 - User5 my God unless you have the camera permanently attached to your hip why do you need all of these options ?? 3 would have been enough.
d) The camera is bigger and heavier than the k5 and k7
e) No pop-up flash, or astro-tracer ?
f) No flippy screen
g) No way to lock the Aperture or Shutter speed as far as I know ?
h) The card slots support different USB's, WTF ???
i) Need to get a new battery grip
k) The outrageous PRICE !
L) Tiny Top LCD
M) Ridiculous Maximum ISO is out of this world(OOTW) !

- re: touchscreen and buttons, depending on circumstance one is easier to use than the other.
- re: Astrotracer, the K-3 III does have it with the latest firmware update.
- re: "bigger and heavier", well yeah, that's the price for the large and bright OVF. The K-3 III is only about 3 oz heavier than the K-5. Pentax should be lauded for adding that much more capability in only 3 oz.
- re: "lock the Aperture or Shutter speed", you can set the aperture and/shutter speed, and have the camera determine the rest, not sure what else you are looking for.
- re: "The outrageous PRICE !" Get used to it. The new Olympus and Panasonic m4/3 bodies are both over $2000 USD, and upcoming Fuji X-H2 will likely be, also.

[mattt]

g) No way to lock the Aperture or Shutter speed as far as I know ?
G. Sorry, not sure what is meant here


- Craig

Responding to this one to say there is in fact a very smart lock feature. R.T.M. Page 10 bullet 16 points to the lock. It’s very effective.

[UncleVanya]

My list. Bear in mind I don’t have one:

Two sets of menus - old style and new style to help folks that have an older body switch back and forth with a modern newly developed design that should be child’s play.

Flippy screen - I’d like it. But I haven’t used the existing screen so maybe it’s a moot issue mostly.

Full time gps sync with the phone - always on when set to that mode. (Based on earlier comments in the thread)

Auto calibration mode with the ability to set multiple points for zooms at multiple distances. Raise limits to 50 or 100 unique lenses. Give a menu to store lenses that don’t have Exif/data by name with one adjustment per lens. (So let’s say your using a Takumar bayonet 135/2.5 and it needs -7. You’d mount the lens rather than only focal length it would present a list of stored lenses tak135/2.5 would be my name to decide and once picked it would set sr to 135 and adjust to -7 af fine adj. )

I’m sure there’s more.