Upgrading from KS-2 --> which one?

Hi,

I have loved my KS2 but i have the opportunity to sell it to a friend and upgrade. I stopped following cameras a few years ago and with a small baby at home i dont have lot of time to do some heavy research.

I love the size of the KS2, i could do with better specs.
I had my eyes on the KP but the price just went up for some unknown reason, the K70 is still available and much cheaper.
Or is there any other model (K3 etc..) that i should consider?

thanks!

I went from a K-S2 to a K-70 a while ago. The K-70 is very similar, ergonomically, but with an upgraded sensor.
Where is the K-S2 letting you down, in your opinion?

I'd go for a K-3 or K-3 II over a K70. I think the K30, K50, and K70 models have all suffered with aperture block failure.

It also depends on what lenses you have still got and what sort of photos you take.

This is true but the K-70 is less prevalent than the K-30 and K-50 if I recall correctly.
The K-S2 does also fall into this bracket, fwiw.

thanks a lot,

I am mainly taking portraits of my kid, on 24mm or 50mm manual lenses. But also want to use it for holidays eg. landscape etc..

The MAIN thing I want is better ISO as i find 1600 the limit for the KS2, one stop further would help a lot already (assuming the K70 and KP do perform at 3200 or even beyond)

there is not much wrong with the KS2 (actually there is, for some reason it's taking extremely dark pictures now, not sure what i need to do, i use it mainly in manual mode with old lenses but just tried an AF lens and it's under exposing by 3 steps!?

The KP was discontinued some time ago so that would explain the price increase for the remaining units. Park Cameras still have some but the body-only price is much higher than the body plus kit lens price they had a few weeks ago, but that seems to be gone. You could give them a call and check if they're expecting more in.

Current APS-C models are quite polarised price-wise: the K-70 is a good price but the newly-released K3 III is very expensive. The K-70 does suffer from aperture block failure though some people say it's far less common than in the K-30, K-50, K-S1 and K-S2.

To be honest, as a user of both Pentax and Fujifilm mirrorless, I find the Fujifilm system is overall much better for photographing babies and small children. I know this is a Pentax forum and my K-3 is not the most up-to-date Pentax model, but the system is just not as well adapted to that kind of photography as some others are. A tilting screen, that some Pentax models have, would certainly help, but it's not the only factor.

thanks, so basically is it worth paying 350 euros or so to upgrade from KS2 to K70?

I'm afraid you're describing aperture block failure, as mentioned in a previous post.

As others have said it looks like your KS2 has suffered from the aperture solenoid failure.

Regarding the K70 I have found mine excellent for potrait shots of grandchildren with the built in flash able to provide fill in flash when necessary and the folding tilting screen with magnification is great to use with a manual lens.

However there is a risk that the K70 may also suffer from aperture solenoid failure, mine has recently after 5 years use. You can though get the camera repaired, or like I am planning to do replace the defective solenoid yourself.

I have recently bought a K3iii to supplement the K70 once it is repaired and the picture quality is outstanding with my 16-85 lens. However when taking an indoor potrait recently I could have done with some fill in flash but there is no built in flash on the K3iii. So my recommendation to meet your needs is the K70.

thanks, I realized that indeed the problem i have is this "aperture" problem :/ meaning i can't even sell the camera to my friend - i need to repair it which will be hard here (Berlin), do you know how much it costs?
it kind of puts me off on buying the K70 if it will have the same problem (now the first comments make sense, i did not know what they meant).

thanks a lot

I have read that the non-faulty replacement solenoid can no longer be bought new so it has to be scavenged from a donor camera.