Pentax has announced two new Optio digicams, the Optio A40 and the Optio V10, which are priced below $450.

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leadpic_OptioA40

October 15, 2007: Pentax has announced two new Optio digicams, the Optio A40 and the Optio V10, which are priced below $450.
The Optio A40 (RRP $449) is the first Pentax digicam with a 7.6 x 5.7 mm, 12-megapixel image sensor. This is coupled with a 3x optical zoom lens (37-111mm equivalent in 35mm format) and high-resolution (232,000 pixels) 2.5-inch LCD. New features include combined sensor-shift and ISO-boosting shake reduction and Face Recognition AF and AE. Dedicated functions that apply face recognition technology include special ‘Natural Skin Tone’ ‘ and ‘Half-length Portrait” modes for shooting portraits. The first improves skin tone rendition, while the second automatically takes waist-up portrait on the basis of people recognized in photo frame.

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OptioA40_front

Optio A40
Other handy features include a new Dynamic Range Adjustment function, which corrects highlight and shadow areas and can recognise and adjust exposures for backlit subjects. Video clips can be recorded with VGA quality at 30 frames/second, using DivX (MPEG4) format, which supports long recording times. Users can also choose between automatic, shutter priority and manual exposure modes and an ‘Intelligent Zoom’ function allows image quality to be maintained while zooming. The camera comes with 21MB of internal memory plus an SD card expansion slot.

The Optio V10 (RRP $349) combines an 8-megapixel image sensor with a 3x optical zoom lens and a 3.0-inch, 230,000 pixel LCD monitor. Featuring an ultra-slim body with an aluminium alloy casing, the Optio V10 includes ISO-boosting digital shake reduction, auto-tracking AF and 52.1MB of internal memory plus an SD expansion slot.

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OptioV10

Optio V10