Pentax KF

Just when you thought DSLRs were finished, along comes the Pentax KF. Rod Lawton finds out if it is truly a new camera or an old friend in disguise

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Price: £949/$847

Canon and Nikon may dominate the DSLR market, but we must not forget there's a third contender Pentax. The company has been making DSLRs as long as the other two and after an early dalliance with mirrorless, it has committed fully to the digital SLR design, aiming at a small but passionate band of enthusiasts who appreciate the traditional values, rugged design and the brand's heritage.

The Pentax KF is the latest in a long line of sometimes almost indistinguishable APS-C format DSLRs, all of which seem to share the same 24MP CMOS sensor but varying combinations of body design, burst speeds and other features. Pentax also makes a full-frame DSLR, the somewhat hefty but rather good Pentax K-1 Mark II, and it makes the medium format Pentax 645Z, a camera that brought medium format to the masses long before Fujifilm. It may not lead the field, but Pentax cameras certainly deserve to be considered alongside the best.

Pentax is a brand with depth and history but it's not renowned for pushing back the frontiers of imaging technology. The Pentax KF's digital SLR design means it has an optical viewfinder with one focusing system (an 11-point SAFOX AF system) and a rear screen with a different one. In live view, you get hybrid phase/contrast AF, which should give faster and more effective autofocus than the contrast-only AF on other Pentax DSLR bodies, though this depends on the lens.

The only other Pentax DSLR to offer hybrid AF is the 2016 Pentax K70, also with a 24MP sensor, flip-out screen, 1080p video and an identical body design. As far as we can tell, the KF has a different rear display, slightly different battery life, a new badge and a choice of white or blue special editions.