K-70 LCD Display

Hi. I'm back on the forum after a delay of many years, having just upgraded from a 12-year old K10D to a K-70. Loving the extra detail a 24Mp sensor gives me over the previous 10Mp!

However, I'm baffled by the apparent lack of a simple way to turn off (or on) the rear LCD monitor; I want it to come on when I power on, to check settings, but then turn it off. It seems to need 5 button presses to do it: 2 presses on Info, then 2 presses on the four way controller (r or l), then OK. Does anyone know a simpler way, please? With thanks.

This is for a K-50 but it might help:-

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/151-pentax-k-30-k-50/231840-turning-off-k-50...

This is K-70 related:-

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/193-pentax-k-70/346090-k-70-status-screen-di...

Hi, Mannesty, thanks for the info.

It gets curiouser and curiouser! Have worked out how to save (or not) the 'display on or off when camera turned on' setting when the K-70 is turned off, but

a. not possible to specify definitely NOT to turn on the display at startup ie if I don't want the display to turn on at startup, but turn the display on while in use, and forget to turn it off, it'll be on at next startup. That's because the (unchangeable) default state appears to be to turn the display on, ie if you deselect the memory function about this, it'll turn on at startup.

b. It's bizarre that display on/off isn't one of the options in the 'Button Customization' menu. I will use the 'Wi-Fi' function very occasionally, I will probably want to set the display on/off every time I use the camers, possibly several times. Yet I can't dedicate the Wi-Fi/Fx2 to do that.

While I'm having a grumble about settings, it's also driving me nuts at present that I cannot completely disable the AF/AE-L button, only set it to one of four options, none of which are useful to me. It falls right under my thumb when I grip the camera, and I keep pressing it accidentally!

No doubt I'll learn to live with and/or workaround these issues as the K-70's handling becomes as intuitive to me as the K10D's was!

If you want the screen off most of the time, could you leave it closed except when you want to view settings or images?

Philip

Hi, MrB, yes, that's what I'm doing at present; seems sensible, protects the screen at the same time.

I'm partly concerned about battery life - the reviews I read before purchase commented on it as an issue, and initially it seemed very short, though it's getting better after a few discharge/charge cycles (as I would expect). I've also set the display brightness to lowest as well.

I've set the camera up with two 'User' modes at present, for 'Landscape' (what I mostly do) and 'Wildlife' (what I'm trying to get into); plan to use the third for 'Tripod' (aka Still Life/Macro), and use the 'Pixel Shift' function with that. The point is, I know exactly what settings are in each user mode, don't need to check when I switch on!

Yeah, with cameras that have the screen to display settings that is the main battery drain. If you don't need to review and are happy charging settings in the viewfinder then keeping the screen closed is a good idea. That's the nice thing about models with an old fashioned LCD for settings. Then the screen is only needed for review.

Now that I've had plenty of experience of my K-70, I find I don't miss the top plate display of settings as provided on my previous K10D. That is at least partly because the setting display in the K-70 viewfinder is so much brighter than on the K10D (which I could barely make out at all); I can use the viewfinder now if I do need to check settings.