Pentax K3-Hidden Gem

I have always had a soft spot for Pentax. Mainly through using the manual lenses from the film era where Pentax were a really big name in professional photography, the days before Sony, Panasonic Lumix, Fujifilm (as a mainstream camera company). Pentax made cameras professional photographers used, they made superb lenses for all tiers of photography. I got into using Pentax lenses when I shot with Fujifilm mirrorless cameras.

Their cameras in the early days of digital were sometimes quirky, always different to the big two of Canon and Nikon. They gradually lost their top three ranking with the advent of Sony. Ricoh acquired all the shares in Pentax in 2011 before changing the company’s name to Ricoh Imagining in 2013.

Ricoh Pentax started to make really good, feature packed APSC DSLRs and the advent of the K5 marked the step up to a pro grade cropped DSLR. It was rugged, feature packed and enabled the user to create beautiful images with depth and vibrant colours. My model was the successor to the K5 series, upping the megapixels from 16 to 24, increased weather sealing and even more features. It was and possibly still is the nicest camera to hold of all models.

My journey with Pentax is not a constant one, more occasional. I have kept my vintage lenses and a couple of more modern weather sealed autofocus lenses, just in case I decide to use a Pentax body. I got my K3 a while back and sort of forgot about it. My work has been on full frame now for a few years and Pentax didn’t really feature.

We are in the process of moving house and I was sorting through my camera equipment. I came across , dusted off the K3 and started using it last week. It’s a joy to handle, performs flawlessly and is considerably lighter than my Canon gear. It does render images differently than my 5D Mark IV and 6D. It shows its limitations against those full frame classics but you just have to work around them. In reality, it is a prosumer / professional grade bit of kit that delivers the goods at a fraction of the weight and price. If you’re on a long hike and want to take a camera and a couple of lenses, it won’t let you down. Every time I use it, I wonder whether I could just have it on its own and think ‘ probably not’.

I love my Canon gear and don’t really mind the extra weight. They are so reliable , with brilliant autofocus and a certain something that only Canon can do. Pentax also has its own ‘look’ which is enjoyable to edit. Pentax doggedly sticks with DSLRs, believing that making really good, tough spec heavy mirrored digital cameras has a niche in the vast camera market. The company takes years to bring out new models and don’t follow the other makers. They plough their own furrows

In 2025, Pentax is a camera brand that many people that are new to photography, will not be aware of. They don’t always follow the crowd in terms of design, specs and the overwhelming shift to mirrorless but they are serious about photography. Their cameras are built to last, often out perform their peers and rarely shout about the fact that they do. They are made to be used in the harshest environments and are really nice to hold and operate. You can pick up many classic K series digital cameras for a steal on the used camera market. Go on, try one, you will be surprised if not sold on Pentax. Who knows, you might even end up a full blown Pentaxian!

High Drama!

It was a very windy, blustery, gusty afternoon up on Bridgestones Moor. The sky was stormy but magnificent, The moor, standing 1400ft above sea level, was relatively dry underfoot. I ventured forth with my Canon 6D and 16-35 f4 IS lens to capture some drama. The raw images turned out great but there was something missing in the straight edit of this excellent

There are occasions when you want to capture the scene ‘as is’. Product photography, commercial shoots and such that require the realistic colours and textures of the items you’re shooting. I have done such shoots and they can be satisfying but for me, landscapes are a different beast.

The photographer and YouTuber Martin Castein, mentions in one of his videos about white balance and how it can convey different emotions to a photograph. Landscapes when you’re out in them, invoke certain emotional responses that commercial shoots don’t. Sometimes you want to present an exaggerated vision of the moment captured and the landscape in which you were shooting. High winds and stormy skies can be portrayed in a more dramatic fashion than just actual documenting the scene when you were there. I created a Lightroom preset to edit the raw images and just tweaked exposure and aspect to suit the shot

The Bridestones sit on top of the aforementioned moor, high above Todmorden in Calderdale, West Yorkshire. They are an outcrop of gritstone moulded and shaped by erosion known as weathering. The indentations, the cracks, the smooth edges have been made by hundreds of thousand of years of exposure to the elements. To those of us living in upper Calderdale, they are an iconic spot and much visited. I have been there many times but interestingly, it is never busy like the famous Cow and Calf rocks above Ilkley. They are in many ways, superior in their location and general wildness in my humble opinion. The high Pennine moorland of Calderdale is vast compared to say Bradford district, although the two run into each other high above the Worth Valley and Bronte country.

