Yesterday it seemed that TechRadar had highlighted in their comparisons of Nikon and Canon the depressing similarity of features, and quality offered by the two dominant camera makers. It emphasized the fact that real consumer choice was offered in upgrades, but not in like for like purchases. A review by DP Review of the Pentax K-3 brings hope that innovation and diversity isn’t quite dead, as Pentax land a hit in the pro-sumer, professional end of the market.
The staff at DP Review found the Pentax K-3 improves on the K-5 II and the K-5IIs in every way. The improvements on the K5II are in increased capacity; a bump to 8.3fps, a better AF system and a focus on video recording. What the staff also found however, was that current Pentax owners Ricoh are pushing ahead with innovation. Not only in their controversial decision to stamp the name Ricoh onto the Pentax model for the first time, but in the ability of the K-3 to provide anti-aliasing at the push of a button. What impresses the reviewers is the mechanism by which the camera achieves this, and that Nikon are second to the patent market for this feature. Nikon use a different technique to achieve this feature in their cameras, but perhaps it is the jolt of having a rival that is happy to include sophisticated technology in mid range cameras that is spurring Nikon to make innovations. Pentax have previously been ahead of the competition in installing qualities such as weather-proofing in lower end models and if they are offering genuine competition to Canon and Nikon to provide consumers with choices future camera releases by all brands may offer different mixes of features geared at different market users so the options when buying a camera become more distinct. On the anti-aliasing feature within the camera DP Review write,
It hasn’t accomplished this by having the filter just drop into place. No, Pentax is using its sensor-shift image stabilizer to deliberately move the sensor during the exposure, slightly blurring the image to mimic the effects of an optical low-pass filter. Not only can this be turned on and off, Pentax is also offering two ‘intensities’ to choose from.
Getting more technical with the details later on in the piece they explain in more detail the importance of this.
The most significant new feature on the K-3 is its ‘anti-aliasing simulator’. Like the K-5 IIs the camera has no anti-aliasing filter; this improves resolution, but with the trade-off of an increased risk of moiré. Pentax is using the K-3’s sensor-shift IS system to simulate the effect of having the filter.
The AA simulator works by applying ‘microscopic vibrations to the image sensor unit at the sub-pixel level during exposure’, according to Pentax. Simply put, these tiny vibrations cause just enough blur to give the same effect as having an optical anti-aliasing filter. There are two options to choose from – Pentax calls them type 1 and type 2 – which we assume increases the ‘strength’ of the virtual filter. Pentax says that the AA simulator is most effective when the shutter speed is under 1/1000 sec.
We look forward to seeing how well the AA simulator works, and will post the results in our final review of the K-3.
Are you a fan of Pentax models? Do you think that this camera will push Nikon and Canon to offer more in their lower end cameras.
