Pentax has announced a silver special edition of its K-5 DSLR, this time combined with the slim DA 40mm F2.8 XS prime lens redesigned by Marc Newson. The latest package, following the silver K-5 body offered in 2011, will be limited to 1,500 examples worldwide. It will be available in April exclusively from Pentax or Ace Photo, at a price of $ 1599.95 ($ 100 less, with the lens, than the previous, body-only version).
Pentax has announced the Optio VS20, possibly the first compact camera with a second shutter button and zoom lever for portrait-orientation shooting. Beyond that it’s a pretty well-specified 20x compact superzoom, featuring a 28-560mm equivalent zoom lens with sensor-shift image stabilization for its 16MP CCD. It’s not the smallest 20x zoom camera we’ve seen but it manages to include a anti-glare-coated 460k dot 3.0″ LCD and costs $ 249/£199, so it’s not uncompetitive.
Just Posted: A few weeks back we spent a little time with the Pentax 645D – just long enough to grab a small gallery of ‘real world’ samples using the FA 645 55mm F2.8 standard lens. The 40 megapixel 645D, which took an unprecedented 5 years to progress from announcement to production, is the company’s first digital medium format camera. We wanted to see how practical it was to use the 645D ‘in the field’ as a replacement for a smaller sensor SLR, and – aside from an aching shoulder after a day of lugging it around – we were pretty impressed with what we saw. Until we get the 645D back into the studio to complete our testing, check out our quick 24-shot gallery after the link (or click here to jump straight to the gallery page).
Summer’s here and the time is right for getting wet. Kevin Pereira and Candace Bailey put the Pentax Optio WG-1 through its paces and determine if you should dive into the photography scene with this water-proof camera. For more from Gadget Pr0n, go here: www.g4tv.com
Video Rating: 4 / 5
Everybody loves taking photos on the go, so what better than a quick photography 101 with one of the best music photographers in the UK? Sorana Cirstea meets Tom Oldham, who has shot artists from Lady Gaga and Dizzee Rascal through to Dave Grohl and Amy Winehouse, to get tips on how to get the best out of her Xperia Arc camera and Sony SLR. Xperia Hot Shots follows six young female tennis players on the WTA 2011 tour as they embark on the road to superstardom. facebook.com
Video Rating: 4 / 5
Pentax has announced four additional lenses for its new Q mount. As well as the kit 47mm equivalent F1.9 ’01 Standard Prime’ lens that will come with the camera, the company has also announced the ’02 Standard Zoom’ that will offer 28-83mm equivalent focal lengths. Alongside these will be three more affordable, fun lenses. The 03 Fisheye, 04 Toy Lens Wide and 05 Toy Lens Telephoto are designed to make accessible the creativity that interchangeable lenses can bring. The latter three lenses are all manual focus and fixed aperture to keep costs down.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Pentax has announced the ‘Q’ mirrorless interchangeable lens camera. The camera is the first to use the company’s Q mount and features a compact-camera-sized 1/2.3" image stabilized CMOS sensor. This is wrapped in a magnesium alloy body with a distinctly rangefinder-esque design but distinctly compact sizing. Its feature set ranges from the 1080p30 movie shooting (with H.264 compression), to a series of fun filters that can be applied to the Quick Dial on its front plate. We’ve had a chance to play with a pre-production Pentax Q and have prepared a quick preview.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Hoya has sold the Pentax camera division to Ricoh. The Pentax Imaging Systems Division will be spun-out as a new company and its shares transfered to Ricoh on October 1st. The deal will also include the Pentax camera manufacturing subsidiary in Vietnam. A public announcement from Hoya explains that Ricoh is looking to build a consumer cameras business and wanted Pentax’s interchangeable lens camera technology, lens technology and sales channels. Its plans for the business specifically include the interchangeable lens camera market. Hoya will retain the other Pentax businesses, such as medical devices, that it gained in its 2007 takeover. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but Japanese business paper Nikkei Business Daily reports a price of about 10 billion yen ($ 124.2 million).
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Pentax has launched an add-on GPS module for its recent DSLRs that allows simple geotagging of images. The O-GPS1 unit attaches to the camera’s hotshoe, allowing the camera to add latitude, longitude, altitude, UTC capture time and direction as image metadata. This data can be used to place images in mapping software such as Google Earth or as a means of file organization and retrieval. K-5 and K-r users also gain access to the ‘Astrotracer’ feature that predicts the movement of celestial objects and uses the sensor shift mechanism to track this movement to give astrophotographs with single points, rather than star-trails. The O-GPS1 unit will be available from mid June at a recommended price of $ 249.95/£229.99.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Pentax has announced the Optio RS1500 compact camera with interchangeable, user designable covers. Identically specced to the RS1000 launched last year, it features a simpler, snap-on system for attaching different covers, rather than the screw-on system of the older model. The RS1500 ships with 10 skins, with the option to download or create your own cover that secures behind a transparent front-plate. Features include a 14MP sensor, a 27.5-110mm equivalent lens and 720p HD movie recording capabilities.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Just Posted: Our full review of the Pentax K-r upper entry-level DSLR. When we reviewed the Pentax K-x in December 2009 we thought it was a little cracker. The K-r builds on this by adding visible AF points, a higher ISO range and faster continuous shooting to the K-x’s already successful feature mix but the competition has not been standing still. Click on the link to read how the Pentax K-r fared in our studio tests and how it stacks up to its latest peers in the upper entry-level bracket of the market.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)