iso rivolta
Senior Member
Now I'm the owner of both the K-3 II and KP. I like both cameras very much and right now I see no reasons to upgrade to K-3 III for my uses (mostly macro and scientific work).
Before buying the KP I found no reliable information on some technical aspects related to live view, electronic shutter and remote view. Here I'm sharing my findings.
The electronic shutter (ES). K-3 II uses ES only for pixel shift (like K-3 III). Even when starting pixel shift capture from LV, the shutter is not silent - it sounds the same as taking a single normal exposure. KP is entirely silent with both pixel shift and single exposures with ES, when starting from LV. I wonder how K-3 III behaves here, silent or not with pixel shift from LV?
I measured the scan time of the sensor with ES by photographing a diffuse glass lighted by an incandescent bulb plugged in the mains. 50 Hz AC here. I got on the frame vertical about 11 bands (5.5 AC periods) with K-3 II (in one frame extracted from pixel shift capture) and 8.5 bands (4.25 AC periods) with the KP. This means the ES frame scan times are as follows:
- for K-3 II about 110 ms or 1/9 s,
- for KP about 85 ms or 1/12 s.
For KP I compared single shot ES and one frame extracted from pixel shift and the scan times were the same.
Banding at 50 Hz with K-3 II (left) and KP (right). 1/9 s scan time for K-3 II and about 1/12 s for KP.
Exposure simulation in live view in Manual exposure mode. I was not happy with this in my K-3 II because the simulation (and live histogram) works reliably only from -3 EV to +3 EV and sometimes even on a shorter range. The image brightness is settling very slowly, e.g. when pointing to a dark object, the LV image is getting brighter (as if the camera was in auto exposure instead of M) and then settling to a darker value, trying to simulate how the real picture will look like. DOF can be previewed by rotating the collar around the shutter release, as normal.
With the KP things are much improved. Exposure in M mode is reliably and fast simulated between -5 EV to +5 EV (meaning the entire exposure compensation scale). Outside that range it does nothing more but that is enough for me. Very interesting, in M mode in good light, DOF is previewed live, meaning the lens is stopped down live as you change the aperture value. In low light and in all other modes the lens is kept wide open. When magnifying the image, the aperture is open but you can check DOF if you customize a button for this.
Remote view. FluCard vs Image Sync. K-3 II with FluCard in one of the slots works acceptably for my needs, slow to initialize but otherwise OK. Image Sync is much faster to initialize but it has some glitches on my smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S8, Android 9). Apparently it is sometimes losing the Wi-Fi password but actually is just slow to connect. If I wait enough there is no need to reenter the password.
I was disappointed that Image Sync does not allow magnifying the image in remote view, while the FluCard allows this (about 8x magnification). I think remote view magnification is still unavailable with Pentax K-3 III with the current app.
If you set focus peaking in the camera, this will be reproduced in remote view with both apps. Below are some screenshots from my phone.
K-3 II, no magnification (left) and with magnification (right). The magnification is about 8x, so close to 100%.
K-3 II without and with focus peaking
KP without and with focus peaking (type 1)
KP with focus peaking type 2. This works better in stronger light and it's useful to have enough contrast in the image to better understand what you are looking at.
Both cameras shut down their screens and block their on-camera controls while in remote view. To release the camera and adjust parameters unavailable in remote view, just press the LV button in the app and this stops remote view and starts LV on the camera. This is easy and fast to switch between the camera and the smartphone.
Truth is, I don't really need remote view a lot. I became interested more in it more due to KP missing the IR remote. I think I will rather use the 2s self-timer than the app.
Before buying the KP I found no reliable information on some technical aspects related to live view, electronic shutter and remote view. Here I'm sharing my findings.
The electronic shutter (ES). K-3 II uses ES only for pixel shift (like K-3 III). Even when starting pixel shift capture from LV, the shutter is not silent - it sounds the same as taking a single normal exposure. KP is entirely silent with both pixel shift and single exposures with ES, when starting from LV. I wonder how K-3 III behaves here, silent or not with pixel shift from LV?
I measured the scan time of the sensor with ES by photographing a diffuse glass lighted by an incandescent bulb plugged in the mains. 50 Hz AC here. I got on the frame vertical about 11 bands (5.5 AC periods) with K-3 II (in one frame extracted from pixel shift capture) and 8.5 bands (4.25 AC periods) with the KP. This means the ES frame scan times are as follows:
- for K-3 II about 110 ms or 1/9 s,
- for KP about 85 ms or 1/12 s.
For KP I compared single shot ES and one frame extracted from pixel shift and the scan times were the same.
Banding at 50 Hz with K-3 II (left) and KP (right). 1/9 s scan time for K-3 II and about 1/12 s for KP.
Exposure simulation in live view in Manual exposure mode. I was not happy with this in my K-3 II because the simulation (and live histogram) works reliably only from -3 EV to +3 EV and sometimes even on a shorter range. The image brightness is settling very slowly, e.g. when pointing to a dark object, the LV image is getting brighter (as if the camera was in auto exposure instead of M) and then settling to a darker value, trying to simulate how the real picture will look like. DOF can be previewed by rotating the collar around the shutter release, as normal.
With the KP things are much improved. Exposure in M mode is reliably and fast simulated between -5 EV to +5 EV (meaning the entire exposure compensation scale). Outside that range it does nothing more but that is enough for me. Very interesting, in M mode in good light, DOF is previewed live, meaning the lens is stopped down live as you change the aperture value. In low light and in all other modes the lens is kept wide open. When magnifying the image, the aperture is open but you can check DOF if you customize a button for this.
Remote view. FluCard vs Image Sync. K-3 II with FluCard in one of the slots works acceptably for my needs, slow to initialize but otherwise OK. Image Sync is much faster to initialize but it has some glitches on my smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S8, Android 9). Apparently it is sometimes losing the Wi-Fi password but actually is just slow to connect. If I wait enough there is no need to reenter the password.
I was disappointed that Image Sync does not allow magnifying the image in remote view, while the FluCard allows this (about 8x magnification). I think remote view magnification is still unavailable with Pentax K-3 III with the current app.
If you set focus peaking in the camera, this will be reproduced in remote view with both apps. Below are some screenshots from my phone.
K-3 II, no magnification (left) and with magnification (right). The magnification is about 8x, so close to 100%.
K-3 II without and with focus peaking
KP without and with focus peaking (type 1)
KP with focus peaking type 2. This works better in stronger light and it's useful to have enough contrast in the image to better understand what you are looking at.
Both cameras shut down their screens and block their on-camera controls while in remote view. To release the camera and adjust parameters unavailable in remote view, just press the LV button in the app and this stops remote view and starts LV on the camera. This is easy and fast to switch between the camera and the smartphone.
Truth is, I don't really need remote view a lot. I became interested more in it more due to KP missing the IR remote. I think I will rather use the 2s self-timer than the app.
Last edited:
