Pentax K-3 Image Quality

The K-3 has 8 more megapixels than the K-5 II and that resolving power is clearly on display here at base ISO. With color, exposure and detail looking otherwise quite similar, the K-3 appears like a K-5 II on steroids. As we've mentioned previously in many Pentax reviews, their processing tends to over-saturate our pink fabric swatch and to also render it as more magenta-colored than the fabric actually is. Other than that typical Pentax oddity, the K-3 images are very impressive. In our print quality section below, you will see that at lower ISOs this increase in resolution does translate into larger print sizes.

The K-3 with its roughly 4 more megapixels than the 70D certainly outperforms it for fine detail, most notably in the mosaic tile crop where the difference is actually striking. The K-3 also does a terrific job with our difficult red fabric swatch here, while the 70D struggles a bit with rendering finer details in it.

Nikons in general tend to do a great job with our red fabric swatch, as is evident here, and the D7100 is one of two other cameras in this comparison with roughly the same resolution at 24MP (the A77 being the second). The two here both do a great job with the bottle crop, and yet the K-3 clearly outshines the D7100 for crisper detail in the mosaic tiles.

The E-M1 has the distinction in these comparisons of being the only camera with a Four Thirds size sensor, and also the only model with a base ISO of 200. The K-3 is clearly superior for fine detail in most areas, and yet the E-M1 with roughly 8MP less resolution still stands up fairly well overall, with nice sharp imagery in most areas except the red-leaf fabric. (Note that the E-M1 does much better at its extended ISO 100 setting.)

With virtually identical 24MP resolution, the mosaic tile and pink fabric areas again draw our attention here, as the K-3 is superior in rendering fine detail in both areas. Note that these JPEGs are at default settings, and your own conclusions when shooting in RAW mode and doing your own processing may vary dramatically.

This is a tricky comparison because of the K-3's increased resolution, but keep in mind we're in effect looking at a much larger image. Other than the resolution difference, these two cameras seem to handle ISO 1600 about the same, with typical noise in the flatter shadows and the loss of almost all contrast and detail in our red-leaf fabric swatch.

The 70D is a bit more aggressive here at default JPEG sharpening and is able to squeeze some detail and contrast out of the red fabric swatch, but it comes at the expense of higher noise in the bottle crop and more splotchiness in the mosaic tiles.

Even more than the 70D, the D7100 brings out an amazing amount of detail in the red fabric swatch for this ISO, but has more apparent noise in the bottle crop, less detail in the mosaic tiles and lower contrast in the pink fabric swatch than does the K-3.

The E-M1 is also rather aggressive here at default settings with sharpening, and the results show in the artifacts in the bottle, and splotchiness in the mosaic tiles and pink fabric swatch. It is however able to render at least a little detail in the red fabric swatch.

Another story similar to most of the rest, with the A77 showing some decent detail in the red fabric but suffering from more processing artifacts in most other areas.

Noise processing artifacts from the K-3 bottle crop almost jump off the page here. Again, the K-3's sizeable bump in resolution is evident as compared to the K-5 II, but the latter does surprisingly well with better crispness and less splotchiness in the mosaic tiles. Both cameras really struggle to produce any detail in the read-leaf swatch.

The playing field has leveled somewhat here as compared to ISO 1600, with trade-offs for each camera in different areas. The K-3 has better detail in the mosaic tiles and pink fabric, and of course none at all in the red fabric and higher noise in the bottle crop.

Similar yet again to the 70D, the D7100 is also able to render more detail in the red fabric and a little less in the mosaic tile crop and pink fabric swatch. Both cameras handle the bottle crop about the same, though the Nikon leaves behind more noise.

The E-M1's processing algorithms here at default settings produce generally smoother images overall, but at the obvious expense of a watercolor type effect in the bottle and mosaic tile. Here at ISO 3200 that may not be such a bad thing as long as your prints or onscreen images remain below a certain size threshold, as no camera is perfect at 3200.

Similar to the 70D and D7100, the A77 is able to find more detail in the red fabric but provides a lot less in the mosaic tile and pink fabric swatch.