| Author: | | Pentaxian Registered: April, 2015 Location: USA Posts: 2,875
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 12, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $500.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Image Quality, Ergonomics, Tilt screen, Mic input, Bang for the buck | | Cons: | Loud shutter, only one SD card slot | | Years Owned: 1
Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 9
User Interface: 10
Autofocus: 9
Features: 10
Value: 10
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 7
New or Used: New
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I'm really liking the K-70. Previously I've owned the K3ii and the K3. While both are wonderful cameras, I believe that I just may end up liking the K-70 a bit more than these other cameras - mostly because of it's wonderful ergonomics (love the grip/buttons/weight).
The single SD memory card slot could be a concern to some. I've found that memory card slots are a weak link in digital cameras and can fail completely on their own at the most in-opportune times. But I've found a work around to that concern. I put a 64GB SD card in my K-70 and will never remove it. Instead of taking the SD card out of the K-70 to download it to my desktop, I instead use a cord to attach the K-70 to my computer. So, without the constant insertion and removal of the K-70s memory card, I'm hopeful that the single memory card slot in my new K-70 will last for a long time.
For those of you who shoot photos in the dark (paint with light, astro) you'll be pleased to hear that you can program one of the external buttons to turn all lights on the camera RED! This works great and will save your night vision while operating the camera. I periodically shoot and night and this feature just blew me away. Thanks Pentax, great idea!
I like its' video capability - it's surprising at this price point to get microphone input so I can record videos using my professional quality microphones.
24MP sensor, pixel shift, sensor based shake reduction what's not to like? The K-70 might just produce the best image quality in this price range of any camera on the market today!
Overall, an affordable and fun little camera that has all the features I need.
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: December, 2013 Posts: 7
5 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 2, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $700.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Ergonomic, image quality, low light focus, price | | Cons: | Noisy shutter | | Years Owned: 0.5
Ergonomics: 9
Build Quality: 9
User Interface: 9
Autofocus: 8
Features: 10
Value: 10
Image Quality: 9
Noise: 9
New or Used: New
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I was considering a k1, but with the additional cost of getting my lens collection up to full frame, I looked at what the k70 offers with my nice compact primes, and figured it is such a bargain. So I went for it, and although I would love a k1, I'm really pleased. It's a big upgrade from my k30.
I find the grip is comfy and the back button is handy for focus duties. I have found with mitts on my palm can catch the rh function button so a settings lock would be useful. Generally the build feels solid and reassuring.
One of the first things I noticed is that low light focus is massively better than I'm used to, and in general with my 16-85 and my limited primes, the focus hit rate is excellent. Not really tested the focus tracking ability much, but not expecting it to be great.
Pentax really are getting great Iso performance out of their cameras these days. Up to 1000 the images are really clean, 1600 is fine and even 3200 gives good images, so for handheld indoor shooting I'm finding it to be great. The noise has a granular quality and is more film like than my k30, which, when you push it too far looks quite digital. The colours are more refined and the dynamic range is fantastic. I find I can draw more detail from blown highlights than I had thought was possible.
I haven't had my tripod out much and I find PS mode unrealiable without rocksolid stability. That said the basic look of PS images is just gorgeous. The idea of hand held PS on the k1ii sounds amazing.
Overall, Pentax have smashed it again for value. The only things I wish it had, are a quieter shutter, a separate AE lock button would be good for back button shooters, and settings lock. Ok gps, SRii, twin SD slots, and the new dynamic PS would be nice too, but that's basically a k1, and more money. The k70 is really capable and great fun to use.
| | | | | New Member Registered: April, 2017 Posts: 5
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 15, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $1,192.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | grip, stills quality, dynamic range, WR | | Cons: | batterylife, autofocus | | Years Owned: 0,5
Ergonomics: 9
Build Quality: 9
User Interface: 8
Autofocus: 7
Features: 8
Value: 9
Image Quality: 9
Noise: 8
New or Used: New
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Well, here we go!
Until the K-70 I owned an very cheap compact-superzoom with a tiny sensor and adequate image-quality.
We (me and my wife) needed a new camera, but the fast paced quality of cameras in smartphones made us decide that if we want to buy a new camera, it has to be something serious, otherwise it wil probably be very dated, very soon.
But we especially wanted to make better photos instead of quick snapshots with our smartphones.
In our opinion we made the best photo's if we take our time and use a dedicated camera with a good grip.
