Pentax K-3 AI: Preorder or Holy Water?
What happens when you put cutting-edge subject tracking inside an optical viewfinder?
Best of Pentax Forums Newsletter July 30, 2026
Would you preorder a K-3 AI?
We keep hearing DSLR technology is pretty much maxed out. But that’s hardware. What if Pentax is working on an upgraded K-3 — and an upgraded K-3 Monochrome, of course! — with the current best in class available APS-C sensor, the usual suite of sweet but incremental upgrades from the K-3 III, plus…A cutting-edge AI processor jammed with every type of subject recognition. Are you reaching for your credit card to preorder? Or are you reaching for a bottle of holy water with which to douse the demon spawn? Vote in this week’s poll, and tell us your thoughts on a K-3 AI in the comments!
This week our hearts go out to Moderator pschlute, whose beloved companion Ripley passed away. Our thoughts are with you.
Elsewhere in this week’s newsletter, New Member shure58 takes a shot with the Fotosniper 12; and Senior Member Ray-uk explains how not to clean a Carl Zeiss Ultron 50mm F1.8.
If you’ve been forwarded this newsletter, please take a moment to join the almost 1,600 Pentaxians who have subscribed to our free curated compendium of the hundreds of great images and post shared each week in our Pentax community. Please let us know your thoughts here in the comments and on our Pentax Forums, and have a perfect Pentaxian week!
Threads of the Week:
Sad news about my little Ripley
July 29, 2026 • General Photography • 18 replies • 385 views
pschlute said — Those of you who are regular users of these forums will have seen me post over the years portrait images of my three dogs. When the latest monthly photo competition was announced at the beginning of June I entered a picture of my middle dog Ripley from my archives. Barely a week later he died. Read more »
Now using my K-01s for 3D Stereo Photos
July 26, 2026 • Pentax K-01 • 11 replies • 356 views
rdj92807 said — I love the Pentax K-01, and it’s design is great for using two cameras to shoot side-by-side stereo photos. I’ve got a decent supply of new Pentax K-01s, so I’m good. Compact Pentax limiteds work great for this purpose. Read more »
July 29, 2026 • Welcomes and Introductions • 3 replies • 110 views
mikevansnell said — I’m new here! A few years ago, my dad passed away and I inherited his collection of Pentax gear. I wanted to share a little about him and his photographs before I offer his gear up for sale. My memory of my dad always included him owning a Pentax ... Read more »
Pentaxian User Reviews
Third-Party Pentax Lenses
TAIR-3S - Fotosniper 12 ensemble 300mm F4.5
Reviewed by New Member shure58
Review Date: July 29, 2026 Recommended | Price: None indicated | Rating: 10
Pros: sharp, build, Bokeh, close focus, 16 aperture blades Cons: Heavy, Stiff focus Sharpness: 10 Aberrations: 9 Bokeh: 10 Handling: 7 Value: 10 Camera Used: k1
VERY good. Very sharp for the price! I have the export version. In perfect condition. Heavy! I recommend it!
Carl Zeiss Ultron 50mm F1.8
Reviewed by Senior Member Ray-uk
Review Date: July 15, 2026 Recommended | Price: $400.00 | Rating: 10
Pros: Cons: clickless aperture control
Sharpness: 10 Aberrations: 9 Bokeh: 9 Handling: 8 Value: 9 Camera Used: Canon R7
I have had 3 different copies of this lens, all superb. Equal and superior to a lot of modern lenses but having a unique character. Having a crop camera I don’t find 50mm lenses are a particularly useful length so they don’t get as much use as they should. Consequently they were all resold to finance other ventures. Having said that I have just ordered another one.
A few words of warning. I bought my second copy at a knock down price because of internal dust. Having cleaned one before I didn’t consider that to be a problem, however once dismantled I proceeded to clean the internal glass surfaces with a cloth moistened with isopropanol to find that the dust wiped off easily together with most of the lens coating. It didn’t look nice but still performed quite well once reassembled, obviously time had had not been kind to this lens.
Comment of the Week:
Pentaxian LeeRunge on Record losses! Cratering profits! Is Nikon Doomed? Best of Pentax Forums July 23 Poll: A full frame sensor using the computational techniques of an iPhone would basically be a huge leap in effective DR when it happens. They’re sort of starting to do that with the dual and multigain sensors.
For rapid sharing some of them have connected apps that work well when they’re working. I can connect SnapBridge to my ILC and it sends them in realtime as 8mp or 2mp images or when I hit a button to send and doesn’t eat the battery too bad. The problem with sending all the time is you have a lot of cleanup to deal with in your iPhotos catalog so I just have a send button setup. That’s primarily how I share images rapidly on vacation. Those apps have been getting much better over the years. Bluetooth is still a flaky protocol though at times.
OM live composite and live bulb are really cool features that I enjoyed when I owned one. Live composite makes lightning extremely easy to capture, but pre-Capture works quite well in recent cameras for that too.
Pentax K-3 AI: Preorder or Holy Water?
