Pentax K-3: Best Expert DSLR (TIPA 2014)

The Pentax flagship DSLR wins a prestigious award

By PF Staff in Pentax Announcements on Apr 23, 2014

The Pentax K-3 has been voted as the "Best Expert DSLR" of 2014 by editors of the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA), an organization consisting of 29 photography magazines from 16 different countries. TIPA states that "a TIPA Awards endorsement is the highest accolade for any photo and imaging product." Each year, TIPA presents 40 awards in a wide variety of categories, from everyday accessories to professional photographic equipment. This year's awards were determined at a convention held on April 5th in Vancouver, and these awards are being announced to the public today.

Three other Pentax DSLRs have been recognized by TIPA in the past:

TIPA's selection of the K-3 comes as no surprise, as this high-performance 24-megapixel camera delivers a host of innovative and class-leading features, such as a 8.3 FPS shutter, hardware moire reduction, and a large LCD screen with a 3:2 aspect ratio. From a hardware perspective, the K-3 is Pentax's most technologically-advanced DSLR to date.

To learn more about the K-3, visit our in-depth review or the K-3 forum.

Other noteworthy cameras in this year's TIPA awards include the Olympus EM-10, Samsung NX30, Fuji XT-1 and Sony A7r in the Entry-Level, Advanced, Expert, and Professional mirrorless categories, and the Nikon D3300, Canon 70D, and Nikon D4s in the Entry-Level, Advanced, and Professional DSLR categories, respectively. The Nikon 1 AW1 was awarded "Best Rugged Compact Camera", a distinction given to the Pentax WG-2 back in 2012. The complete list of award winners is available on TIPA's web site.

Considering that the recently-announced Pentax 645Z shares most of its hardware with the K-3 but packs an impressive medium-format sensor at a very affordable price, we wouldn't be surprised if it were to catch TIPA's attention in 2015.

The Pentax K-3 normally retails for $1299 in the US, but there are currently some exciting deals available: