Nikon D500 vs Pentax K-3 — Which Is Better?

The Nikon D500 and the Pentax K-3 are both APS-C CMOS DSLRs with optical pentaprism viewfinders. The D500 arrived in 2016 on the Nikon F DX mount, three years after the 2013 K-3 on the Pentax KAF mount.

The K-3 is the smaller and lighter body at 131 x 100 x 77 mm and 800 g, against the D500's 147 x 115 x 81 mm and 860 g. That 60 g saving makes the Pentax the more compact camera to carry.

The D500 is the stronger choice for tracking fast subjects, with 153 autofocus points and 10 fps continuous shooting against the K-3's 27 points and 8.3 fps. That means more AF points for a moving subject and more frames captured each second of a burst. Both also top out at 1/8000 second.

The K-3 answers with two useful stills advantages of its own. Its 24 MP sensor has more pixels than the D500's 20.9 MP, giving more room to crop a landscape or portrait, and its in-body stabilisation steadies handheld shots with any KAF lens, something the D500 does not offer. Both sensors share a 51200 ISO standard ceiling.

For detailed footage the D500 is the better pick, recording 4K video while the K-3 stops at Full HD, so you can crop a wildlife clip and keep detail. Frame rates favour the K-3, whose 60 fps limit doubles the D500's 30 fps for slow-motion editing.

A shared capability is built-in timelapse recording on both cameras, so interval work needs no external controller on either body. The D500 records MOV files and the K-3 MPEG-4, which mainly affects your editing workflow preferences.

Wireless transfer is easier on the D500, which has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth the K-3 lacks. Its 3.2-inch touchscreen offers 2359000 dots against the K-3's non-touch 1037000-dot panel of the same size, so you can tap to choose focus points and move through menus.

A built-in flash gives the K-3 quick fill light when travelling without a flash unit. Both cameras have weather sealing, external flash support and live view, and neither has GPS for geotagging.

The D500 holds the battery advantage for long shooting days, rated at 1240 shots per charge against 560 for the K-3. Both use proprietary packs, the EN-EL15 and D-LI90, and neither charges over USB.

Both cameras have dual card slots, so two cards fit at once. The D500's slots also accept the faster UHS-II SD and XQD card types, while the K-3 takes the SD family only.