Ned Bunnell's Take on the K-3 III Mono

See his latest posted samples at Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ned_bunnell/sets/72177720307495920/

via his DPR post here.

Whilst the photos are nice, they do lack a bit contrast and sharpness. I would expect (much) better IQ for a dedicated B&W machine, honestly speaking. 

Btw, it seems that Ned does not update his blog anymore.

More K-3 III Monochrome Samples at the "Pentax Official" Site

https://pentaxofficial.com/18527/

https://pentaxofficial.com/18482/

https://pentaxofficial.com/18512/

All in Japanese, but the pictures speak for themselves. Various Pentax original lenses were used for the tests.

K-3 III Monochrome First Review (with Sample Photos and Video)

https://www.yaotomi.co.jp/blog/walk/2023/04/pentaxk3iii,monochrome-kyoto,sakura.html

(in Japanese)

My impression is that while the B&W photos do have more contrasts and better tonal representation than normal digital cameras' ones, they are yet not as solid as those images produced with better B&W films, even after they are digitalised via professional-grade film scanners.

Besides, there is a side-by-side comparison against the original K-3 III, look this:

(Credit: Yaotomi Camera at Twitter)

The difference is obvious. However, it is just that the B&W IQ of the K-3 III photo is just too low, IMHO.

Lastly, DC Watch reports that the Ricoh has stopped to receive pre-orders of the K-3 III Mono as the tailor-made sensors have already been out-of-stock owing to the overwhelming demand. Besides, Ricoh also said that their production capacity on the Mono units was indeed rather limited.