K-3 Pre-production hands on at SRS!

Just got back from SRS, got there for 9am as I didn't want to keep our gallery closed for too long and it was a good call as I got both of them to myself for a while!

Main reason for going over was to check the autofocus with the 250-600mm, good news is that it's a lot better than the K-5, seems more accurate, hunts less but maybe not quite as fast as I hoped for but then that might just be me and having higher expectations!

Tried a few other lenses too, 60-250 is still glacially slow! The 50-135 seemed a lot faster, 16-50 felt a bit faster along with the DA*55. Anecdotally they also seem better wide open too, presumably due to the better auto focussing system, have not tried a K-5II for comparison.

As we were not allowed to put a card in, I can give no idea on image quality, buffer speed etc so will need to wait for stock / reviews etc. for that.

One interesting thing for me is that the drive mode menu now includes multi exposure and Interval shooting too, saves digging round the menus for it.

It was a bit of a rush as I needed to get back and open up so will do my best to answer any questions!

PS, thanks for the coffee guys, was definately needed!

What is the point of having a demo model available to try out if you cannot actually take any pictures with it!

my first thought exactly, although I suppose one can judge how it feels in the hand and how good the AF is, what the viewfinder is like etc.


I guess we're still on pre-production firmware at this stage and they don't want photos taken with the pre-production model getting out into the wild.

because it's a pre-production demo model ... the IQ (and possibly af speed) is likely to change when they have tweeked the firmware

After all the razzmatazz, I'm not hearing its a step up from the K5II in terms of AF. This is the problem with getting people built beforehand. It needs to deliver

More detailed comparision tests needed before I'll be interested

unless Chris has outdone himself (I wasn't there), there aren't many opportunities to demonstrate AF tracking inside the SRS shop, and in any case the AF speed may or may not be improved in the production model with updated firmware etc

Won't Chris run around the shop!

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knowing Chris, he probably would if he thought it might trigger a sale

Pre-production? Is it with all the features advertised? Similar size to K5?

Have you played with new HD DA primes?

I my friends have waited too long for an upgrade from the K7 so no matter what I am going for it, next year off to Singapore for an upgrade et al. Kind regards pentaxians, Ian

A review written by our Pentax guru in Singapore:
Pentax K-3 Hands-on and Sample Photos
http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1318946

And the images that they have released themselves. Totally defeats your points.

And looking at the link from felix, fengwei in Singapore had a PP model and used it successfully and has posted the images. So, why there and not here?

Given that the availability date is November then it is almost certainly in production at present. With a time lag of 3 weeks to ship them from the production site, to European distribution and then to the UK and dealers the first ones will already be manufactured and waiting for shipping.

They don't want images in the wild which they don't control, those they have released will have been very carefully crafted to avoid pushing the camera, whereas any of us would imediately start trying to find the limits.

No they have not. Have a look at felix's link.

There were plenty of people walking around to get a feel of how the tracking will work, so looking forward to trying one in the field.

As mentioned it really needs final firmware to give a proper review of some of the features. Having played with 3x k-7 pre production models I know that my 60-250 can focus more than twice as fast as it does, but there are obviously reasons why things don't make the final firmware that we are not party too, reliability maybe?

Pretty sure Chris would have ran around the shop if asked!

Seemed to have all features as advertised, almost identically sized to the K-5. We also tried swapping grips from K-5 to K-3 and there is so little in it that slightly narrower pins and a dremel might save £200 or so, I'm sure someone will try it!

HD DA primes were all there but not really my thing so didn't have a play with them.