PENTAX believes in the future of SLR photography. As the pioneer of SLR cameras in Japan, PENTAX has devoted all its assets — its philosophy, technologies and passion — to the development of this remarkable camera. The PENTAX K-3 Mark III: the new flagship of the APS-C-format SLR lineup. Take a picture.

 

Optical viewfinder with approx. 100% field of view, and approx. 1.05X magnification
The PENTAX K-3 Mark III features a high-performance viewfinder with a high-refraction glass pentaprism to provide approximately 1.05-times magnification (with an FA 50mm F1.4 lens set at infinity). Despite the compact, lightweight APS-C-format SLR body, it delivers a truthful, wide-view image equal to that of a full-frame SLR, and helps you to become more fully immersed in the photo-shooting process. This viewfinder also provides an almost 10-percent increase in brightness, thanks to the improved reflectance of the pentaprism, while also assuring a nearly 100-percent field of view. By incorporating a distortion-compensating optical element and optimizing the lens coatings, it provides natural, true-to-life image rendition with high-magnification observations.

 

Optimizing the sense of immersion in the photo shooting process
Since the viewfinder eyepiece is designed to protrude from the LCD viewfinder display screen — to prevent your nose from contacting the camera body — you can look into the viewfinder more naturally and comfortably. The eyepiece also features an eye sensor, which turns the monitor off the moment you bring your eye up to the eyepiece ring. This prevents the status screen’s illumination from affecting visibility during shooting, while allowing you to capture images more comfortably.

 

Optimizing the ease of operation
The PENTAX K-3 Mark III features a transparent LCD viewfinder display that provides a broader range of data in the viewfinder window. Because you can adjust the camera’s settings without taking your eye away from the viewfinder, you can concentrate more fully on the subject. The camera also allows you to program the desired combination of display data, such as grid pattern and AF focus point, making it easier to swiftly change settings for a specific scene or subject.

 

Pleasant shutter action
The PENTAX K-3 Mark III features a leaf switch, a mechanism previously used in the PENTAX 645Z and PENTAX K-1. Compared to the tactile switch more commonly used in compact SLR cameras, the leaf switch provides a lighter, smoother shutter action and minimizes the camera shake caused by the shutter-release action. It also helps you by providing effortless hold-down of the shutter-release button during continuous shooting. The time lag between the shutter release and an image capture has also been reduced, compared to the PENTAX K-3 II, while the camera’s mirror- and shutter-driving mechanisms have also been upgraded. By reducing unwanted mechanical actions such as mirror bounce, it provides crisp, pleasant shutter-release action. You can feel the smooth action and speedy response every time you press the shutter-release button.

 

Ergonomic design for responsive camera operation
For comfortable shooting and easy carrying, the PENTAX K-3 Mark III’s grip and control-button layout have been optimized to accommodate different hand sizes and finger lengths. Perfected after producing a series of mock-ups and conducting repeated verifications, they let you to concentrate completely on your photo shooting.

 

New-generation Hyper Operation system
The conventional Hyper Operation system allows you to instantly shift the AE mode to Tv (Shutter-priority) or Av (Aperture-priority) when the camera’s exposure mode is set to P (Program). The PENTAX K-3 Mark III’s new-generation Hyper Operation system provides more flexible exposure-mode control, by adding a new Advanced mode* to the conventional Standard mode.

More versatile Smart Function
The PENTAX-original Smart Function provides easy, single-action selection of menu items and functions. Featuring a new Smart Function button, the PENTAX K-3 Mark III now lets you preprogram a maximum of five functions from 22 options, and displays a list of the selected functions in the viewfinder window, so you can select the desired function without removing your eye from the viewfinder. It even lets you select and program the desired values for each function, allowing you to more precisely customize this function to meet your preferences.

 

Customization of control buttons
Featuring 10 customizable control buttons positioned around its body, the PENTAX K-3 Mark III allows you to assign the desired function from 29 options to each of them. Thanks to this customized camera operation, you are guaranteed to have the same comfort and ease of operation as with your current camera.

