PENTAX K-3 Mark III Review (2024)

Height

Width

Depth

Volume

Weight

The PENTAX K-3 III isn't especially portable, but it isn't bad for a DSLR. It is heavy, though, since it uses a pentaprism for its viewfinder, which adds a bit of weight. If you'd prefer a more portable camera, consider a mirrorless alternative like the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III.

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The camera feels very well-built. It has a sturdy magnesium alloy body with rubber-coated sides and thumb rest for better grip. The buttons and dials feel solid and offer good physical feedback. The inputs and outputs are covered by standard rubber flaps, while the battery compartment uses a secure locking hinged door.

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Body Type

Water Resistance

Mirrorless

Rugged

Hot Shoe

Customizable Button

Command Dial

Tripod Mount

Lens Mount

Built-In Flash

Fastest Shutter Speed

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Hand Grip: Small Hand

Hand Grip: Medium Hand

Hand Grip: Large Hand

Hand Grip: Extra-Large Hand

The camera feels incredibly comfortable to use. Its large handgrip fits the hand well, and it's suitable for all hand sizes to hold comfortably. The buttons and dials are well-spaced, making it easy to adjust settings with your eye to the viewfinder. It also has a top display, so you can quickly check settings and battery life at a glance.

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Viewfinder Type

Advertised Coverage

Advertised Resolution

Advertised Magnification

The PENTAX K-3 Mark III uses a pentaprism in its viewfinder, which adds some weight to the camera but gives a clearer view through the viewfinder compared to a more inexpensive pentamirror mechanism. The eyecup around the viewfinder is very soft and comfortable.

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Screen Articulation Type

Screen Max Brightness

Advertised Resolution

Size

Touchscreen

The PENTAX K-3 III has a fixed screen, which is limiting for waist-level shooting or video work. The screen has a neat 'Night Vision' mode that decreases its luminosity and turns the display red for nighttime shooting.

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Guide Mode

App Name

The menu system and user interface is good. While settings are all pretty clearly labeled, the submenus are very long and could be more clearly organized. Thankfully, there's a quick menu function to easily access more common settings and a smart function ('S.Fn' button) menu that can be customized to access up to five different settings. If you don't understand what a setting does, the camera has an info/guide function to explain.

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Maximum Aperture

Max Aperture (Full-Frame Equivalent)

Minimum Focal Length

Maximum Focal Length

Max Focal Length (Full-Frame Equivalent)

Optical Image Stabilization

Luminance

Light Falloff

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Sensor Type

Advertised Effective Pixels

Sensor Size

Processor

Extended ISO Minimum

Native ISO Minimum (Base ISO)

Native ISO Maximum

Tested Firmware

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Battery Type

USB Charging

Use When Charging

Advertised Battery Life In Photo

Tested Battery Life In Video

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Low Speed Continuous

High Speed Continuous

Silent Shooting Continuous

Raw Buffer Size

JPEG Buffer Size

Buffer Empty Time

The PENTAX K-3 III can shoot at a quick max burst rate of 11 fps, which is especially impressive relative to other DSLR cameras. It's more than fast enough for most shooting situations where you'd want to capture fast action like sports. That said, it has a very small photo buffer, even when shooting in JPEG, and on top of that, it takes a very long time for it to clear its buffer once full. That means even though you can shoot in quick bursts, you're going to quickly be interrupted, which isn't ideal when you're trying to capture fleeting moments.

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Autofocus Tracking Shots N/A

Perfect Focus Hit Rate

Usable Focus Hit Rate

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Perfect Focus Hit Rate

Usable Focus Hit Rate

When using the center point, through the viewfinder, the camera's AF-C can keep up with moving subjects remarkably well. That's especially true if you use a lens with a relatively quick focusing motor.

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Minimum Shutter Speed Achieved

In-Body Image Stabilization

The PENTAX K-3 Mark III features in-body image stabilization, and it does a fantastic job of stabilizing the sensor, so you can get clear handheld shots at very slow shutter speeds. We used the Pentax HD-DA 16-50mm f/2.8ED PLM AW lens, which doesn't have optical stabilization, but you can expect similar performance even with a kit lens and possibly even better performance with an optically stabilized lens.

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Dynamic Range At Base ISO

Dynamic Range At 1/500s Exposure Time

Dynamic Range At 1/2000s Exposure Time

Dynamic Range At 1/4000s Exposure Time

The PENTAX K-3 Mark III has excellent dynamic range. It's right up there as far as APS-C cameras go and even surpasses a lot of older full-frame DSLRs. All in all, it can capture a wide range of highlight and shadow detail in high-contrast scenes. It also has really good exposure latitude, so you can make pretty significant exposure adjustments to your photos without introducing a whole lot of noise.

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Vertical Edge MTF50 At Base ISO

Horizontal Edge MTF50 At Base ISO

The PENTAX K-3 III takes very detailed photos. It does a good job of resolving fine detail, though this is mostly apparent when pixel-peeping.

