Pentax K70 Noir + 18-55 WR Black

One of the last DSLR holdouts in an increasingly mirrorless world, the K70 offers a lot of camera for under £500 for those that don't mind the larger size compared to it's mirrorless competition, with build quality and features you rarely find in cameras at this price point including weather sealing, in-body image stabilisation and ISO that can stretch north of 100,000. Add on other desirable features like the articulating touch screen and 6fps continuous shooting, and it feels like a remarkably competitive camera despite its age. Given what feels like a steadily creeping starting cost of interchangeable lens cameras over the last couple of years with fewer entry level models being produced at this price point, this feels like more of a pretty compelling workhorse of a camera in the current market.

Full specs here:
ricoh-imaging.co.jp/eng…ec/

Having a brief look at competing options in the £450-500 bracket with a kit lens on camerapricebuster and a handful of the big camera retailers, here's how I see the K70 stacking up against what can currently be bought new on the market today:

* Canon 2000D: The only other DSLR I could find being widely sold new and there really is no competition, the K70 is superior in pretty much every metric besides shots per battery charge. Really only recommended if you have Canon lenses available to use from a friend or family member.

* Canon R100: Canon's entry level mirrorless option is a lot more competitive than it's DSLR cousin and does have a couple of advantages like offering a similar class of APS-C sensor in a body almost half the weight, 4k video (as well as 120fps shooting at 720p), but its entry level status is on show in other areas like the fixed screen, lack of IBIS and weather sealing, and significantly slower 3.5fps continuous shooting that can only draw up equal to the K70 by turning off autofocus

* Panasonic G7: Probably the most similar featureset of any camera available for sub-£500 new, with comparable continuous shooting speeds of 7fps, an articulating screen and control layouts alongside advantages like far superior video recording and the wealth of lenses available to the Micro 4 thirds system. This is also it's biggest downside though, with a significantly smaller sensor of a similar age that can't match the image quality and low light performance the K70 is capable of, as well as the inferior build quality and lack of IBIS

And that's about it in terms of competition I can find that can be bought new! Stock of entry level options from Fuji, Nikon, Olympus and Sony seem to have dried up recently, here's hoping they have new offerings on the way to keep this segment of the market liveky. The other major competitor in the used market, which is a can of worms I won't open here but needless to say you can get more for your money buying second hand!