Pentax K3III has landed with "ouch" price tag!

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bfitzgerald
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Pentax K3III has landed with "ouch" price tag!

Unread post by bfitzgerald »

https://www.ephotozine.com/article/pent ... rder-35355

£1900, $2000/€2000

I did expect it to be not that cheap, but it's surprised me how much more it is. I thought it might hit £1500 odd, scary how prices have gone
BTW you don't get a charger or hot shoe cover either for your 2 grand :lol:
Hot shoe cover is £50! Wow we are in crazy land for camera prices in 2021
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Dusty
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Re: Pentax K3III has landed with "ouch" price tag!

Unread post by Dusty »

But, but but.....

It's the first DSLR with a top ISO speed of over 1 million! That's just what you need to take a photo of a whole stadium at night lit only by a single candle!

Aren't you going to need that?
/sarc

Dusty
An a700, an a550 and couple of a580s, plus even more lenses (Zeiss included!).
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the_hefay
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Re: Pentax K3III has landed with "ouch" price tag!

Unread post by the_hefay »

Dusty wrote: Fri Aug 13, 2021 4:06 am But, but but.....

It's the first DSLR with a top ISO speed of over 1 million! That's just what you need to take a photo of a whole stadium at night lit only by a single candle!

Aren't you going to need that?
/sarc

Dusty
:lol: :lol:
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bfitzgerald
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Re: Pentax K3III has landed with "ouch" price tag!

Unread post by bfitzgerald »

IR have a gallery up this one is ISO 204,800
https://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/ ... 204800.HTM

And here is one ISO 1,600,000
https://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/ ... 600000.HTM

Neither are pretty, the last one is bordering some 60's psychedelic blob of colours
Full gallery is here:
https://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/ ... ALLERY.HTM

To me looks as I would expect from APS-C, and a modern sensor. I would say ISO 1600/3200 no problem, maybe 6400. Above that it's not something I would use. It's just silly marketing nonsense from Pentax. Nobody is going to use ISO 1,600,000 in any circumstances. It's not even good enough for a tiny web thumbnail. I have no idea why they even include some of the ultra high ISO levels, other than something to put on the spec sheet.
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the_hefay
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Re: Pentax K3III has landed with "ouch" price tag!

Unread post by the_hefay »

bfitzgerald wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 11:09 am Nobody is going to use ISO 1,600,000 in any circumstances. It's not even good enough for a tiny web thumbnail. I have no idea why they even include some of the ultra high ISO levels, other than something to put on the spec sheet.
Agree!
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Re: Pentax K3III has landed with "ouch" price tag!

Unread post by classiccameras »

They think its a selling point and one up on the other brands, I really don't understand Pentax, if they had done things right from the start they could have been up with Canon & Nikon, like they were in the 35mm days, but they just did not hit the spot from day one. I never liked their colour pallet and Jpegs were pretty grim on earlier models. Then the price hikes especially on lenses, for a camera brand that is trailing way behind the big 2 not to mention M/4/3 and Sony, they are no doubt struggling, but then I suspect they all are.
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bfitzgerald
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Re: Pentax K3III has landed with "ouch" price tag!

Unread post by bfitzgerald »

I suspect Ricoh, are trying to turn Pentax into the Voigtländer of the SLR world. Clearly they're not at Leica levels to charge that much, so they settle for a pretend upmarket thing, sort of poor man's Leica.
Pentax have not had a good owner for a long time. Hoya nipped in there, only to keep the profitable medical division - then sold off the not doing much photo side to Ricoh.
I have no idea why Ricoh bought Pentax, they only had a minor interest in photo stuff. The modular GXR was an obvious, not going to work concept. The GR has a bit of a cult following, and they are quite good. What they're not is, "spend almost a grand good". The prices on those have increased a lot. Hence the same is going to apply to Pentax from now on.

This one at 2 grand, no doubt if they do a new full frame you can expect a very large price tag. Far higher than the K1
Some of the lenses are also sky high prices, though it would be hard to say MILC lenses are cheaper - they are also pricey to my eyes.
I don't regret trying Pentax, a few years back. They had some nice ideas, and at the time offered excellent, "bang per buck". I found their used AF selection to be tiny, even compared to Minolta. Nowhere near the same quantity around, nor dare I say quality (some are good, many are meh)

I would never consider Pentax as a viable system, with a long term future. I'm not sure many would either. That makes it fairly unlikely they will get many new users. It's true A Mount is a dead end, still at least there is a sizeable used market - and some kind of adapter route even if it isn't very appealing.

There is nothing wrong keeping at the SLR game, offering something different. Let's be honest here, a crop body at full frame prices, isn't likely to appeal even to many of their current users. I think the price is absurd, being blunt. Pentax were far too late to the full frame game, way behind the others. I wouldn't be too sure it will be around in 10 years, but I might be wrong. If you wanted to do that retro vibe digital thing, Fuji seem to have that side covered pretty well. Where does it leave Pentax? Who knows, the only company I think is 100% secure is Canon. Nikon seem to be flapping around, with oddball ZFC designs, Sony I can't say - they have invested a lot. However they have a history of abandoning platforms/products, and not just A Mount.

If Pentax were doing anything really interesting, I'd take a look. They're not though, hence the problem
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Re: Pentax K3III has landed with "ouch" price tag!

Unread post by classiccameras »

It would be interesting to see just how many people are using Pentax, the photographers I know not one is using Pentax, My local photo shop is a Pentax main dealers with all the products on the shelves but every time I'm in there its people looking at Canon's, Nikon's and Panasonic mostly, which according to the shop is a big seller even though its M/4/3.They seem to do better than Olympus. Rant at Olympus, if they had stayed with the body of a OM 2 and developed a mirrorless APS-C cropped camera they would have captured far more interest. Olympus's own remit was to carry on the tradition of their compact SLR cameras, but was Micro 4/3 that necessary to achieve it. To my mind they went too small. If you think back the Pentax ME was actually smaller than an OM 2 or 10,
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bfitzgerald
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Re: Pentax K3III has landed with "ouch" price tag!

Unread post by bfitzgerald »

I have never seen anyone with a Pentax, not that I can remember. Their market share has always been very small. Even when A mount was doing something (aka 10 years ago), I did see quite a few Sony A bodies around. I believe it did fairly well for it's time, but Sony had other ideas!
I've no doubts even 5-6 years ago, A mount was much more widely used, or course not near the level of the other systems.

Olympus should have done a new OM, a 50mm diameter mount (46mm is same as E Mount almost so maybe they could have kept the original mount just), APS-C, later full frame. Go the whole OM vibe thing as Fuji have. It would have got a niche market position, and a following. I'm not too sure how this new OM Digital will push things forward, in a difficult market. Pentax do have a loyal user base, just how loyal they remain with such high prices, remains to be seen. I wouldn't spend 2 grand on a crop body from any maker, ever. It's just not worth it IMO. Maybe they should have gone L mount, least there are a few players in that.

The whole MILC thing is quite overblown I think, reason. How many working pros are using them? I see a lot of 5dIV's and D4/5's around and the odd D7/8xx. What I don't see is a lot of any mirrorless stuff at all. That might change, however with the market shifting so much, and ever less appealing prices - hard to imagine how so many makers expect to service such a small user base. Something has to give, somewhere.
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