 

Customization of electronic dials
The PENTAX K-3 Mark III lets you customize the functions of the front/rear electronic dials, Green button and Smart Function dial (when the Smart Function is assigned to one of the electronic dials). You can also set the functions separately based on the shooting format (still-image or video) or exposure mode. You can even set the ISO button shift to the ISO Auto mode, or use the exposure compensation button to function as a reset button. Simply by assigning the desired function to each of these buttons, you can easily and freely customize camera operations.

 

Flexible operation with touch-screen control
The PENTAX K-3 Mark III features a large 3.2-inch LCD monitor with touch-screen control. By combining intuitive touch-screen control with the four-way controller and the front/rear electronic dials, it provides a new, user-friendly system that enhances speedy camera operation.

 

LCD panel
On the top panel, the PENTAX K-3 Mark III features a second LCD panel, which provides easy confirmation of the functions and settings selected for the Smart Function, in addition to providing basic data such as exposure and drive-mode settings.

Compatibility with classic lenses
You must be aware that each of your classic and cherished lenses creates its own distinctive ambience in captured images. That’s why the PENTAX K-3 Mark III has been designed to accommodate classic lenses. The camera not only saves the aperture value as Exif data when you set a desired aperture using the electronic dial, but also lets you measure the light and capture images at closed-down aperture. It even accommodates the TAv mode.* It also provides more segmented setting of the lens’s focal length in SR (Shake Reduction) shooting.

 

New back-illuminated CMOS imaging sensor with approximately 25.7 megapixels
To further improve image quality, the PENTAX K-3 Mark III incorporates a newly adopted, back-illuminated imaging sensor with approximately 25.7 effective megapixels. It also features an AA (anti-aliasing)-filter-free design to faithfully reproduce the delicacy of light, or the fine outlines of a subject.

 

PRIME V imaging engine and second-generation accelerator unit
For the PENTAX K-3 Mark III, PENTAX developed the PRIME V imaging engine and the second-generation accelerator unit. This combination provides a harmony of flawless, high-speed operations and super-high-sensitivity, high-quality imaging, all at a level of performance higher than ever before. The overall performance of the PENTAX Real-time Scene Analysis System and the autofocus system has also been much improved to ensure: flawless, high-speed operation; super-high-sensitivity, high-resolution imaging; better autofocus performance; and a broader range of shooting functions.

 

Superb imaging power over the entire sensitivity range
Thanks to its multi-dimensional image space filtering process, the PENTAX K-3 Mark III greatly reduces noise, while still retaining the subtle outlines of a subject. This advanced technology optimizes the camera’s resolving power, and faithfully reproduces the subject’s texture and detail. It also improves image description in the lower sensitivity range, while minimizing unfaithful reproduction of blacks in the higher sensitivity range where color reproduction becomes more difficult. Even at the top sensitivity of ISO 1,600,000, it delivers a natural, well-defined image with a sharp subject outline and vivid colors.

 

New-generation Fine Sharpness function
Thanks to the incorporation of the new PRIME V imaging engine, the PENTAX K-3 Mark III features the much-improved Fine Sharpness function to more faithfully and finely reproduce the subject’s outline and detail. Preset as a default setting, this function reproduces the subject’s details more naturally and sharply, while reducing the adverse effect of noise to a minimum.

 

The never-ending pursuit of high-quality imaging
With the renewal of the image sensor, imaging engine and accelerator, PENTAX has further enhanced the PENTAK K-3 Mark III’s image quality. This was based on PENTAX’s image design concept emphasizing the faithful reproduction of detail and texture. Through repeated sensibility evaluations, PENTAX made great improvement in overall image quality, by efficiently controlling the camera’s noise-reduction process while paying the utmost attention to the total balance of captured images, with an emphasis on factors such as the natural reproduction of gradation and color.

