Pentax K-3 III Samples

Here the Pentax K-3 III is compared to itself. All images below are 100% unmodified crops from the K-3 III. Crops in the left column are taken from standard images, while those on the right are taken in Pixel-Shift mode which captures 4 exposures offsetted by one photo-site to generate a full-color image in-camera. Pixel-Shift mode is designed to increase color-depth but has the side-effect of reducing image-noise by averaging over four exposures which turns into a roughly 1-stop advantage.

These crops help determine which ISO sensitivities are acceptable to used on these cameras. Most cameras compensate with noise reduction as noise increases but this introduces softness. The point at which a print becomes unacceptably noisy is a matter of personal taste.

Standard	Pixel-Shift
ISO 100	ISO 100
ISO 200	ISO 200
ISO 400	ISO 400
ISO 800	ISO 800
ISO 1600	ISO 1600
ISO 3200	ISO 3200
ISO 6400	ISO 6400
ISO 12800	ISO 12800
ISO 25600	ISO 25600
ISO 51200	ISO 51200
ISO 102400	ISO 102400
ISO 204800	ISO 204800
ISO 409600	ISO 409600
ISO 819200	ISO 819200
ISO 1638400	ISO 1638400

Noise becomes lower and much finer in Pixel-Shift mode. One reason for the more regular pattern of noise is that the K-3 III relies on its electronic-shutter to avoid shaking the camera during the process.