I know these types of representations are not to everyone’s taste but I find they convey how I felt at the time of taking the photos. Coming down off the top, I felt truly windswept, as if I’d had some sort of extreme spa treatment. On several shots, I had trouble holding the camera still enough to take them but an increase in shutter speed and a solid camera body helped. One of the many things modern photographers and YouTubers don’t say about full frame DSLR bodies is that their weight and ergonomics are useful at times. Yes, they are heavier than mirrorless cameras but they feel great in the hand and the weight adds stability taking hand held shots. I really don’t get on with tripods, they are a faff and you have to decide on a composition rather than move around quickly to get the better one. I’m loving my return to Canon DSLRs. They are a joy to hold, to use and I love the colours and detail you get out of what is seen as old technology. On commercials shoots, they are a dream because of their rugged reliability. They are also quicker to operate than mirrorless and are instantly ready from when you turn the camera on. The battery life is twice if not more of their mirrorless equivalent which is another advantage when using them commercially.

I hope you like this selection of landscape images and that they convey a little bit of time and place.

DSLR Revival

I started my photography journey on a mirrorless camera. I stuck with them for several years before trying out the Canon DSLR systems and all of a sudden, I realised they were built for photographers rather than hybrid shooters. The joy of instant availability, optical viewfinders and old school simplicity appealed straight away. I stuck with Canon for a while before trying Nikon DSLR s . They were equal but different to Canon and as much fun to use. Then I had my accident and couldn’t contemplate taking the heavier gear around with me.

Ever since, my tastes and needs in Mirrorless have got more expensive and more capable. My current Mirrorless beast has 61mp , blindingly fast autofocus and a relatively small footprint. What it doesn’t have however is any enjoyment in using it. It works flawlessly and is immensely powerful but it lacks something. Photography for me, needs a soulful connection between me and the machine. I was looking back at my most popular and those that have sold well. I realised 80% were shot using DSLR cameras. They all print to a good size and have tons of detail where necessary. The low light images are grain free, sharp and they have a certain look about them.

I decided to sell some mirrorless lenses and my second Sony body to fund re acquiring a couple of old bodies and some lenses . I got hold of the Canon 6D a couple of days ago and have used it a few times now. It’s a joy to use, very comfortable, efficient and surprisingly portable for a full frame DSLR. I’m awaiting a 5D Mark iii which is bigger but not unwieldy. I have a few lenses that all work well and are optically excellent. The camera technology is over 13 years old but doesn’t feel old. The Canon menu system is a breeze and operation is very simple. They clunk when you press the shutter in a quite satisfying way. You feel like you’re taking a photo rather than handling a machine over engineered and crammed full of specs. Don’t get me wrong, my Sony can really deliver but it’s not much fun. I understand why many professionals still like DSLRs for their rugged, dependable abilities and feel more comfortable using them. We’re told in many spheres of modern living that small is beautiful and desirable. I don’t always think that’s the case if pleasure of use is taken away.

My plan therefore, is to slim down my Sony gear to the bare essentials for professional studio shoots and use my Canons for landscapes, travel and street photography. I am more comfortable using big cameras in street situations now and now recovered enough to carry heavier gear, I don’t worry about a couple of extra kilos in gear. One great advantage to DSLRs is the phenomenal battery life you get. Twice, sometimes three times as long from one battery as you would get from my Sony.

Canon made formidable cameras in the 6D and 5D Mark iii. I’m not certain they intended the 6D to be quite as good as it is but they had every intention of beefing up the 5D from the previous model. I fully intend to keep the Canons and not sell them unless I’ve really pushed up their shutter counts. It’s such a joy to use the 6D and long live the DSLR!