 

PENTAX Real-time Scene Analysis System
This PENTAX-original system, which performs an in-depth analysis of each individual scene by assessing such factors as the brightness distribution over the image field and the subject’s shape, color and motion, has been greatly upgraded, thanks to the incorporation of a new RGBIr AE sensor with approximately 307,000 pixels, which detects the subject in greater detail than before. Coupled with the state-of-the-art imaging engine, it performs accurate detection of the subject’s face and eyes in viewfinder shooting, along with high-precision tracking of moving subjects. Combined with an image recognition system adopting Deep Learning technology, it provides highly dependable exposure control and automatic selection of the optimal focus point.

 

SRII for five-axis, 5.5-shutter-step camera shake compensation
The PENTAX K-3 Mark III’s SR II mechanism compensates for camera shake caused by horizontal and vertical shift, roll, pitch and yaw, with a wide compensation range up to approximately 5.5 shutter steps. In addition to the all-purpose Auto mode, this mechanism also provides a Panning mode to capture slow-moving subjects. You can choose the mode that provides the ideal compensation effect for your subject.

 

Pixel Shift Resolution System
By taking advantage of the SR II mechanism, this innovative system* captures four images of the same scene by slightly shifting the image sensor for each image to obtain all RGB color data for each pixel, then synthesizes them into a single, super-high-resolution composite image. This assists the camera in producing super-high-resolution images with true-to-life colors free of false color or noises — something conventional cameras fail to deliver.

 

AA (anti-aliasing) filter simulator
This PENTAX-original simulator effectively minimizes moiré and false color by activating the SR II mechanism to apply microscopic vibrations to the image sensor during exposure. For ordinary shooting, you can turn this off to maximize the camera’s resolving power as delivered by its AA-filter-free design. Then you can activate it for certain scenes or subjects which require a filtering effect.

 

High-speed drive, with a maximum speed of approximately 12 images per second
Thanks to the combination of a newly developed mirror and shutter driving unit and the high-speed, high-performance PRIME V imaging engine, the PENTAX K-3 Mark III provides a high-speed drive system with a maximum speed of approximately 12 images per second in the AF.S mode, or approximately 11 images per second in the AF.C mode. This system lets you capture a momentary expression of the subject, which couldn’t otherwise have been captured by previous models.

 

High-speed, high-precision mirror and shutter driving unit
To improve driving speed during continuous shooting and upgrade the performance of AF and AE systems, the PENTAX K-3 Mark III features a new mirror and shutter driving unit to greatly reduce the time needed to drive the mirror and shutter mechanisms. By minimizing the effect of mirror bounce, it also helps increase the camera’s driving speed, while securing sufficient time for distance and light measurements. As the result, the operation time required to capture a single image has been reduced to about two-thirds of the PENTAX K-3 II.

SAFOX 13 AF system with 101 focus points
The number of focus points in the PENTAX K-3 Mark III have been increased to 101, from 27 in the PENTAX K-3 II. The AF area also has been greatly expanded. Of 41 user-selectable points,^* 25 are cross-type sensors. This high-density AF system enhances the flexibility of image composition, while optimizing focusing accuracy on the subject. Since its middle focus point is designed to detect an F2.8 luminance flux, the camera assures super-high-precision focusing when using a bright lens with an open aperture of F2.8 or larger.
^{*The number of selectable points may vary depending on the mounted lens.}

AF area selection
The PENTAX K-3 Mark III provides a choice of the AF area from Auto Area, Zone Select, Select, Expanded Select Area (S, M or L), Select (S) and Spot. A newly installed AF point selector lever makes it easier to intuitively select the optimum focus point. Since the camera displays the selected AF coverage area and the selected AF focus point in the viewfinder window, you can adjust the image composition and select the focus point simultaneously.

 

High-precision AF operation at -4EV illumination
Since the camera’s F2.8-sensitive light sensor operates even at -4EV illumination, it assures remarkable imaging power for dimly lit subjects when using a lens with an F2.8 luminance flux.

