The new K3 iii
I don't post often now, but this caught my attention.
In my inbox on the 1st of the month came a notification of the pending arrival of the new K3 from my friendly camera dealer. Given it was the 1st of April, I dismissed it as a joke, but no, there really was a new K3!
I looked at a few initial pre-production firmware reviews (one or two of which didn't even have the camera) which I'm sure many of you have seen. Lots of criticism to be found about it, the first easily dismissed about it not being a mirrorless design. If you want a mirrorless camera there are plenty out there. The next was the lack of a tilt screen. They are useful, but for me I rarely use it other than when on a tripod for landscape images, and in such cases the K1 will be on top of it. The K3 I use for recording street scenes and the new touch screen looks more useful to me. It's heavy too they say, but I don't like a light camera.
Over here it's £1899 and that appears to be the killer blow. At this price who is it for at full frame DSLR money? Well, I'd imagine it's for folk with a collection of K & M42 lenses who like the features of the new camera!
I'm certainly one of them and I put my order in some days ago and look forward to it arriving on release.
As an aside, I bought my KP before release which was generally slammed in reviews. A quite wonderful camera that's turned out to be. On the occasions where a smaller camera is needed in situations where I might not have taken a camera at all, I've taken photos in low light of friends on great nights out that I could share (remember them, in olden times we went out and saw people close up) which wouldn't win any prizes but recorded memories. That surely is what photography is about.
Malcolm
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On 4/21/2021 3:32 AM, rrvelar@virginmedia.com wrote:
I don't post often now, but this caught my attention.
In my inbox on the 1st of the month came a notification of the pending arrival of the new K3 from my friendly camera dealer. Given it was the 1st of April, I dismissed it as a joke, but no, there really was a new K3!
I looked at a few initial pre-production firmware reviews (one or two of which didn't even have the camera) which I'm sure many of you have seen. Lots of criticism to be found about it, the first easily dismissed about it not being a mirrorless design. If you want a mirrorless camera there are plenty out there. The next was the lack of a tilt screen. They are useful, but for me I rarely use it other than when on a tripod for landscape images, and in such cases the K1 will be on top of it. The K3 I use for recording street scenes and the new touch screen looks more useful to me. It's heavy too they say, but I don't like a light camera.
Over here it's £1899 and that appears to be the killer blow. At this price who is it for at full frame DSLR money? Well, I'd imagine it's for folk with a collection of K & M42 lenses who like the features of the new camera!
I'm certainly one of them and I put my order in some days ago and look forward to it arriving on release.
As an aside, I bought my KP before release which was generally slammed in reviews. A quite wonderful camera that's turned out to be. On the occasions where a smaller camera is needed in situations where I might not have taken a camera at all, I've taken photos in low light of friends on great nights out that I could share (remember them, in olden times we went out and saw people close up) which wouldn't win any prizes but recorded memories. That surely is what photography is about.
Malcolm
Everyone is bitching about the price. Wait for their heads to explode
when the K1III comes along priced at £2600, or it's equivalent in
whatever local currency you adhere to.
Apparently the viewfinder on the new K3 is a thing of wonder, as large
as the K1 viewfinder.
bill
Malcolm, nice to hear from you. I think it is a good decision to order
the K-3 3 for your street photography.
It is claimed that the low light performance is better than of the K-1(II).
Looks like an excellent camera, though I will never buy this model as
I've realized that I'm using live view with the tilted screen of the K-1
in too many situations.
My collection of DA lenses has been extended now with a second hand
55-300 WR, so I will stick also to my K-5 for the time being.
Henk
Op 2021-04-21 om 11:32 schreef rrvelar@virginmedia.com:
I don't post often now, but this caught my attention.
In my inbox on the 1st of the month came a notification of the pending arrival of the new K3 from my friendly camera dealer. Given it was the 1st of April, I dismissed it as a joke, but no, there really was a new K3!
I looked at a few initial pre-production firmware reviews (one or two of which didn't even have the camera) which I'm sure many of you have seen. Lots of criticism to be found about it, the first easily dismissed about it not being a mirrorless design. If you want a mirrorless camera there are plenty out there. The next was the lack of a tilt screen. They are useful, but for me I rarely use it other than when on a tripod for landscape images, and in such cases the K1 will be on top of it. The K3 I use for recording street scenes and the new touch screen looks more useful to me. It's heavy too they say, but I don't like a light camera.
Over here it's £1899 and that appears to be the killer blow. At this price who is it for at full frame DSLR money? Well, I'd imagine it's for folk with a collection of K & M42 lenses who like the features of the new camera!
I'm certainly one of them and I put my order in some days ago and look forward to it arriving on release.
