Pentax intros Optio A10 and Optio E10

Pentax busted out two new digital cameras ahead of CES today, the Optio A10 and the Optio E10. Nothing crazy, the Optio A10(pictured above) is an eight megapixel model with shake reduction technology and a 3x optical zoom lens, while the six megapixel Optio E10 (pictured below) is more of an entry-level model (hence the "E") and has a 3x optical zoom lens. Both should be in stores next month, with the A10 going for $350 and the E10 selling for $200.

[Flash @ Jan 3rd 2006 6:20PM]

I'm interested what are dimensions of these cameras. They seems to be small, don't they?

[Tyler McPheeters @ Jan 3rd 2006 6:36PM]

Pentax makes some of the best small digital cameras on the market, I've owned 2 and bought several for friends. Great displays and optics, the A10 is looking like an amazing new addition to their line. Here are the size/weight specs:



Casing - Aluminum alloy Dimensions (W x H x D) - 3.5 x 2.1 x 0.9 inches (88.5 x 54.5 x 23mm) Weight � 4.4 oz. (125g) without battery and SD memory card, 5.1 oz. (145g) loaded and ready.



Full Specs: http://www.pentaximaging.com/products/product_specs/digital_camera--Optio_A10/reqID--7315369/subsection--optio

[mpeng @ Jan 3rd 2006 7:16PM]

we need more megapixels!

[Andy @ Jan 3rd 2006 7:51PM]

Can you still fit it in a altoids can?

[jason @ Jan 3rd 2006 8:02PM]

we need more cameras that fit in altoids tins!

[Yem @ Jan 3rd 2006 9:21PM]

The antishake is nice to have, as is MPEG4 - pity the video is munged up to 30FPS from 20FPS (hardware) though. Keenly anticipating a throrough review.

[John Commenter @ Jan 4th 2006 2:16PM]

Yeah, the "Nothing crazy" is a bit off. There are two gyros and a CCD-shifting mechanism for antishake. That is a "big deal". There are not many other consumer-levels with optical anti-shake, are there?

[Yem @ Jan 4th 2006 3:56PM]

Panasonic have been putting the technology into their ultra mini cameras for a while now. Apparently it works pretty well so the more the better eh.

[Za @ Jan 4th 2006 4:08PM]

John Commenter, there definitely are a handful with the OIS

[John Commenter @ Jan 5th 2006 3:19PM]

8. Yeah, Panasonic does it in pretty small cameras, but not as small or light as this. Especially not as thin.



There really is a difference between 5 oz and 4 oz, and between 1.2 in thick and 0.9 in thick, both as a technical challenge or for portability. You can't go that thin on a 3x without folding somehow, and getting near 4 oz is obviously not easy either. Then again, my buying choice is within the sub-1 oz mp3, 3-oz phones (there's not not too many of them, believe me), and 4-oz cameras on the philosophy that "the best sound/picture/signal is obtained from that which you didn't leave behind to avoid carrying a cumulative pound of different crap."



I think going this small/light with OIS now is a big deal. Some other maker might also have done it, that still is pretty unusual.



9. "not many" = a handful, so we agree!

[BillB @ Jan 7th 2006 12:58PM]

The A10 is more than 25% larger than the S6, which, according to Pentax, passes the Altoids tin test. That increase is mostly in depth (23 mm vs 19 mm). However, some of it is in width (88.5 mm vs 86 mm). Of course, I haven't had the opportunity to try to drop an A10 into a tin. But my suspicion is that those increases are enough to keep the A10 on the outside of an Altoids tin. Blame it on the gyros? And the E10 is considerably larger than the A10 (blame that on running on AA batteries), so no luck there, either.

[Brett Goulder @ Jan 17th 2006 4:52PM]

I think we all need to request Altoid's to make bigger tins.