 

Outstanding image tracking performance
The camera features a new, high-capacity RGBIr image sensor with approximately 307,000 pixels, to provide more accurate tracking of subjects in motion or slight movement than previous models. It assures outstanding image tracking performance by correlating and assessing the data delivered by the tightly positioned AF focus points.

 

High-precision continuous shooting in AF.C mode
The camera’s continuous autofocus (AF.C) mode allows you to maintain sharp focus on a subject, regardless of direction of motion. An improved motion prediction algorism accurately detects the subject’s complex movement, which was rather difficult to predict with previous models. It also reduces the effect of the unstable motion speed and irregular stops and restarts, as well as the effect of obstacles.

 

SR II’s Panning mode
The camera’s in-body SR II mechanism provides an independent Panning mode. Thanks to the SR II’s improved operation, you can move the camera in a slow panning motion to capture distant, slow-moving subjects, whose motion was difficult to detect with conventional cameras. Since the camera allows you to switch the SR II’s mode between OFF and AUTO with a single push of the SR button, you can react quickly and effortlessly to a change of scene or subject.

 

Compact body
In developing the PENTAX K-3 Mark III, PENTAX focused especially on superb handling and easy carrying — the most prominent features associated with APS-C-format SLR cameras. While making many functional improvements over the PENTAX K-3 II, PENTAX kept the width and height at the same dimensions as the PENTAX K-3 II, while reducing the depth (the space between the lens mount and the LCD monitor surface) by approximately 2.5mm. This slim design allows for a greater protrusion of the viewfinder eyepiece to make image-viewing easier, while realizing PENTAX’s design concept of a compact body size and easy viewfinder photography.

 

Dustproof, weather-resistant construction
Both the camera body and the optional D-BG8 Battery Grip are designed to be dustproof and weather-resistant to prevent the intrusion of dust and water. When an AW- or WR-series lens is mounted, they form a highly airtight imaging system that assures dependable performance even in adverse weather conditions.

 

Excellent cold-resistant performance down to -10°C
Anticipating use in low-temperature locations, PENTAX has subjected the camera to exacting environmental tests at temperatures as low as -10°C, while assessing the performance of its mechanisms and electronical circuits and measuring the precision of optical components.

 

All-surface magnesium-alloy body
The PENTAX K-3 Mark III’s top, bottom, front and rear panels are all made of magnesium alloy. This lightweight, high-rigidity material not only protects the camera’s internal mechanisms from shock and vibration, but also creates the look of a solid, high-grade camera body.

 

Highly durable shutter unit
Installed in the camera body, the extra-durable shutter unit withstands a total of 300,000 shutter release actions at a speed of 12 images per second, contributing to an improvement in continuous shooting speed and an increase in the number of recordable images.

 

Dual SD-card slot
The PENTAX K-3 Mark III provides a pair of SD card slots. One of the slot conform to the UHS-II standard for high-speed data writing operation. You can save data files on two separate memory cards, with a choice of recording modes: Sequential, Duplicate and RAW/JPEG Separation. You can also copy images for transfer between the two cards.

 

DR II (Dust Removal II) mechanism
By applying ultrasonic vibrations generated by a piezoelectric element to the optical glass plate in front of the image sensor, this mechanism effectively removes dust particles from the image sensor surface, and prevents annoying dust spots from appearing on captured images.

 

Outdoor-friendly monitor with the Night Vision Display function
The camera features an outdoor-friendly LCD monitor whose brightness level can be easily adjusted to the desired level: make it brighter during outdoor shooting in sunshine, or dimmer during nighttime photography. This monitor also provides a Night Vision Display function, which minimizes eye strain or fatigue after the photographer’s eyes have become accustomed to a dark location during nighttime shooting, such as astronomical photography.

 

4K movie recording
The PENTAX K-3 Mark III captures 4K-resolution movie clips (3840 x 2160 pixels; 30 or 24 frames per second). The camera’s touch-screen panel makes it easy to select movie-recording functions and exposure settings, while the SR II mechanism provides its shake-compensation effect for movie recording.

