Pentax K-S2 Review

Image Quality Verdict

The Pentax K-S2's impressive suite of image capture tools and settings rivals current flagship models.  Users who prefer to do their processing in-camera will also surely enjoy the new clarity enhancement, advanced HDR, and auto vignetting corrections.  Demanding users might skip over these features and instead take advantage of the K-S2's filterless sensor design and AA filter simulator.  In other words, the K-S2 has something for everyone.  We feel that it combines user-friendliness with cutting-edge features better than any camera before it.

K-S2 sample - Click to enlarge

The new 20.2-megapixel sensor delivers increased detail compared to previous-generation 16-megapixel Pentax bodies while maintaining manageable levels of noise.  This is bound to be appreciated by users upgrading from older Pentax cameras or other DSLRs.

As far as shortcomings go, the K-S2 doesn't have many.  On a technical level, its RAW files only have 12-bit color depth— unusual for this market segment (compared to the Canon T6i or Nikon D5500) but not of great practical significance.  Currently, only Pentax flagships offer 14 bit RAW files.  Apart from this, the over-sharpening of JPEGs, yellow color cast at night, clipping of bright reds, and reduced detail in high-ISO JPEGs are all issues that can be dealt with through processing or settings tweaks.  Overall, the K-S2's RAW image quality is exceptional and the JPEG quality only lags behind a little due to the aforementioned quirks.

At the end of the day, the sensor found in the K-S2 deserves at least as much praise as the 16-megapixel sensor that stood the test of several years of use.