As an aside, I bought my KP before release which was generally slammed in reviews. A quite wonderful camera that's turned out to be. On the occasions where a smaller camera is needed in situations where I might not have taken a camera at all, I've taken photos in low light of friends on great nights out that I could share (remember them, in olden times we went out and saw people close up) which wouldn't win any prizes but recorded memories. That surely is what photography is about.
Malcolm
Bill wrote:
Everyone is bitching about the price. Wait for their heads to explode when the K1III comes along priced at £2600, or it's equivalent in whatever local currency you adhere to.
Apparently the viewfinder on the new K3 is a thing of wonder, as large as the K1 viewfinder.
I'm looking forward to the K1 iii.
Malcolm
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On 4/22/2021 12:51 AM, rrvelar@virginmedia.com wrote:
Bill wrote:
Everyone is bitching about the price. Wait for their heads to explode when the K1III comes along priced at £2600, or it's equivalent in whatever local currency you adhere to.
Apparently the viewfinder on the new K3 is a thing of wonder, as large as the K1 viewfinder.
I'm looking forward to the K1 iii.
Malcolm
As am I, but if it's another kitchen sink camera like the K1, and I
don't think there is any reason to think it won't be, I suspect it is
going to be quite pricey.
bill
Bill wrote:
As am I, but if it's another kitchen sink camera like the K1, and I don't think there is any reason to think it won't be, I suspect it is going to be quite pricey.
I saw a message on my camera dealers website, which said that the first batch of the new K3 were due, and would go straight out to those who pre-ordered them. It won't be enough, so the next batch in next week will go out the same way - and anyone who ordered in the last week or from now it will be later in May when they see it arrive. I might have made the second batch to be sent.
The point is that a DSLR which supposedly is missing features and is very expensive is not so much flying off the shelves, but flying off before they make the shelves.
I see the future K1 iii selling as well as this.
Malcolm
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On Sat., Apr. 24, 2021, 9:11 a.m. , rrvelar@virginmedia.com wrote:
Bill wrote:
As am I, but if it's another kitchen sink camera like the K1, and I don't
think there is any reason to think it won't be, I suspect it is going to be
quite pricey.
I saw a message on my camera dealers website, which said that the first
batch of the new K3 were due, and would go straight out to those who
pre-ordered them. It won't be enough, so the next batch in next week will
go out the same way - and anyone who ordered in the last week or from now
it will be later in May when they see it arrive. I might have made the
second batch to be sent.
The point is that a DSLR which supposedly is missing features and is very
expensive is not so much flying off the shelves, but flying off before they
make the shelves.
I see the future K1 iii selling as well as this.
The DFA* 50/1.4 was apparently too expensive, but the first 2 runs presold
prior to release.
As was, and did, the DFA* 85/1.4, and it was goofy expensive.
I'm not sure about the 70-210/4. It certainly didn't generate the buzz, but
it also isn't really a Pentax lens.
I agree that this will be tha fate of a K1III. I expect the 21Ltd will also
presell its first run, and quite possibly its second. Not a bad fate.
I'm not so hopeful about the updated 31, 43 and 77, though if they had put
them in new bodies with PLM autofocus motors they might have been onto
something. I'm not sure if new coatings and curved aperture blades are
quite enough. I really think they should have waited until after the 21Ltd,
and then given the legacy trio more than new lipstick.
bill
Photo Universe received information that the new K1 iii will be $3800
and have 60 MP and a fixed screen:)
https://youtu.be/_xKcCkITjJs
Henk
Op 2021-04-22 om 17:55 schreef Bill:
As am I, but if it's another kitchen sink camera like the K1, and I
don't think there is any reason to think it won't be, I suspect it is
going to be quite pricey.
bill
On Apr 25, 2021, at 12:49 AM, Henk Terhell hterhell@chello.nl wrote:
Photo Universe received information that the new K1 iii will be $3800 and have 60 MP and a fixed screen:)
https://youtu.be/_xKcCkITjJs
spoiler alert:
Yeah it took me a couple minutes to get the joke.
I ended up skipping to the end out of curiosity
TLDW;
Pentax’ strength for a while has been how much you get for your money, now that this is priced like or above other systems you’re better going someplace else.
Meanwhile everybody else is abandoning DSLRs, elsenet I saw something where someone was arguing that the latest Canon DSLR would be the last Canon DSLR. It’s a day with a ‘y’ in the name so we’re due for more news about how Pentax is doomed.
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Larry Colen
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On 4/25/2021 2:48 AM, Larry Colen wrote:
On Apr 25, 2021, at 12:49 AM, Henk Terhell hterhell@chello.nl wrote:
Photo Universe received information that the new K1 iii will be $3800 and have 60 MP and a fixed screen:)
https://youtu.be/_xKcCkITjJs
spoiler alert:
Yeah it took me a couple minutes to get the joke.
It took me about 15 seconds to figure out that the guy is a head up his
ass fuckwit.
