Pentax K-3 II

Pentax K-3 II is Pentax's Advanced DSLR camera initially released on April of 2015. It houses a 24 MegaPixel, CMOS APS-C sized sensor and has a peak resolution of 6016 x 4000.

Pentax brought out this camera as a way to upgrade the earlier Pentax K-3 (Read Full Comparison)

The K-3 II is rated #21 out of 92 in Advanced DSLR cameras & all-around #129 out of 1465 for cameras in our database. You can check our Advanced camera search to get camera results based on your personalized factors.

Here is a diagram of multiple criteria used in the scoring system.

The Pentax K-3 II is part of a family of digital cameras. You can read the complete range below.

You can check the K-3 II from several angles in the gallery underneath.

Below is a selection of advantages and drawbacks of the Pentax K-3 II based on criterias that are generally seen as essential in a camera.

The Pentax K-3 II is powered by the Prime III chip. The size of the sensor on the Pentax K-3 II is 23.5mm x 15.6mm (APS-C). The 367 mm² sensor is able to resolve 6016 x 4000 pixels and aspect ratios of 3:2. The camera features Image Stabilization (Sensor based). In body stabilization is superior than digital stabilization since the latter might lead to cropping.

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The CMOS sensor has 24 megapixels and delivers a native ISO range of 100 to 51200. RAW format is saved which means that the user has wider room to maneuver in post.

Pentax chose to skip the anti-alias filter on the Pentax K-3 II. This might result in more clearer images but can create moire under certain conditions.

The picture below shows the K-3 II's sensor dimensions compared to other common sizes. The K-3 II sensor has a crop factor of 1.5 and is presented in green.

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To get a sense of specific aspect ratios, you can refer to the visual below.

Pentax K-3 II is 1.76 lbs (800 gr / 28.22 oz) & has outside measurements of 131mm x 100mm x 77mm (5.2" x 3.9" x 3.0"). The weight of general Advanced DSLR camera is 776 gr and the Pentax K-3 II is very similar as compared with its rivals.

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Listed below is a visual of the Pentax K-3 II next to a soda so you can get a sense of its scale.

The top view directly below will highlight the button arrangement on the K-3 II.

The K-3 II works with the Pentax KAF2 mount and has 17 lenses on the market today. Below is a few of the lenses we have in our collection which will fit the K-3 II.

ModelVisualizeFocal LengthApertureStabilizedWeight

Venus Laowa 25mm F2.8 2.5-5X Ultra Macro25mmf/2.8400g

Pentax smc DA 300mm F4.0 ED IF SDM300mmf/4.0 1070g

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Irix 45mm F1.445mmf/1.4925g

Venus Laowa 100mm F2.8 2X Ultra Macro APO100mmf/2.8638g

Samsung D-Xenon 12-24mm F4 ED12-24mmf/4.0 430g

HD Pentax DA 55-300mm F4.0-5.8 ED WR55-300mmf/4.0-5.8 466g

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Samsung D-Xenon 18-250mm F3.5-6.318-250mmf/3.5-6.3 455g

The K-3 II has the following connectivity:

• USB Yes
• Wireless Yes
• HDMI Yes
• GPS Yes

Cameras that have NFC or Bluetooth connectivity are able to be used wirelessly by smartphones. You will be able to send photos and oftentimes adjust camera settings without connecting straight to the camera.

A few applications even stream a Liveview and press the shutter when you aren't near the camera. If the camera contains a HDMI port, it can easily be connected to an external display. The majority of cameras will allow you to recharge the battery through the USB socket.

The highest video resolution on the Pentax K-3 II is 1920 x 1080 and you can shoot in MPEG-4 and H.264 format. 1080p resolution is an excellent balance in quality vs file sizes but FULL HD isn't going to leave you with any room to downsample. The camera does feature both headphone and microphone socket making it very useful whilst capturing sound.

Pentax K-3 II has weather sealing making it a good choice for use in challenging conditions. This can be particularly handy if you are unsure about the elements you may face in outdoor photography.

The Pentax K-3 II is equipped with a 3.2 inch fixed display screen supporting a resolution of 1,037 thousand dots.

Please note that the display has no touch support. The K-3 II also includes a Top LCD display so you can quickly checkout the camera's settings.

Photography Glossary

The View Finder specifications for Pentax K-3 II are as follows:

• ViewFinder Optical (pentaprism)
• ViewFinder Coverage 100%
• ViewFinder Magnification 0.64x

Viewfinders are pretty useful in bright outdoor situations which might make the camera display washed out and difficult to see.

Pentax K-3 II is able to shoot continuously at 8.3 fps. The maximum shutter speed is 1/8000s.

Pentax K-3 II features external flash ability but is without built in flash. The highest flash sync speed is 1/180s.

Pentax K-3 II features both Phase Detect AF plus Contrast Based AF. Phase Detection focusing is a lot more snappier & accurate when compared to Contrast Based focusing. The camera supports Face detect which is valuable for people photography.

The AF system supports 27 focus points to pick from. It also has Tracking AF for things on the move. Pentax K-3 II features manual focusing in case it is required in low light conditions or you want more accurate focusing control.

The battery power (D-LI90) in the Pentax K-3 II is made to last for 720 photographs as per the CIPA standards which is lesser when compared to it's rivals. The typical Advanced DSLR camera battery life is 909. Nikon D780 has the highest (2260) battery life in this category of cameras.

Underneath is a listing of Advanced DSLR cameras that have the best battery life:

ModelVisualizeBattery LifeRAWNFCBluetooth

Nikon D780
K-3 II vs D7802260 yesnoyes

Nikon D850
K-3 II vs D8501840 yesyesyes

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Nikon Df
K-3 II vs Df1400 yesnono

Canon 90D
K-3 II vs 90D1300 yesnoyes

Nikon D500
K-3 II vs D5001240 yesyesyes

The following diagram shows a overview of the Pentax K-3 II for specific kinds of photography. To learn more, have a look at the specific section below.

The Pentax K-3 II gets a score of 79 which is great, and means the camera is a terrific choice to use for portraits. Photographing portrait images favors greatly towards sensor specs, support for RAW files together with the option to work with off-camera lighting.

Getting a nice points tally of 69, the Pentax K-3 II is a good option for street photography. A very good street photography camera offers a fine balance of picture quality plus portability.

A fantastic sports photography points total of 76 indicates the Pentax K-3 II is a fantastic pick for taking pictures of sports. A camera needs great tracking plus fast continuous shooting for sports photography.

Size is pretty crucial when picking a camera for travel. All round, the Pentax K-3 II gets a reasonable 56 as a travelling camera which is relatively appropriate to take on your vacations.

For anybody planning to buy a digital camera for landscape photography, the most significant factor is going to be image quality. The Pentax K-3 II with it's very high score of 78 for a landscape camera is a great pick in the current marketplace.

A vlogging camera preferably should offer a articulating screen, microphone input and preferably IBIS. Considering everything, the Pentax K-3 II is simply not suitable for vlogging as it gets a lousy score of 34.

If you need alternatives to the K-3 II, below is a range of the top scored cameras which fall in to the category of Advanced DSLR.

The line chart followed below gives you a bird's eye view of the K-3 II vs it's top ranked rivals suggested earlier.

These are some more cameras you might look into as alternatives. To review a complete comparison, simply click the "compare" link.