Pentax's Optio P70 and E70 digicams won't break banks, hearts, or kneecaps

Pentax is kicking its CES festivities into medium gear with a pair of cheapo point-and-shoot digicams that we expect will be a tipping point to a great avalanche of affordable shooters. The $199.95 Optio P70 features a 12-megapixel sensor, can capture 720p video at 15 FPS, ISO from 64 to an astounding 6400 (though only at 5-megapixels), has a 4x zoom lens, a 2.7-inch LCD display, and comes in silver, white, or red. The E70, meanwhile, sports a 10-megapixel sensor, a 2.4-inch display, 3x zoom, but delivers the same staggering ISO range as the P70 for a slightly more affordable $129.95. Both models feature "Pixel Track Shake Reduction" and face-detection, will be available in February, and have put at least one editor to sleep.

[lhfan04 @ Jan 6th 2009 2:39AM]

Looks pretty good for the price. Nothing really special though...

[Uncontrol @ Jan 6th 2009 2:47AM]

The P70 seems pretty similar to the Kodak Z1285 I just bought, though I'm sure the macro mode won't be quite as miserable.

[allislost @ Jan 6th 2009 2:52AM]

I'd rather have a pita...

[YoYoYo @ Jan 6th 2009 5:30AM]

>I'd rather have a pita...

There is no BSD-branded camera.

[Wwhat @ Jan 6th 2009 3:37AM]

Hey engadget, let's agree to not call anything under 24fps 'video' OK? 15fps is sequence not video.
TIA

[YoYoYo @ Jan 6th 2009 5:30AM]

That seems a bit out of touch, given pretty much everything webcam/videophone related.

[Kris120890 @ Jan 6th 2009 3:59AM]

But your site isn't.
S-T-O-P S-PA-M-M-I-N-G

[Yasser @ Jan 6th 2009 5:14AM]

That jobstaxi site isn't half that bad actually. Found a couple a great jobs there. Back to the subject at hand. Pentax sucks, pay the extra cash, get a decent cam like a canon or a nikon. My 5 cents.

[dave sz @ Jan 6th 2009 12:12PM]

you can keep your 5 cents. Keep your canikon fanboiii bs to yourself...

[Zelatio @ Jan 6th 2009 12:18PM]

Yea, especially because my Pentax K20D could take a lot better pictures than many NIkon and Canon overpriced pieces of shit. Oh yea it's waterproof too.

[YoYoYo @ Jan 6th 2009 5:30AM]

Can someone translate the story's lead into English? I'm assuming that the undefined ISO abbreviation doesn't refer to International Standards Organization, but it still means nothing without context.

[Tom G @ Jan 6th 2009 5:42AM]

Actually ISO does stand for International Standards Organization here, with cameras ISO refers to how sensitive the camera sensor is to light, so if you are in a dark place you should use a higher ISO. The downside to a higher ISO is that you get more noise in the image, with cheap cameras the noise at high ISO can really ruin a photo, i assume it is the case with these cameras.

[Michael @ Jan 6th 2009 10:39AM]

OMG! 6400 ISO? Even my IXUS 85 struggled with ISO 1600 and 3200 how much more from an entry level doing 6400?It could have >50% in detail loss. Not interested...Im happy with canon...

[superhobo @ Jan 6th 2009 12:13PM]

Nice design...not really.

But 6400? Thats amazing...if it works.

[Nuno José @ Jan 16th 2009 5:26PM]

Finally a f 2.6 aperture, my S4 its broken and was waiting for this machine. My S4 takes better pict that every new camera that I know especially at night. These pentax lens are just great and the machine is very very thing.