It’s Shirley’s fault: I Broke down and went and bought a Pentax K-3
I had a perfectly good Pentax K-5. This was (is) a seriously amazing camera. I was never disappointed with any of the pictures I took with it or the way it functioned.
I resisted upgrading to the K-5II or K-5IIs models when they came out in early-2013.
Also, initially when the K-3 came out, which was about six months ago now, I shook my head and said I would not bother upgrading to that either. The K-5 was superb.
But last Saturday, after attending the memorial for Shirley (see this post here if you have no idea what I am talking about) held at the Popanyinning Baptist Church, and after first consuming a few glasses of consolatory wine wen I got home, I went down to Gerry Gibbs Camera House in Cannington and bought a K-3 body. My son and his girlfriend took me down. I didn’t drive (in case you were wondering).
Sure. Sure. I have had a few twinges of buyers regret since then. At my age I should be putting every penny I can lay my hands on away to support my wife and I through our final years.
But then you die. Seriously. This is NOT a joke. You die! And Shirley proved this to me beyond a shadow of any doubt last Saturday.
As was stated so well by Al Swearengen in Deadwood (I think it was Al that said this) “Nobody gets out alive!”
So I went down and bought a K-3.
I’ve had it a week now and haven’t taken a single ‘real’ picture with it yet, but I am working on that.
One of the most amazing things I have discovered about this camera that does not seem to be covered in the reviews is the incredibly ‘soft’ and practically vibrationless shutter action. Comparing the K-3’s shutter action feel to the K-5’s makes the the K-5 shutter action feel a bit like someone knocking a door down.
A small downside of the K-3 is the size of the image files. The JPGs are bigger and the RAWs are bigger because of the 22MP sensor. I might have to buy another 32GB SD card. I could just get a 64GB card but maybe the idea of two 32GB cards is better and saves some money. 64GB U1-class SD cards are still expensive at around $220. A 32GB U1-class SD card is around $80.