 

Wireless LAN
By installing the dedicated Image Sync application in your mobile device, you can use a variety of wireless LAN functions, including transfer of images captured by the camera (an automatic image transfer function is available when the wireless LAN connection is activated) and an automatic resizing function to reduce the image size for transfer. These function make saving and using captured images easier and more flexible. This application also provides remote control of camera functions using your mobile device.

 

Compatibility with Bluetooth Low Energy
The PENTAX K-3 Mark III is compatible with Bluetooth 4.2 for transferring the position data detected by a mobile device to the camera via Image Sync and recording it on a captured image, making it simple to organize images captured in the field.

 

USB recharging system
The camera features a USB Type-C terminal for battery recharging using a USB power charger (standard accessory), personal computer or portable battery. You can also recharge the camera from an electric outlet using the optional K-AC166 AC Adapter.

 

Digital Camera Utility™
Included in the product package, this software lets you develop RAW-format images, and also save, edit and organize images recorded in JPEG or TIFF format. Supported by the acclaimed SILKYPIX® image development engine, it provides high-speed RAW-data development and a range of image-editing tools to apply desired finishing touches to captured images

 

Depth-of-field Bracketing and Motion Bracketing
By automatically shifting the aperture and shutter-speed settings, these creative tools produce a set of three images with a different level of bokeh or motion effects.

 

Clarity Control and Skin Tone Correction
The Clarity Control function lets you control subject texture or image clarity by effectively adjusting the smoothness of the subject’s surface. For instance, it emphasizes the glossy texture of metals, or the transparency of a crystal-clear sky or splashing water. The Skin Tone Correction function automatically recreates the natural texture and healthy tone of the subject’s skin, without affecting high-resolution images of the hair and clothes or the background.

 

HDR (High Dynamic Range)
For a scene with extreme highlights and shadows, the camera produces a single composite image without any washed-out or pitch-black areas. Since the camera retains captured images as a single RAW-format file, you can choose the degree of the HDR effect, or turn this function off, during the development of RAW-format images.

 

Multiple exposure
The camera’s Multi-exposure mode creates a single composite image from multiple images, while you select the desired synthesis mode from Average, Additive and Comparative Brightness.

 

Interval Shooting and Interval Composite
The Interval Shooting function automatically captures a number of images at a user-selected interval. The Interval Composite function is a creative tool that synthesizes multiple images captured by the Interval Shooting function into a single composite image.

 

A range of image-editing tools
The PENTAX K-3 Mark III features a variety of convenient creative tools to edit captured images, including: Composition Adjustment for flexible trimming of an image (with a choice of an aspect ratio and the adjustment of the image’s tilt); Level Correction; and White Balance Control. The camera also provides a choice of 18 digital filters (or 11 filters during shooting) to add a unique visual effect to a captured image. You can apply as many as seven filters to a single image.

 

AF customization
With the PENTAX K-3 Mark III, you can select the desired set of AF modes and functions based on the subject’s motion, or the prevailing photographic conditions.

 

Auto Horizon Correction and Composition Adjustment
Taking advantage of the SR mechanism, the camera provides the Auto Horizon Correction function to automatically compensate for the image’s horizontal tilt, and the Fine Composition Adjustment function to correct slight tilts — horizontally, vertically and in rotational directions.

 

Lens Correction
In addition to compensating for distortion, vignetting at the edges, and lateral chromatic aberration caused by specific lens properties, the PENTAX K-3 Mark III compensates for the drop in resolving power caused by diffraction, which results from capturing an image at closed-down aperture.

 

In-body RAW data development
The PENTAX K-3 Mark III provides in-body development of RAW-format image files, and saves them as separate JPEG- or TIFF- files. You can add a desired visual effect or finishing touch to a captured image by compensating for lens properties, adjusting white balance and controlling various parameters of the Custom Image modes.

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