Around januari 2017 I borrowed an old Canon from a friend (1000D) just to practice a bit.
Apart from the dated camera we loved taking time to make nice photo's (or at least trying to).
Conclusion: we want an ILC.
But then?
I was already reading reviews on a number of websites and making lists about camera's.
Then walked to the nearest large retailer and was almost talked into buying a Nikon D5400.
After that we went to a dedicated camerastore and almost bought a Sony A58.
I then realised my knowledge was too basic for just buying a very random DSLR without thorough research.
So back to the drawingboard.
One large and extensive excel-file later I had a better view of wat was available.
The most important lesson I learned is that we wanted to have IBS, excellent image quality, flipping screen and some sort of WR.
That was the end of Nikon and Canon.
We tested mirrorless, but didn't like the EVF and on average they were small en we wanted a good chunky grip.
My conclusion of months of research was that the camera with fitted our wishes best was certainly a Pentax.
And specific the K70.
I read a lot of good reviews en we went to another camerastore with had the K70.
It was love in first sight.
Really good grip, very rugged exterior.
It feels like a camera you can drop 821 times and still works just fine.
We had a good deal for the K70 + 18-135mm WR + da 50mm f/1.8 for 999 euros (1192 dollars)
After using it for about six months I wanted to share my review.
Handling:
Very nice camera to hold on to. Deep grip en chucky exterior.
Buttons are on the right places and you can almost customize every button.
Operation:
Startup is almost instant. The menu is at first overwhelming in the sheer number of settings.
But without using the manual to much I found a lot of settings in a reasonable time. (even tho my wife already found it in the manual and tried to tell me wear I can find specific settings faster)
I then edited the standaard JPEG settings to increase the standard quality of the JPEG output.
The camera works as a charm.
One drawback, the battery.
My wife uses the wifi a lot (works very well in contrary of what some reviews say).
This wil empty your battery quite fast.
If we went for a daytrip, in most cases it was almost empty at the end of the day.
AF:
Moving objects (escpecially fast moving) is difficult, you will need some practise to get it right.
And in my experience you have a lot of misses. I did compare it with the 7Dm2 with 100-400LII from an uncle.
Okay, I know, that's not fair, but the difference is gigantic. (the price gap is also gigantic)
But an larger dof and high shutterspeed will do in most cases.
Image quality:
In my opinion excellent.
The real profit of a dedicated camera is not in bright light, but in situations of high contrast and low light.
The dynamic range is fantastic, you can lift back a almost black foreground to match the sky.
I'm experimenting with Lightroom to get the maximum out of raw-files.
Conclusion:
I can really recommand the K70 to any first time buyer.
Just be sure to tweak the settings for the JPEG output.
Image quality is stellar, dynamic range is huge and the OVF is beautiful.
The grip is solid and the WR build look and feels durable.
A great first Pentax!
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2007 Location: North West UK Posts: 390
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 7, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $700.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Same sensor as the K-3, weather sealing, flip/tilt/twist screen. Size | | Cons: | only 11 AF points, cheaper shutter system which is noisier. strange shape behind the grip. | | Years Owned: 1
Ergonomics: 8
Build Quality: 8
User Interface: 9
Autofocus: 9
Features: 10
Value: 10
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 8
New or Used: New
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It is a rather good camera. lets get that out there.
It has some lovely pluses, the weather sealing, the tilt/twist screen is a boon for those who like low level macro shots, and it is nice and light. Oh and of course it has the same sensor as the K-3 so the image quality is fantastic!
Downsides? Well, not much really.
Good quality plastic, but not magnesium of the K-3. but it is the entry level body and still better made than rivals.
Only 11 AF points. Yes I know it is the entry level body, but Pentax really need to up the anti with AF ( have the K-3 and K-1 too)
Possibly too light for longer lenses for balancing. It may be worth Pentax to consider a battery grip option for the next one (K-80?) to allow a more balance with say the DA*300mm.
The shutter is going back a few generations with its noise. From the K-5 onwards, Pentax are renowned for their very quiet shutters.
Overall though, you get a seriously good camera with the K-70, with the same image quality, sealing and sensor as the K-3, but in a lighter and possibly more compact package. It is the perfect introduction the the Pentax system and a delightful second/third/lightweight body for those who already have the K-3 and/or the K-1.
