Pentax K-70 Field Test: Mid-range features, entry-level price. Should you buy this value-packed DSLR?

posted Monday, October 17, 2016 at 4:51 PM EDT

Early last year, Ricoh launched the Pentax K-S2, an entry-level DSLR that was nonetheless packed to bursting with features, many of them typically found only in more expensive cameras or appearing for the first time in a Pentax-branded body. While it had much to offer, the K-S2's attention-grabbing color scheme and top-deck material choices, as well as its optional go-faster racing stripe, caused some to take it less than seriously.

Now, the Pentax K-70 is here, and brings with it most of the same features plus some new ones in an altogether more grown-up body. No question about it, the K-70 has a whole lot to offer compared to its rivals, especially when it comes to features keenly sought after by experienced photographers such as a pentaprism finder, dual control dials and weather sealing. It's also the first Pentax DSLR to feature on-chip phase detection autofocus, which also allows for full-time movie AF.

And then there's in-camera Wi-Fi and a tilt/swivel LCD monitor for the first time outside of the K-S series camera lineup. The new on-chip phase detection autofocus system will certainly make the LCD articulation more useful, speeding up live-view autofocus performance considerably. But what of the Wi-Fi? This proved to be a stumbling block for the K-S2, both in terms of performance and a rather clumsy user interface.

Has Ricoh been able to improve upon its first-generation Wi-Fi offering in this new camera, and will the Pentax K-70's generous specification in other respects elevate it above its peers, perhaps helping the company to build on a market share which still lags behind Canon and Nikon in the US market? You'll find out all of this and more in my real-world Pentax K-70 Field Test, and you'll find dozens of gallery photos shot across the entire ISO sensitivity range to boot, giving you a good feel for this interesting entry-level DSLR's image quality.