The compute from the K-3iii into a K-1 or the sensor from the K-1 into the K-3iii would be goldilocks for me. When I use the K-1 after the K-3iii it feels slow but the K-3iii output is not as clean as the K-1. Nothing is wrong with either camera, they both perform their roles perfectly. But an updated K-1 would have been fab for me. Now we wait and see what they have in mind. In the meantime, I'll take some photos.

The only niggle I have is keeping my blood pressure in check when I read comments from mirrorless fanboi's, the people who have left the fold and strangely enough keep dropping their opinions on all things Pentax and the newer fashion of recommending a different mount + adapter anytime there is Pentax news. I get that we all have different opinions, I get that the majority have followed the industry into a mirrorless system but I personally can't use them, it hurts my eyes / brain so I have 2 options, Pentax with an OVF or Leica with a rangefinder. I could probably sell all my Pentax gear and pick up a newish Leica and a lens or two but crikey, its an expensive switch.

My cameras have not stopped working, my K mount lenses in all their guises (original K, M, A, F, FA, DA, DFA) all still work. The doom and gloom naysayers and out in force as are the mirrorless superfan trolls - it's amazing how Pentax just seems to wind them up.

A few things stand out.

The hard news is one sentence in the middle: production of the current K-series ends. Everything around it is heritage and promise. That's the standard Japanese corporate shape for an announcement they know will land badly — good news, bad news, reassurance — and the ordering tells you they consider the discontinuation the part that needs cushioning.

The gap is the real story. They say the new camera will take "まだ時間を要する" — still some time — with no date, no year, not even a hint. Meanwhile production stops now. So there'll be a period, plausibly a long one, where you cannot buy a new Pentax DSLR at all. Companies don't usually kill a line before the replacement is ready unless something forced their hand: sensor supply, parts, or the volumes simply not justifying another run of the K-1 II and K-3 III.

The wording on the replacement is doing careful work. They say 一眼レフ, not mirrorless, twice, and they say it'll use the K-mount lens legacy "そのまま" — as-is, no adapter implied. So: mirror box, optical finder, native flange distance. And "全く新たなコンセプト" plus all the language about the value of the act of shooting and the time spent shooting being rich in itself — that's the Pentax 17 philosophy transplanted onto a digital body. It reads like a deliberately pared-back camera built around the shooting experience rather than a spec sheet, not a K-1 III.

How much to trust it is the open question. Ricoh Imaging is small, and "we'll announce when information is ready" is a phrase that can cover anything from an 18-month development cycle to a project that quietly never ships. The optimistic read is that they've committed publicly to the reflex format at a moment when nobody else has, which is a strange thing to say out loud if you don't mean it. The pessimistic read is that this is a dignified way to wind down while keeping goodwill.

Practically, if you've got K-mount glass: it isn't stranded, they've gone out of their way to say so, and nothing here touches lens production, the GR line, or the film cameras. But if you were ever going to want a spare or a second body, the new stock of K-1 II and K-3 III is now finite, and the used market for both will firm up over the next few months.

Someone did - Thanks very much @LennyBloke

I'd get more bags and break down into sets of 3's

FF - nicely corrected - DFA21, *50, Choice of *85 or *70-200

FF - Wide to Std - DFA21, 31, *50

FF - Macro DFA50/2.8, 100WR and A*200/4

FF - Portrait - FA43(Group), 77 to be wrinkle lenient, *85 if they are young or you're feeling brutal

A bit of street shooting? All limiteds - personally I'd lean towards a 43 but we all have our personal preferences. 21 for wider, 31 as catch all, 43 for the moment, and 77 to lock in a subject.

APSC? DA15, 20-40 & 55-300, very light, versatile, perhaps a 77 to give a bit of speed for not much weight or size.

One big bag needed for the DFA*s, the rest can go into a smaller Billinghams easily enough, with a flash or two, wipes, cards, batteries.

No need to go complicating life with another system when there'll be a new K-1 soon

Presumably portraiture should be where it is at

Close to MFD here and aperture @f/4.0 - Tipple tonight is a Bushmills Malt, 15 years old but it sat in a Bourbon cask for a while

Yesterday I tried it out on my Monochrome but i'm also figuring that little beast too.
This was more detail...


Today I wanted the colour and to understand the bokeh

These are straight out of camera, f/2.8





OOF transition happens very quickly and there is a glow that reminds me of the 50/1.2 wide open. It is a specific look to the lens for sure.
I personally am looking at the separation of the subject, hoping to keep the colours popping and then a nice transition to OOF.

The 85 is a bit weird. It'll take me a while to figure out. 35/3.5 is a little gem. I had the Takumar version back in the day and it works nicely alongside the K-3iiiM

K-3iii Monochrome & SMC Pentax 35/3.5
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2s2T3Nh]


K-1 & SMC Pentax-F85/2.8 Soft (a few minutes ago )

I had a hankering to build up a f/3.5 set using the K series. The 35/3.5 was properly manky when it arrived from Belgium but it a bit of elbow grease, Zeiss cleaning liquid and it turned out quite nicely. The 85/2.8 Soft is quiet the weird one, quite cheap too (less than £150 after shipping and taxes from Japan) and I'll be spending a while getting used to what it does. It and the K-3iii Monochrome make for quite a temperamental setup, i.e. they demand accurate exposure.




85/2.8 Soft example



35/3.5 Test after cleaning up the optics and body

Aha I see some trusty CH Products stuff 🙂. Beautiful setup.