Pentax K-3 Mark III Review

Comparison with the Original K-3

In many ways, the original K-3 and the new K-3 III are similar cameras.

This can be seen by looking at them side-by-side.

The Pentax engineers had gotten a lot of things right with the original model. As such, things like the shutter and e-dials placement remains essentially unchanged.

Things are more visibly different on the back, where more things have changed. Some features, such as the metering, AF, AE Lock and rear e-dial, remain similar. The Info and Menu buttons are also the same, and have been in this location on every Pentax camera produced between 2013 and today.

The evolution between the original K-3 and the K-3 III isn't made obvious by a random shuffling of the buttons. When things work, Pentax tends to leave them alone. Rather, that evolution is visible through the new features and ideas included with the new camera.

One obvious change is the inclusion of the AF joystick, a first for Pentax. The Smart Functions and third e-dials are also a new iteration of a concept first introduced with the K-1 and subsequently refined.

The stills / movie switch of the K-3 and the red Live View button have been regrouped on the K-3 III, freeing up some real estate on the back.

Handling

Handling with the K-3 III is mostly similar to the K-3. That's a good thing: any user familiar with a previous Pentax model will be able to pick up the K-3 III, adjust a few settings and parameters, and start shooting. At no point does the camera confuse the user. Someone coming from another brand will of course face a steeper learning curve, but any former Pentax user will feel right at home.

The changes, for instance the position of the viewfinder / Live view / movie dial, can be surprising at first, but the placement is so logical, and so finely tuned, that it only takes minutes to get used to them. As seasoned users of the original K-3 and the K-1, switching from either of those to the K-3 never felt challenging in any way.

The grip is a subtle, but notable improvement. Each new Pentax flagships is an incremental improvement on the previous one, another step towards perfection.

The grip on the K-3 III is so well made that the camera can be held by using only the thumb and middle finger, without risk of dropping it. Additionally, the grip is well adapted to various hand sizes.

Menus

Menus are an important difference between the original K-3 and the new K-3 III (or between the K-3 III and any other Pentax camera, for that matter).

Before the K-3 III in 2021, the menu structure had remained essentially the same since the original K-3 in 2013. A dated and pixellated font, tabs at the top, and slow navigation between them. The logic of the menu made sense, but navigation was slow.

The new menu (which will be presented in greater detail in a following section) keeps the same general logic but makes navigation more fluid and efficient.

The tabs are now on the left side, organized vertically. This makes more sense as navigating within a tab is also done vertically. Tabs are still grouped within the same general categories, but now each "page" on a tab is numbered and can be accessed directly. In other words, there is an additional level available for navigation.

Touch controls also make it much faster to scroll through the menus.

The font looks much more modern and the layout is cleaner. There is still no "favorites" menu for frequently-accessed functions, sadly.

Verdict

The new K-3 III keeps most of what made the original K-3 a success, and builds on it to make this new camera a worthy evolution.