Pentax has announced the three new compact cameras that were hinted at yesterday, in all their retro-tastic glory. As expected, the I-10 (above) looks like a tiny 1960s SLR (reader msatlas pointed out on yesterday’s post that it looks like the Pentax 110 SLRs from decades past), and the H90 caomes in a rather fetching orange’n’silver color scheme. Finally, Pentax snuck in the excruciatingly dull E90, a $100, 10MP camera which only a very bored mother could love (bottom).
The $300 I-10 comes in black or white and with “classy” leatherette cladding. The lens has a 5x zoom, the sensor 12.1 MP, a 2.7-inch LCD and 720p video capture. The most exciting feature, though, apart from the horrible styling and lack of a viewfinder (despite the lump on the top of the body) is the face detection mode. Pentax has tweaked the design to recognize dogs and cats. Now you know what to buy your crazy, tie-dye clad neighbor for her birthday.
By contrast, the H90 has hard, modern lines — if by modern you mean “1970s robotic scallop”. Again with the 5x zoom, 12.1MP sensor, 2.7-inch and 720p video: it seems almost as if these cameras were only differentiated by case design. And price: the H90 is just $180.
Lastly, a surprise. The cheap-o, fugly E90 shoots at ISO6400 (with likely quite noisy results) and takes a pair of AA batteries. It could make a great, semi-disposable travel-cam.
Pentax product page [Pentax via Photography Bay]
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