Pentax weather-sealed K-S2 joins the $900 club

Editors' note, February 19, 2015: Updated with UK pricing and some additional specifications.

Though the K-S1 is barely six months old, Pentax revisits the newest K-S series dSLRs with the family-targeted K-S2, which joins the K-S1 in the product line. Abandoning most of the somewhat radical and rather unnecessary design changes it made for the K-S1 -- curved grip and flashing lights, to name two -- the K-S2 has a far more traditional design, with some nice touches for its price.

In the US, Pentax plans to sell the camera with its new 18-50mm f4-5.6 collapsible kit lens for $900 (£650), although in the US, at least, there's also an $800 kit with the older, non-collapsible 18-50mm lens. At update time we still couldn't find pricing for Australia. Directly converted, that $900 is AU$1,151.

What's new

• Design. The body reverts to the more traditional design of Pentax dSLRs, and in a lot of ways the K-S2 hearkens back to the K-50. It's weather sealed, has a large, 100-percent field-of-view viewfinder, and front and rear control dials -- design perks typically not found in its price class. It also has a flip-out-and-twist LCD -- the K-S2's was fixed -- and does retain the second shutter button of the K-S1 for easier selfies.
• Connectivity. For the first time, Pentax builds Wi-Fi into the camera instead of bundling a Flucard.
• Updated autofocus module. Pentax bumps it its AF module to Safox X. That make eke some better performance and accuracy out of it.
• Features. There's a new Clarity Enhancement effect, which emphasizes textures, and a new A-HDR mode that combines multishot HDR with an HDR effect for broader tonal range and that overprocessed look. It also inherits the 4K automatic time-lapse mode from the K-3 and a mode that handles star trails in movies.

My take

I'm not sure how this model falls into the K-S series, since from a price, performance, design, build quality and features standpoint it really seems more like a successor to the K-50, which now runs about $600 for the basic kit (£470, AU$650). The only carryover seems to be the color choices (those will ship in April). And it looks like it will be the price premium over the older model, given all the updates.

Compared with new competitors from Canon and Nikon it stands up quite well given its weather-sealed design and big viewfinder. The biggest downer is the new lens: yes, it shrinks the overall profile of the camera, but you sacrifice focal range (it's 18-50mm vs. the usual 18-55mm) and the lens is slower than most (maximum aperture is f4 vs. f3.5). That limits your shooting flexibility, especially in low light.

Comparative specs