Edit. Something I needed to add, thinking about Pentax actually bringing out a modern *istDs which itself could be considered the K1000 of the digital world. Is it the K70? Well it is oh so close. The bright viewfinder is there, as is the compact size. The K70 is so much better in ISO, AF speed, shutter quietness.
nearly matches the Ds with the bright viewfinder (seriously you really need to look through a *istDs to see how bright an APS-C viewfinder is), and its compact size, along with the fun aspect that is so missing in many DSLR's these days.
But. It still misses one aspect. The ability with using manual focus lenses. Until a certain other body cam out, only the Ds with its ability to focus and nail it on manual lenses, every time. The K-70 is so very close, better than others, and equal to the K-3 pair, but still Pentax cannot bring out an APS-C body that can match the Ds for this.
The K70 is the true son of the Ds in everything else.
Oh, before you ask, that other body that nails MF lenses every time, that the *istDs does? yep, the K-1!
Don't let my edit put you off the K70, it is a little gem of a camera that has so much going for it and worthy of having. the K1000/*istDs of the current era? Yes, but be careful when using MF lenses.
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: August, 2010 Posts: 2
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 1, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $800.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Build quality, tilt-screen, image quality, ISO, features, customisation | | Cons: | Battery life | | Years Owned: >1
Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 10
User Interface: 9
Autofocus: 9
Features: 9
Value: 9
Image Quality: 10
Noise: 10
New or Used: New
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A great, robust, flexible camera with excellent picture quality.
The only negative thing: the battery could be better.
| | | | | New Member Registered: November, 2015 Posts: 19
6 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 21, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $670.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | handling, lightweight, tilt-screen, superb high-ISO performance, very good dynamic range | | Cons: | images a bit washed-out in default setting, no default option for wireless flash, no dedicated metering button | | Years Owned: 2 months
Ergonomics: 10
Build Quality: 9
User Interface: 10
Autofocus: 7
Features: 9
Value: 9
Image Quality: 8
Noise: 9
New or Used: New
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This camera has been around for quite sometime now but I was a bit surprised that there are no reviews up for it yet. So I thought I should get the ball rolling. First, let me tell you how I ended up with this camera. My first venture into the Pentax world was the K-50. I was frankly overwhelmed by its image quality and the bang for buck I could get out of it. However, I felt that the autofocus could have been slightly better. After using my K-50 for 7-8 months, I found a great deal on Amazon on the K-3. I bit the bullet and took the deal while simultaneously selling off my K-50. I kept my K-3 for quite sometime and I was loving every bit of it (although the high-ISO noise was something to be desired). However, was usually using a flash for lowlight indoor shooting, so that did not bother me so much. I kept my K-3 for a long time and amassed a good line of lenses over time to go with it. I was a happy photographer. But then Pentax announced the K-1. So much feature for EUR 2000?  I could not resist. So I sold off my K-3 and quite a few of my "cropped sensor" lenses and bought the K-1. Was I a happy photographer? Yes and no. Frankly, the image quality provided by the K-1 is incomparable. Probably the best in its class. But hey, what's wrong with my old lenses? Those lenses that used to be perfectly decent on my K-3 weren't as decent anymore? I figured the super-high resolution of the K-1 demands a lot from it lenses. And good quality lenses do not come cheap. Could I invest more in higher quality lenses? No. And the second and more pressing con for me was the sheer bulk of the K-1. My camera bag which could easily fit the camera, a couple of lenses and a flash now was struggling to fit the K-1 and the flash. Not to mention the weight I was carrying all the time. Also as I travel a lot and mostly on foot, carrying such a heavy material did have its downsides. I found I was mostly leaving my K-1 at home (when I went out on small trips) and thus missed many nice images. In the meanwhile I faced a financial crunch and so decided to sell off my K-1.
What should I get as replacement? A K-3, or the K-50 once more? But just then Pentax came up with this K-70. It was lightweight, small (like the K-50), had a 24MP sensor, pixel-shift, weather sealed, tilt-screen and everything I love about Pentax and in quite an affordable package. And so I finally settled for it. Am, I happy with my purchase? Yes. Will I recommend it? Yes.
Since this is supposed to be a review. Let me list out what I like and don't like about the K-70.
What I like:
1. Lightweight, compact easy to carry.
2. Tilt-screen not only helps to get that shot from the weird angle but also closes on itself to protect the screen from scratches.
3. Superb noise control at high ISOs. Is it better than the K-3? Yes, by almost a couple of stops. Is it comparable to the K-1? I would say yes but the K-1 definitely edges ahead by about a stop thanks to its full frame sensor.