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SNR 18% At 1/8 Exposure Time (125 ms)

SNR 18% At 1/125 Exposure Time (8 ms)

SNR 18% At 1/1000 Exposure Time (1 ms)

SNR 18% At 1/4000 Exposure Time (0.25 ms)

The camera has excellent RAW noise handling, far better than most APS-C DSLR cameras we've tested. With shorter exposure times at high ISOs, noise is more visible, but RAW files are still relatively clean.

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JPEG Polish Church Picture Download

RAW Polish Church Picture Download

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Full HD Video

4k Video

6k Video

Clean HDMI Output

Advertised Max Chroma Sampling Over HDMI

Advertised Max Bit Depth Over HDMI

Log Picture Profile

Recording Light

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Audio Recording

Microphone Level Display

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MP4 H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC

MP4 H.265 / HEVC

MOV H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC

MOV H.265 / HEVC

AVCHD H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC

All-I Compression

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240 fps In 4k

120 fps In 4k

60 fps In 4k

30 fps In 4k

24 fps In 4k

4k Crop At Max Available fps

The PENTAX K-3 can only record 4k video with an additional 1.33x crop. It can't record 4k / 60 fps like the latest video-centric cameras can, but it records at up to 30 fps, which is great for standard and more cinematic video work. You just can't get smooth action footage or create slow-motion 4k video with these frame rates.

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Bitrate Maximum In 4k

Bitrate Minimum In 4k

Chroma Sampling In 4k

Bit Depth In 4k

Record Time Limit In 4k

Overheat Recording Interruptions in 4k

Internal recording isn't great in 4k, but that's not unusual, considering this camera's mainly aimed at photographers. It's capped to a seven-and-a-half-minute recording time, which doesn't give you a lot of time to record. Bit rates are also small, and it can only capture 8-bit 4:2:0 video internally, so it isn't capturing a great amount of information, resulting in lower overall video quality.

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Object Tracking In 4k

Face Tracking In 4k

Face Detection In 4k

Eye Detection In 4k

The PENTAX K-3 Mark III has a poor autofocus system when shooting 4k video. It's slow and unreliable, even when using a high-end lens like the DA 16-50mm f/2.8, which uses a PLM motor for autofocusing. While the motor is quiet, which is good for video work, it's still very slow to focus. The camera has face detection and does a good job of recognizing human subjects in the frame, but ultimately, it struggles to keep up with moving subjects.

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Low Light Capability In 4k

Test Scene Extract In 4k

Video quality is okay in 4k. It looks reasonably sharp and detailed, but because the camera can only record cropped 4k, it's using a smaller portion of the sensor, resulting in slightly worse quality than you might expect for 4k. In low light, video looks quite noisy and grainy, and the camera has trouble bringing out detail in the shadows.

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4k Rolling Shutter

The rolling shutter is passable. There's some noticeable skewing when panning the camera, but it isn't terrible and won't be too noticeable with slower camera movements.

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240 fps In FHD

120 fps In FHD

60 fps In FHD

30 fps In FHD

24 fps In FHD

FHD Crop At Max Available fps

In 1080p, the camera can record at up to 60 fps, which is great if you want to incorporate some light slow-motion footage into your videos or simply record smooth action video.

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Bitrate Maximum In FHD

Bitrate Minimum In FHD

Chroma Sampling In FHD

Bit Depth In FHD

Record Time Limit in FHD

You can record a lot longer in 1080p than in 4k, though at 25 minutes, it falls a little bit short of the typical half-hour mark we see on most cameras. Bit rates are decent and about on par with other APS-C DSLRs, but in the age of mirrorless cameras with advanced video capability, it's a little underwhelming, though this camera is aimed mostly at photographers, so it isn't unexpected.

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Object Tracking In FHD

Face Tracking In FHD

Face Detection In FHD

Eye Detection In FHD

The autofocus doesn't perform very well in 1080p, either. It's especially bad at tracking faces. It frequently misses or loses its target, even if they're moving at a moderate pace. The general subject tracking is passable. It eventually finds its target, but it's still slow, having to play catch-up with moving subjects.

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Low Light Capability In FHD

Test Scene Extract In FHD

1080p video quality is mediocre. Videos look soft and lack detail, even when the scene is in focus. It doesn't fare any better in low light, where noise is highly visible, and shadow detail gets lost.

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FHD Rolling Shutter

Thankfully, rolling shutter effect is better in 1080p. It's still present when the camera is moving very quickly, but you're much less likely to have distracting skewing or distortion in Full HD than you are in 4k.

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Card 1 Slot

Card 2 Slot

The PENTAX K3 III has two SD card slots, though only one is rated for faster UHS-II cards. It's still a welcome addition, and given the camera's limited buffer, the advantage of a UHS-II card is marginal. There are three different storage settings when two SD cards are inserted, including sequential, which switches to the backup after the card in Slot 1 is full, duplicate, which uses the second card as a running backup, or an option to store RAW and JPEG photos separately on each card.

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USB

HDMI

Headphones

Microphone

Wi-Fi

Bluetooth

The camera comes equipped with plenty of inputs and outputs. It even has a cable release port, which is handy for long-exposure shots. It also has both a microphone and a headphone jack, as well as Micro HDMI and USB-C ports. All the ports are securely covered thanks to the camera's all-weather design.

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