Originally posted by pacerr The manuals offer a tabular listing of each Scene Mode's adjustments to the presumed 'normal' exposure'. Review those and you'll likely agree that the adjustments make sense -- might even learn a trick or two.
Originally posted by photoptimist although you may not ever use "Scene Modes" perhaps it might be useful to someone who might use your camera
Both really good points. I used Scene modes a lot when I got my first DSLR, a K100D Super. The main ones like Landscape, Portrait and Night Scene Portrait were built in to the mode dial, like on a P&S. The scene modes generally worked well, although they sometimes overdid the saturation and brightness to my taste. And I could hand the camera to someone else and dial in Portrait or whatever and it was pretty foolproof.
Since I got more experienced, and shoot in RAW, and have 3 customisable user modes, I don't miss the Scenes, except that I will never be in another photo taken with my camera!
(My partner hates my K-3: too heavy and back button AF defeats her, before we even get to modes.) If I picked up a K100D Super now, I'd think the Scene modes were a waste of dial space that could be better devoted to TAV, X and user modes.
Just permit me a moment off-topic, with some unsolicited advice: unless you really really want a flippy screen and the other extras that the K-70 has, or the lighter weight, get a K-3 or K3ii. With the flagship models you won't look back. Things that don't really show in the comparison tables like durablility, quiet shutter and far superior dust removal make for a much better ownership and user experience overall, especially if you are likely to keep the camera for upwards of 3 years. (I'm comparing K-30 and K-3.)