K-3 Mirror Flapping User Survey (A Common and Serious Issue is Confirmed)

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/172-pentax-k-3/254464-k3-crazy-mirror-sickness-mirror-flapping-lockup-report-yours-here.html

As we can see, there are so many K-3 users, in a total of 71 numbers, reported the same mirror sickness problem. It is concluded that the issue is simply not isolated and it is just  serious and common enough.

Some K-3 users are really pissed off and they are much disappointed/upset/angered. Look at this recent example and detailed user report:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3652110#forum-post-53460592

Pentax FA31/1.8 Limited Vs Sigma 35/1.4 Art Shootout (Tested on K-5IIs)

http://info.xitek.com/product/201404/09-149487.html
(in Simplfied Chinese, but test pictures and crops with captions are all self-explanatory.)

As usual, I blog, you decide! :-D

FA31 Limited on A7R Samples with Crops (and A Rumour about the Three FA Limiteds Ceased Production)

http://forum.xitek.com/thread-1289422-1-1-1.html
(in Simplified Chinese, Pictures are self-explanatory!)

At the other side of the web, it is rumoured that the three FA Limited lenses have already ceased production and the remaining stocks are being cleared:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/53451224



Well, just believe it or not, but I am almost sure that Ricoh will continue to remove anything that is Pentax symbolic including the colour scheme and the look of their old lenses. And yes, very possibly a new Ricoh and Canon like red ring will be circled to the new "Ricoh" lenses some days later when they are revamped (but if and only if!).

Q7 Premium Kit Limited

http://news.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/rim_info2/2014/20140403_004972.html

・PENTAX Q7 camera body (Color: black x black)
・PENTAX-01 STANDARD PRIME (Color: black)
・PENTAX-02 STANDARD ZOOM (Color: black)
・PENTAX-06 TELEPHOTO ZOOM
・PENTAX-08 WIDE ZOOM
・MH-RB40.5 Metal Hood for 01 (Color: black)*
・PH-RBB40.5 Plastic Hood for 02
・PH-RBA40.5 Plastic Hood for 06
・PH-RBF49 Plastic Hood for 08
・PENTAX -100 PL Polarizing filter**
・O-CB133 Camera Bag
・Special kit box

645Z to Come in Twelve Days

http://www.camera-pentax.jp/new2014apr/en/pc/

and http://www.us.ricoh-imaging.com/645z/

Very possibly using the new Sony 50MP CMOS sensor in 44 x 33mm, with the following key specifications:

• High sensitivity  ISO100 to ISO6400 (compared to max ISO 800 for most digital backs so far).
• 14 f-stops dynamic range
• 50 megapixel CMOS sensor – 44 x 33mm (68% larger than a 35mm sensor).
• Responsive Live view (20-24 fps).
• 1.2 fps (interestingly not much faster than CCD based products).

According to the above counter, the announcement will be made in 12 days counting from tomorrow. It will possibly be named as the 645Z. However, Z is not a lucky name for Pentax as it usually meant the last thing that existed right before the whole lineup disappeared, like their Z and MZ families of the K-mount film AFSLRs! :-o

Well, the outlook of this "new" camera:




Read Also: 

What is/are the Meaning(s) of a Cropped Digital System Now?

IR's Interview with Ricoh Japanse Official of Product Planning

http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2014/03/14/ricoh-qa-ricoh-tech-into-pentax-cameras-whither-pentax-full-frame

Old sales talks as usual and there is nothing new. Of course there is no exciting news of any at all. Things have become boring and even more boring, as time goes by! >:(

K-3 Mirror Flapping and Locking Up Issues

"This is my second K3 body... first one was exchanged because of this problem."

Via: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3638230

Again, that RICOH logo is really disgusting! >:-(

K-3 Flash Issues

1. Unacceptable prolonged shutter delay in P-TTL mode:

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/172-pentax-k-3/242556-k-3-delay-when-using-flash.html

Some K-3 users reported that the delay was particularly long, noticeably much longer than that of the K-5, which was not that noticeable.

Another thread at the Taiwanese PFC Pentax forum also states the same thing:

http://www.pentaxfans.net/thread-143957-1-1.html
(in Traditional Chinese)

A petition is being raised.

2. EXIF is not stored correctly for whether the flash is turned on or off:

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/172-pentax-k-3/241800-k-3-flash-issue.html

K-3 and Mac/iPad RAW Support

I received an email from a reader of this Blog and you may find the information he shared and the trick provided useful, as a K-3 user:

You may be aware that K-3 RAW images (both PEF and DNG) are not readable by Apple’s software such as iPhoto and Aperture, neither on the iPad with the Camera Connection Kit. There was no problem with my K-20D and K-5 before, but this time Apple and Ricoh seem to be out of touch, there is no fix in sight.

Now, I’ve done some research and found that it all comes down to a single byte: The DNG files have a “minimum version” field that tells the software that it needs to support this version in order to understand the data in the file. In K3’s DNGs this version is set to 2 while all previous Pentax DSLRs did put a 1 in there. And, alas, Apple’s software can’t deal with that.

Now, here’s the funny part: I wrote a little tool that changes this version field from 2 to 1. And with that, Apple’s software and the iPad can suddenly read and show those DNGs!

Now, it may still be that the DNGs contain some new information that Apple’s software can’t decypher, but I cannot see that the images suffer from it. Maybe it’s just some meta data that’s getting lost in this transition, but I could care less. All I care about is getting the raw data image out of it and that works just fine with that little fix.

I’ve made this tool and information available on pentaxforums.org, but didn’t get much response yet (http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/120-general-technical-troubleshooting/252732-k-3-mac-ipad-users-help-me-test-fix-raw-files.html). I’d like to get some more opinions on this, and see if others find any issues with this method. If not, I’d like to see if we can’t get Ricoh to issue a firmware update that changes this version number to solve this damm issue with Apple product.

Note: While there’s currently an “official” work-around, i.e. using Adobe’s DNG converter, this is not a solution on the iPad, as it can’t run this software. That’s why I like to get this solved properly, as I rather carry my lighter iPad than a Macbook around to review my images when I’m on the road.

Thomas

New Firmwares for Pentax Cameras

http://news.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/rim_info2/support/

To support the new 1.4X Tele Converter.. But as I said before, this method of updating firmwares to support every new lens is actually plain stupid. They should consider to do it in the Canon's way, i.e., to update the software utility that can be used to load the new lens' data into different bodies, of various models.