Hasta La Gadget!

While the camera market might be dominated by brands such as Sony, Canon and Nikon, let’s not forget that there are a host of other manufacturers out there who are also looking to make a dent in the market, Pentax being one of them. In a recent interview with PCPop, Pentax’s Managing Director and General Manager of Pentax Ricoh China, Tomoyoshi Shibata, revealed that the company is currently working on a new professional APS-C based Pentax camera, alongside a new full frame DSLR camera that will apparently be different from other full frame DSLR cameras currently offered in today’s market.

We’re not sure how different Pentax’s solution would be to other more mainstream offerings by Sony, Canon and Nikon, but rest assured that as gadget lovers, we are definitely more than interested in finding out! We’re not sure when Pentax’s new offerings will be announced, but we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for more information. What do you guys think? Any Pentax fans out there who believe that Pentax has what it takes to steal some market share from the more mainstream offerings?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Canon Rumored To Relaunch EOS M System With New Cameras And Lenses, Alleged Leaked Olympus E-P5 Photos Surface,

PENTAX RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. has announced that they will release their new compact digital camera “GR” in late May.

It features the new “GR LENS 18.3mm F2.8″ lens with 18.3mm focal length. Low-pass filter-less, APS-C CMOS sensor (16.2 million pixel) is built-in. The new “GRENGINE” image processor brings ISO 25600. High AF speed of 0.2 seconds and 4 frame/second shutter speed.

Still pictures up to 4928×3264; Movies up to 1920×1080.

Support functions for shooting are abundant. 9 effect modes such as “Retro” and “Miniaturize”, “Dynamic range correction” to reduce over-exposure or under-exposure, “Face detection AF&AE” to take a photo of a person easily and beautifully, etc.

Estimated price: around 100,000 yen
Dimensions: approx. 117 x 61 x 34.7 mm
Weight: approx. 245g (with battery and SD card); 215g (without)

You might recall the weather-sealed delights of Pentax’s K-30, but if you don’t, perhaps a new palette of colors will leave a more permanent impression. The 16.3-megapixel DSLR can now be picked up in 15 new finishes, split between gloss and matte, and includes Bordeaux (that’ll be deep red), White, Orange, Yellow, Green, Silver and Blue colors. However, it’s still not the most customization options Pentax has offered. The K-30 has a long way to go if it wants to best the 100 variants of its mirrorless sibling, the Q10. Each one retails for $800, but to get the full catalog, you’ll have to pass the digital doors of Pentax’s online store.

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Source: Pentax Store

Apple’s ‘Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 4.04’ is out, and although we rarely report on these frequent releases, there are a few notable shooters named in this particular version. Available for Macs running OS X Lion 10.7.5 and above, or Mountain Lion 10.8.2 and above, the update now allows RAW snaps from Sony’s compact Cyber-shot RX1 and Nikon’s D5200 SLR to play nice with Aperture and iPhoto software. Plenty of other cameras are also on the changelog: Leica’s X2, V-Lux 4 and D-Lux 6, as well as Pentax’s Q, K-30, K-5 II and IIs. A quick trip to the App Store will get you on the latest version and have you cooking something up in Aperture before you can say “medium-rare.” Bon appétit.

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Via: CNET

Source: Apple

Some might call it ugly; we’ll say unique. Regardless of your take on Pentax’s ruggedized Optio housing, you’ll get a capable waterproof shooter, with a handful of practical features. Two new models appeared this week at CP+ in Yokohama, Japan, and while both may look like they came from the same mold, the feature sets differ vastly. The more powerful compact, the WG-3, is also the slightly larger flavor. It packs a 16-megapixel CMOS sensor, a sharp 3-inch LCD and a 4x, f/2-4.9 lens. Its survivability stats, printed around the lens, include waterproof to 14 meters (46 feet), shockproof to 2-meter (6.5-foot) drops, crush-proof to 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of force and cold-proof to -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit). Then there’s the WG-10, which is basically just a rebranded WG-1, so we won’t focus much on that.

Both cameras have similar designs that scream “rugged” — in other words, if you’re a fan of Panasonic’s original Toughbook design, you might find these attractive. They’re incredibly solid-feeling, so while trade show tethers prevented us from doing any durability testing, they definitely look the part. We spent a few minutes with the WG-3 (or WG-III as indicated to the right of the lens) — it’s almost intimidating in appearance, as if it’s telling other cameras to watch their backs. The display is sharp and bright and the camera was generally responsive, though it certainly won’t break any records for speed. Interestingly, the WG-10, which we were originally told was a Target-exclusive, and therefore only available in red, was displayed with a black finish as well — perhaps Pentax has different plans for that model in Japan, which makes sense, considering that there aren’t any Target stores here. Either way, you should expect to see both of these hit stores in April, or you can sneak a peek now in our hands-on video after the break.

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