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March 3, 2009: Pentax has presented a new ‘super-zoom’ digicam, the X70, at the media preview session at this year’s PMA International Trade Show, which opens in Las Vegas today.
Equipped with a 12-megapixel, 6.13 x 4.6 mm CCD sensor and a zoom lens that covers the equivalent of 26-624mm in 35mm format, the new camera features an ‘Intelligent Zoom’ function that extends the zoom range to roughly 150 times (approximately 3900mm in 35mm format) by reducing image size. Sensor-shift image stabilisation is includes, offering up to three f-stops of shutter speed compensation. The X70 sports a 2.7-inch colour LCD monitor with a resolution of 230,000 dots and an anti-reflection coating plus an electronic viewfinder.
Pentax-X70-front_sml
Other features include a continuous shooting mode that records up to 21 shots at approximately 11 frames/second (at 5M image size) plus an Auto-Tracking AF mode that keeps a fast-moving subject in focus. Face detection AF and AE technologies can identify up to 32 human faces in a frame. Smile Capture and Blink Detection are also included. Movie clips can be recorded at a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels with a frame rate of 15 frames/second as well as 848 x 480 pixels, VGA and QVGA resolutions at 30 frames/second. A Movie SR mode applies shake reduction cropping during movie capture.
The X70 supports P, A, S and M shooting modes plus an Auto Picture mode that selects the most appropriate shooting mode for a given subject or scene by detecting the subject’s lighting, movement and other conditions. Scene selections covered include Landscape, Portrait, Night Scene, Night Scene Portrait, Flower, Sport and Standard modes plus an Auto Macro mode for close focusing. Auto Sensitivity Control sets the camera’s ISO between ISO 50 and ISO 6400, depending on ambient lighting. Manual ISO setting is also provided.
Users can choose from four aspect ratio settings: 4:3, 3:2, 16:9 or 1:1. The Scene mode palette contains 20 pre-sets, including a new Baby mode for accurate exposures of skin tones. An over-exposure compensation function eliminates the risk of blown highlights and the Super Macro mode lets users shoot subjects within 1 cm of the camera. A special Digital Wide mode stitches two consecutive images together to provide an extra-wide angle of view (20mm equivalent) while the Frame Composite mode provides 90 in-camera image frames for adding to images.
Three picture control settings are offered: Bright, Natural and Monochrome, enabling users to select the level of saturation they prefer for each shot. The Pentax X70 comes with approximately 33.6MB of internal memory plus an SD.SDHC expansion slot. It measures approximately 110.5 (W) ø— 82.5 (H) ø— 89.5 (D) mm and weighs roughly 390 grams without battery and card. The new model is scheduled to begin shipping in April. For more information, visit www.crkennedy.com.au.
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