I ended up skipping to the end out of curiosity
TLDW;
Pentax’ strength for a while has been how much you get for your money, now that this is priced like or above other systems you’re better going someplace else.
That was, in reality, Pentax's Achilles Heel.
Meanwhile everybody else is abandoning DSLRs, elsenet I saw something where someone was arguing that the latest Canon DSLR would be the last Canon DSLR. It’s a day with a ‘y’ in the name so we’re due for more news about how Pentax is doomed.
A significant % of people suffer from ocular discomfort from electronic
viewfinders. Something like 30% of people find them uncomfortable, with
smaller and smaller percentages of them ranging down from discomfort to
they are unusable. I'm closer to the unusable end of the spectrum
myself, so mirrorless cameras are of zero interest to me. There are a
lot of potential customers out there that are in the same position I am in.
Sony has been leading the charge into mirrorless, they essentially
caught and killed the Minolta SLR line when they took it over from
Konica, and have done a spectacular job of presenting the mirrorless
camera as the only path forward.
I have long suspected that part of Sony's strategy has been to plant
paid shills in camera forums such as DPReview to pimp their products and
sow FUD about everything else.
Think Russian election interference, except market dominance in cameras
is the prize rather than putting a psychopath into the White House.
Sony now the other two of the Japanese big three playing catch up.
Canon will, in all likelihood drop the EF mount entirely in favor of the
RF mount, forcing EF users into using their lenses on adapters in much
the same way Pentax forced M42 users into adapters with the K mount, and
probably forcing users to buy new lenses to get full functionality.
Nikon will, I expect, keep an SLR in the lineup for the foreseeable
future, but development will be brought to a standstill, in much the
same way Minolta kept the MD mount in the catalogue, but with no further
development past the X-700.
This presumes Nikon survives at all. My understanding is that they are
on the ropes and more than a little punch drunk.
All three of these companies have massive infrastructures to support, as
the camera bubble has been going on for so long that people have stopped
considering it to be a bubble.
Fuji was barely ever in the DSLR game. All Fuji DSLR cameras were
rebranded Nikons with some modifications, especially different sensors
They introduced their last DSLR, which was a reworked Nikon D200 and got
out of it entirely a few year later, coming back with their mirrorless X
mount in 2012 with the X-Pro1.
Camera sales are in free fall, gone is the lucrative P&S market, the
entry level market that is (now was) the bread and butter of the
industry is being trampled by ever increasingly sophisticated cell phone
cameras and is on life support with no chance of recovery.
Manufacturers of dedicated cameras are being forced into an ever
shrinking market of higher end products, and all of them, but especially
Canon and Nikon, are going to be facing some pretty major financial
hurdles due to what is now bloated infrastructure.
Pentax is in a pretty solid position. They have indicated they will be
the last man standing in the SLR market, which is a much smarter move
than being a non relevant also ran in the mirrorless market, and has a
small enough manufacturing and distribution footprint that they aren't
going to be taking it on the chin supporting factories and supply chains
that are no longer needed.
The Nikon D780 (released last year) is 25MP and sells for Can$3k.
The Nikon D6 (released in 2019) is 21mp and sells for Can$8.5K
The Nikon D850 (released in 2017) is 45mp and sells for Can$4k
Compare that with the Pentax K1II, released in 2018, and sells for Can$2.3K.
Compare APS-C pricing, well, that's hard, as the last Nikon APS-C camera
appears to be the 2016 released D500, with 21mp and an at present new
price of Can$2k.
After 5 years, it is still 80% of the price of a new K3III.
Canon is similar. They've introduced a few Rebels over the past few
years, which as has been their tradition, change where the button are
and call it a new camera, and the EOS1DX MIII, but their SLR market has
been pretty stagnant since 2018.
The price of the K3III is not unreasonable, no matter how much hand
wringing and whinging people want to do. The camera bubble has finally
burst and new cameras are going to be high end and expensive, either get
used to it or take up basket weaving.
Pentax's writing has been on the wall for a while. Look at their recent
releases: A 50/1.4 that is expensive but really good, an 85/1.4 that is
stupidly expensive, but is also one of the best optics on the market,
they are updating the FA Limited lenses, which have never really given
good bang for the buck, but certainly have a cult following, and they
are soon introducing a 21mm LTD which will in all likelihood be pretty
pricey.
About the only thing "budget" they have done in the recent past while is
refreshing the FA35/2 and the DA10-17. The 70-210/4 is a rebadged Tamron
that they had virtually no development costs on.
Their last what could be called budget lenses date from 2016 with the
DFA 28-105 and DFA55-300.
Pentax doesn't have to play the go big or go home game that seems to
rule American led capitalism. All they have to do is stay in their
niche, let the big boys punch each other in their faces and catch their
abandoned customers as they walk away from the hamster wheels they have
been on for the past 35 years.
bill