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Sunday, March 24, 2013

K-3 FF in 24MP is Being Beta-Tested?

A guy called Mike Svitek has posted and typed these in his twitter and Google+ accounts, as follows and quoted, one by one:-

https://twitter.com/svitekphotos/status/314424040804720640/photo/1

"Testing the Pentax K-3 ... ISO25600 sample blew me away!"

https://plus.google.com/109859150130478662888/posts

Read the earlier one of the two posts made on March 20th:-

"Testing out the new Pentax K-# HDSLR  [ ;) WINK WINK... NUDGE NUDGE ]  with the Pentax 77mm Limited Prime lens ... 1/500s f/11 ISO25600 Custom WB
Contrast has been increased and image was cropped+downsized in DarkTable.

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Now that all the formalities are out of the way... I love the tones, the dynamic range is amazing, and the resolution (while being too high for my taste) has its advantages when clearing up some noise. With the combo of the new sensor and processor, there is very little noise to clean up in the first place. It only starts showing up visibly at around ISO6400 (becoming obvious here at 25,600 and pretty bad at the extended range of 102,400) ... As I already stated, this camera sits between its competitors with the D800 and the D4 or the 5D Mrk.3 and the 1DX ... Somewhere between the two classes of each manufacturer.
Sadly, I have to give it back tomorrow... It was a fun ride while it lasted..."


https://plus.google.com/photos/109859150130478662888/albums/5857441102173448593/5857441104907673602?authkey=CKq4_J2Sttm0Gg

A larger version of the above sample in 2048 x 1420 pixels can be downloaded via the "Option" item located at the bottom of the page. This ISO 25,600 image made with the 77 Limited lens is really impressive enough, if it is really true!

And the following additional things are disclosed:-

"BTW: I've known Ricoh representa
tives all my life. That's the only reason why they allowed me to test-run these cameras... There are 10 prototypes circulating around as I understood it, with three different internal variants... This one is D600 meets A99, they make a baby, and then inject it with steroids. ;)"
"I can't wait to see how many new people this will bring in. Pentax users have been on a very slow decline since 2003 when they killed the K1 concept for the second time... 2013/2014 is the time to strike back! Move over Canikons!
P.S. ... Happy Pentax Day!"

"I mentioned the D600/A99 because it has a similar sensor, which I'm not fond of... I find 24Mpix to be much too high. I suggested to them the same sensor as the D4 has, and using their Shake Reduction technology to create a multi-shot composite similar to what Hasselblad has. However, I am a specialist
s so I need the low light performance... the general public should love the new camera, inside and out."