Pentax Releases New Series Of Optio E50, M50 And S12

Pentax updates their entry line of digital P&S camera today with the announcement of Optio E50. The new 8.1 megapixels camera features 2.4" LCD display, 1/2.5" CCD sensor with sensitivity up to ISO 1600. It has a 4x digital and 3x optical zoom range of 37.5mm-112.5mm (35mm equiv.) Other features including digital shake reduction and face recognition. It runs on 2xAA batteries, supports SD/SDHC media storage and has a built-in 9.5mb storage space. The E50 will be selling for $149 coming next month.

The next Optio M50 is a mid-range 8.0 megapixels camera features 2.5" LCD display, 1/2.35" CCD sensor with sensitivity up to ISO 6400. It has a 5x optical zoom range of 36mm-180mm (35mm equiv.) and digital shake reduction. Other features including face recognition, fully automatic mode and has 16 picture modes to choose from. It runs a proprietary D-LI78 Lithium-ion battery, supports SD/SDHC media storage and has a built-in 51mb storage space. The M50 is available in black, silver, light blue, dark blue, rose and pink. It will be released around March with MSRP of $230.

The last Optio is S12, that's Pentax line of slim model featuring a much higher resolution of 12mp, 2.5" LCD display, 1/1.7" Interline Transfer CCD sensor with sensitivity up to ISO 3200. It has a 6x digital and 3x optical zoom range of 38mm-114mm (35mm equiv.) with digital shake reduction. Other features including face recognition, 20 pictures mode and capable to capture movie mode up to 640x480 at 30fps. It runs on Lithium-ion battery, supports SD/SDHC media storage and has a built-in 22mb storage space. The M50 is available in silver, black, pink and metallic blue. It will be released around March with MSRP of $279.

Overall, The new optio are affordable but offer less competative features.

[via press release]