Pentax K-70 Performance

Good overall performance for its class.

The Pentax K-70's startup time was a little slow for a DSLR, but switching from Play to Record and taking a shot was quite fast.

The Pentax K-70's full autofocus shutter lag when shooting the same target multiple times was faster than average for a consumer DSLR. The K-70 required only 0.126 second for full AF using the center focus point with a Pentax 35mm f/2.8 lens. Enabling the flash raised shutter lag only slightly to 0.143 second, reflecting the added delay caused by the metering preflash. Manual focus shutter lag was even faster than autofocus as expected, at 0.095 second. When prefocused, shutter lag only dropped a bit to 0.093 second which is a tad slower than average for a consumer DSLR, but still quite responsive.

When prefocused in Live View mode, shutter lag was 0.272 second, which is not bad. We no longer test full AF lag in Live View mode, because contrast-detect AF speed tends to be very lens dependent for DSLRs.

To minimize the effect of different lens' focusing speed, we test AF-active shutter lag with the lens already set to the correct focal distance.

Single-shot cycle times were so fast that they were difficult to accurately measure as they depend on the tester's dexterity and ability to maintain an optimum rhythm, so your results may vary. (Note that we no longer test single-shot mode with just RAW files, as the results are usually somewhere in between JPEG and RAW+JPEG.)

Continuous H mode speed was good at about 6.1 frames per second regardless of file type, just over Pentax's 6.0 fps spec. There is also a Continuous L mode rated at 3.0 frames per second, but we did not test that mode.

Buffer depth in Continuous H mode was very good when shooting just JPEGs at 47 Large Best Quality JPEG frames before the camera slowed, though with RAW files buffer depths were much shallower at 11 RAW frames or 9 RAW+L/B JPEG frames. This is typical of DSLRs in its price range, though. Also note that our test target was designed to be difficult to compress, so shooting typical subjects may yield deeper buffers.

Buffer clearing was sluggish even with our fast UHS-I SDHC card, taking 20 seconds to clear after a max-length burst of JPEGs, 14 seconds after a burst of RAW frames and 16 seconds after a max-length RAW+JPEG burst. The K-70 does however let you change settings, take additional shots or view just-shot photos while the buffer is clearing.

The K-70's built-in flash took an average of 2.3 seconds to recharge after full-power shots, which is quite fast.

Bottom line, the Pentax K-70's performance was generally good for its class in our tests. Startup was a little slow for a DSLR, but AF speeds were very fast, single shot cycle-times, burst speeds and flash recycle times were all good. Buffer depths with RAW files were somewhat shallow but that's not unusual for its class, however buffer clearing was on the slow side.

Battery Life
Poor battery life for a DSLR.

The Pentax K-70 uses a custom rechargeable D-LI109 lithium-ion battery for power, and ships with a dedicated charger. Battery life when using the optical viewfinder is well below average for a DSLR, and Pentax does not specify battery life for Live View mode, which will certainly be a lot lower. We strongly recommend you pick up a spare battery and keep it freshly charged and on-hand for extended outings.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of (on either a fresh set of disposable batteries or a fully-charged rechargeable battery as appropriate), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))