4. Superb dynamic range.
What I don't like:
1. Images tend to be a bit washed out and lack contrast in the default. I went to the image settings, increased the clarity by a couple of points, the contrast by a couple and increased the sharpness by one point. The result was much better and crisper than the default setting. Note that the very same problem was reported by dpreview in their review.
2. No built-in support for wireless flash. I discovered this the hard way the other day when I wanted to click some portraits with my AF540 FZ off camera. Later I read up and realized that Pentax had silently done away with this feature since the K-S1. That means I need to buy an external trigger unit. But how I missed my K-3 at that moment!
3. No dedicated metering button and not even the option to configure one of the custom buttons! Who needs a dedicated button for wifi (which doesn't even work half of the times)?
4. AF is ok but not as good as the K-3. It hunts sometimes and I get around 95% keepers even in bright daylight. (Note however that my comments about its AF performance is purely for the limited lenses (20-40 Ltd, 40 Ltd, 70 Ltd), the 55 F1.4 and the 16-50 F2.8 SDM lenses. Heard that the AF is much better on the new 55-300 PLM and perhaps also the kit 18-135 DC. Haven't yet had the chance to tenses though)
Finally the million dollar question: Since both are similarly priced today and have similar specs, would I recommend it over the K3? If portability and light weight is your preference and you don't mind the polycarbonate body and the slightly slower AF and also if you shoot a lot in high ISO, then Yes. Otherwise, no.
Enough said, now time for a few pics:
This next picture goes on to show the amazing dynamic range this camera is capable of. I did not use a flash. I pulled out the foreground from absolute shadow in postprocessing. Yes, the noise control is superbly low.
Update 29/01/17:
I figured out a way to fire my AF540FGZ off-camera using the built-in pop up flash -- put the AF540 in SL2 dumb slave mode and then the pop-up flash will trigger it. Of course I don't get P-TTL and everything is manual but hey it's still something. And I like to control my speedlights manually anyway. Of course the pop-up flash will contribute to the exposure but that can be 'minimised' but setting the pop-up flash to 1/128. I don't mind that too much because the actual 'wireless' mode in the K-3 also does contribute to the exposure even if very slightly. So my con no. 2 is less harsh now!
However, while I was at it, I seemed to have opened another can of worms. The K-70 seems to overexpose like crazy when the on-camera flash is in bounce in every mode (except of course M). This problem has been raised by others too:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/193-pentax-k-70/336303-pentax-af-540-fgz...unce-mode.html
Apparently this was a well documented problem with the K-5:
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/2922903
Pentax claimed to have corrected it eventually with the K-3. And surely enough, I never had any problem with exposure when bouncing my AF540 in P-TTL. The story is totally different with the K-70. Seems like it is a software issue but I am amazed at how it can resurface even when Pentax fixed it for the K-3. This is a serious bug and I hope they come up with a firmware upgrade soon to address it. But does it show poor quality control and testing on Pentax's part? Disappointed.
Update 28/03/2017:
I am demoting the image quality score of my review from 9 to 8. There are couple of reasons for it. First, the JPEGs out-of-camera are really bad. I always knew this but realised this even more from my past few months of using the camera after my last update (I hardly shoot JPEGs but I did have the excuse to shoot some). Even when using RiceHigh's Pentax Blog's recommended settings for JPEGs OOC:
http://ricehigh.blogspot.com/2013/09/my-best-optimal-custom-image-colour.html
the pictures are awkwardly sharpened/noise-reduced, and moreover, the white balance is all over the place, esp. when using a speedlight. There's a strong magenta cast on some of the pictures (this happens when shooting Caucasian skin tones) and a strong green cast on the others (happens when shooting asian skin tones). I don't know yet if it is just me or the camera or if it is purely random. The RAW files, as always, are superb though. Secondly, there's the totally awful exposure for bounce flash in P-TTL mode as I mentioned before. The pictures are almost always over-exposed in the default setting. I hoped to be able to control it in the Av mode while keeping the ISO constant at 100. But what the camera does is, it shoots invariably at 1/50s (God knows where it calculates that from!) at least with my DA 20-40 limited. Just to mention, I did contact Pentax about this on-camera bounce-flash issue. They seemed to wash-their hands off giving me obvious excuses. I am really disappointed with Pentax QC and after sales. That's the reason I'm reducing my score for its overall performance as well. In any case, if it were not for the compactness of the K-70, I'd happily switch back to the good old K-3.
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