Pentax X70 review

Does this new superzoom break the formula with a usable magnification?

It’s easy to get cynical when superzooms are involved, as they define themselves by a single characteristic, which gives the majority of them only one element to develop from year to year. On the surface the Pentax X70 is another faceless addition to a segment of the digital camera market which is suffering from an over-reliance on the level of optical magnification.

Of the features Pentax puts up front and centre, other than the zoom, the impressive-sounding 11fps burst rate is the most eye-catching in terms of a difference maker from the chasing pack. Even though the resolution then takes a hit to below half the top quality at 5MP, the payoff between speed and resolution is still relatively to the image quality’s favour. In order to make this extra functionality anywhere near useful the optics need to be top notch. For the most part the camera doesn’t focus fast or close enough to make close cropping a possibility, so the lens needs to stay relatively wide to make the Burst mode usable. As the lens has a reasonably wide 26mm this at least allows for some slight adjustments, and unless the subject is trying to break the land-speed record keeping it in frame isn’t difficult.

This is partially due to some impressive handling and balance on the part of Pentax. On the whole superzooms tend to be poorly weighted due to relying on four AA batteries, giving a large amount of weight at the grip end. The X70 instead uses the far lighter lithium-ion battery type, making it easier to hold for prolonged periods. Moving the camera to track a subject is simpler than with the majority of the X70’s rivals, and the zoom can be operated without the need to support the camera with another hand. This is also thanks to an impressively sensitive zoom control, which is a spring-loaded switch with only a small amount of travel, but a level of responsiveness to make up for it. Similarly the shutter release prompts a rapid reaction from the lens, which is helpful as when left to its own devices there isn’t much of a reaction from the camera when the preview is blurred. As with the majority of compact cameras, and a few DSLRs, an Auto Scene mode is included to adapt to the environment. After a half press on the shutter release the reaction is relatively accurate, especially when required to do some close focusing. The downfall with such a mode is when the subject isn’t static or has yet to enter the frame, forcing a degree of user preparation. Thankfully this isn’t a huge problem as the manual and scene modes are easily accessible on the DSLR-style dial.

At this point the majority of superzooms split into two camps when it comes to manual controls. Some bury them within a menu, making it as long-winded as possible to do anything with the camera chaperoning, where as the likes of the X70 make all overrides freely available. Instead of relying on the D-pad to determine any value changes a separate scroll wheel is used, which once again is decidedly DSLR-like, and when switched to fully Manual mode alternating between aperture and shutter speed is impressively easy. For anyone taking the step down from an interchangeable lens system this will appeal greatly, and getting to grips with the controls takes barely minutes. With such a level of focus on the manual controls it would be safe to presume that the camera can accurately focus while tracking a fast-moving subject but, annoyingly, this isn’t the case.

The presence of sensor shift stabilisation goes some way to making the zoom more usable, but it seems to simply make framing more manageable than assisting the focusing. This leads to plenty of out-of-focus images if the user is suffering from a touch of shake, and makes it increasingly more difficult to take shots of objects in the distance. More worrying is the evidence of purple fringing on a couple of images, especially apparent on those taken with plenty of sky in the background. Closer images seemed to be less of an issue, with the depth of field and colour quality making for some above-average portraiture and macro images. The focus issue reared its head again though, meaning twice as many shots are required to get a single sharp one. Exposure readings were quite reasonable for a superzoom, as the images didn’t suffer from blown highlights nor appear overly dark, which is a usual issue with long optical magnification cameras. The results aren’t bright and vivid, but rather balanced in opposed lighting conditions. The on-board pixel smoothing does make noise more difficult to pick out, and it also leads to some slow processing times.

This is echoed in a number of previous models, such as the P70, making Pentax’s line-up of compacts somewhat impractical for sports shooting. This once again limits the usages of the X70, making it perfectly usable for single shots as long as the user doesn’t intend to immediately follow it up with another. As annoying as it may be, the usefulness of the Burst mode isn’t too out of character for cameras at this level. The likelihood of having a lens capable of adapting to the movement of the subject and eliminating shake with the size of chip and optics is extremely low, but the efforts of the X70 aren’t at the point of being admirable when measured against the opposition.

It seems that the Pentax X70 has two conflicting halves: one being a well-built body with intelligently laid out controls and the other a below-par electronic setup with a tendency to suffer from purple fringing and less-than-suitable stabilisation. Where the superzoom camera type has experienced something of a boom in popularity recently, it seems like the fundamental issues of lumping a massive zoom onto a compact body have yet to be tackled in a number of cases. The X70, for example, has sensor-shift technology rather than optical image stabilisation, and seems to suffer as a result. With the likes of Canon’s SX range and the superb Panasonic FZ28 boasting lens-based systems and showing plenty of benefit, it seems annoyingly backwards that an even longer optical zoom doesn’t deserve a more effective option. A solid body does little to help the image quality, making the X70 a definite relegation candidate to the also-rans, which is annoying as plenty of good work is done elsewhere.