The Best of Pentax Forums July 30 Poll
I was walking through the forest with my son, the bird photographer. I dragged along with my Pentax K-3 III Monochrome and the HD Pentax-DA 55-300mm F4.5-6.3 ED PLM WR RE. (Yes, I should shoot birds in colour. Yes, I should get a K-3 III Colour for that. Like I need an excuse to buy another camera…)
And when a bird was sitting atop a telephone pole highlighted against the endless blue skies of Texas the K-3 III Monochrome autofocus with the PLM lens was all you could ask for. Unfortunately, birds don’t always cooperate like that. That’s what drove the development of OM-System’s Bird AI Subject Recognition, Nikon’s Subject Detection…heck, Sony even has discrete subject detection for trains, planes and automobiles!
Which got me thinking. We keep hearing DSLR technology is pretty much maxed out. But that’s hardware. I’m a software guy, so naturally that’s where my mind goes:
What if Pentax is working on an upgraded K-3 — and an upgraded K-3 Monochrome, of course! — with the current best in class available APS-C sensor, the usual suite of sweet but incremental upgrades from the K-3 III, plus…
A cutting-edge AI processor jammed with every type of subject recognition.
Are you reaching for your credit card to preorder? Or are you reaching for a bottle of holy water with which to douse the demon spawn? Vote in this week’s poll, and tell us your thoughts on a K-3 AI in the comments!
This poll closes August 5
And here are the results of last week’s poll:
Weekly Photo Challenges
Project 52-14-30: yellow, until 8-2 (Sunday)
A "yellow" photo challenge is the perfect opportunity to sharpen your eye.
Yellow is a powerful color that embodies brightness, energy, and a zest for life.
The possibilities are endless. Let the following creative categories inspire you as you set out in search of the perfect yellow:
Sunflowers or dandelions: An absolute classic that never fails to lift the spirits.
Focus on the fine pollen on stamens or the texture of a yellow leaf.
Scout the city for old doors or modern building walls painted entirely yellow.
Photograph a bright yellow postal van, a taxi, bicycles, or an iconic phone booth.
Keep an eye out for traffic signs, construction site barriers, or the contrast between yellow and a complementary color like purple or charcoal gray.
Lemons: Whether whole, sliced, or in a refreshing glass of water.
Bananas: Photograph a banana or experiment with geometric shapes and shadows.
Yellow as Contrast: Look for a subject where a single yellow object stands out against an otherwise dark or drab setting.
Take your best shot, but most of all, have fun!
I'm looking forward to seeing many old and new participants in Project 52 and to see your different yellow pictures from around the world.
Take your best shot, but most of all, have fun!
And here’s the entry from Site Supporter MiguelATF: Squash Flower-In my garden, the squash plants are flowering - and each flower seems to exhibit multiple hues and shades of yellow, everything from a light almost white-ish yellow to a deeper, darker, more saturated yellow. I’m not the only one who has noticed them - they have attracted a moderate amount of pollinators, as well.
Pentax KP + Tamron SP Macro 90mm f/2.8
A Walk Down Memory Lane
Pentaxian Profile: Teresa Brubaker
Pentax sports photographer since 2009
By PF Staff in Pentaxian Profiles on Sep 13, 2021
I am a professional sports photographer who also does portrait, landscape and wildlife photography. Starting in 2009, when I received my first Pentax digital SLR, the K20D, as a birthday gift from my husband, I began shooting high school athletic events where my husband taught and coached, as well as where our children attended/competed. As an inner-tier suburban, very diverse school, it had many athletes who had never had any photos of themselves competing in their sports. Before long, I volunteered to provide photos for all of the athletes for no charge through my photo web page, as well as do sports collages for the teams that either my husband coached or our children participated. I also photographed many high school musicals and graduations, providing all of the photos at no charge on my webpage.
PentaxForum Front page stories July 23-29:
June 2026 “Pets or other Animals” Photo Contest Winners
Announcing the winners of our monthly contest
By PF Staff in Photo Contests on Jul 23, 2026
It is our pleasure to announce the winners of our June, 2026 “Pets or other Animals” photo contest! In first place was forum member Tuxian from UK who captured “Bird of Prey” (pictured above). This photo was shot with a Pentax K-70 and an HD PENTAX-DA 55-300mm F4.5-6.3 ED PLM WR RE lens.
Our runners-up were forum member wpteedphotography from USA in second place with “Arlo i n the Air” and (after a draw) ramseybuckeye from USA in third place with “In the Shadows”.
Pentax K-3 AI: Preorder or Holy Water?
What happens when you put cutting-edge subject tracking inside an optical viewfinder?
By cjfeola in Columns on Jul 29, 2026
One of the primary criticisms leveled against Pentax’s decision to stick with DSLRs is that autofocus for this older design has reached a dead end.
Perhaps. But autofocus on my Pentax K-3 III Monochrome is pretty great with PLM lenses. And it’s three years old. And yet still the newest DSLR. But let’s stipulate for the sake of the argument that DSLR hardware is maxed out.
What about software?
The real advances in autofocus over the last few years have been through AI subject recognition: OM-System’s Bird AI Subject Recognition, Nikon’s Subject Detection…heck, Sony even has discrete subject detection for trains, planes and automobiles!
So what if Pentax is working on, say, an upgraded K-3 — and an upgraded K-3 Monochrome, of course! — with the current best in class available APS-C sensor, the usual suite of sweet but incremental upgrades from the K-3 III, plus…
A cutting-edge AI processor jammed with every type of subject recognition.