On 04/11/2013 9:29 PM, Mark C wrote:
The UPS truck finally pulled up around 9 PM this evening - I was
starting to worry that my K-3 had gotten lost. Open the box, popped on a
lens, dropped in a spare battery, set the date and time (but forgot to
save them).... Within about 2 minutes the first shot was snapped:
http://calarti.com/peso/IMGP0001.jpg
K-3 and FA 50 f1.7 / 1/30th @ F2.8.
I'm planning on taking another shot tomorrow :-)
Impressions:
1. Slightly larger and noticeably heavier than the K-5, but feels great
in the hand. The grip felt perfect. Build quality feels rock solid.
Yup
2. Quiet shutter, quieter than the K-5.
Yup
3. Rear screen is excellent.
Yup
4. Slightly different layout of the controls / buttons, but totally
intuitive. Haven't looked at the manual yet, though I'm probably missing
stuff if I don't. The biggest challenge was disabling auto ISO, which
took about 20 seconds to decipher.
I'm glad it wasn't just me. The menu and controls seem much more
ergonomic than the K5.
5. AF is significantly improved - faster, more precise, locks on the
subject quickly. I was shooting in rather dim light and it did hunt a
bit here and there, especially with the black cats.
Yup, and it appears colour blind too.
6.Auto white balance is good but not perfect.
Yup
7. I notice noise at ISO 1600. I took the same shot (minus the cat) with
the K-5 and notice noise in it too. They seem comparable, but one shot
is not much of a basis for comparison.
The K3 seems better to me, but I haven't (and won't) do any really
scientific comparisons.
8. Two 32 gig cards (I was lucky and got the "free card" deal from B&W)
show up with a nominal storage count of ~1200 DNG files. Given how
conservative Pentax is with their storage estimates I expect actual file
storage to be much higher.
The files are pretty big. The few DNGs I've shot have ranged from 29-40
MB. I don't know why the huge bloat, the bigger files are the high ISO ones.
I won't get a chance to really run it through its paces till this
weekend, but I'm excited. Looks like an excellent upgrade over the K-5,
which is no slouch of a camera...
I'm a little floored by how much of an upgrade it appears to be over the K5.
bill
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