Pixiq

It looks a bit familiar, doesn’t it? Neat, compact shape, metallic looking finish… could it be a Canon Ixus? Well no, actually it’s a Pentax Optio S1. It’s the latest point-and-shoot that is as much about style than it is about substance. Of course, there is a camera lurking under that aquamarine (or black, or chrome) aluminium-alloy casing, so what can it do?

Let’s start with the lens. 5x optical zoom that’s the 35mm equivalent of 18-140mm. The addition of the intelligent zoom function gives you the ability to extend the zoom range up to 33.5 times. Those numbers are giving me blurry nightmares of camera shake, but fear not, because Pentax has implemented a trio of anti-shake
features.

There’s a CCD-shift-type shake reduction, which should compensate for camera shake by up to three f-stops; there’s a high-sensitivity anti-shake mode that’ll automatically up the ISO to as much 6,400 in low-light settings (but reduce the effective megapixels to 5); and when you’re making videos (because the S1 has the now-ubiquitous video-mode) there’s a movie SR (shake reduction) mode.

About that video function: 720p at 30fps high-def.

Pentax Optio S1

As for taking pictures, there’s an Auto Picture mode that’ll do just about everything for you (I’m waiting for one of these ‘you don’t have to do anything but depress the shutter’ modes to wipe the snotty noses of kids in the photos, too); there’s face detection, smile detection, a natural skin mode, and nine filters to make pictures look retro or miniature or as if they were taken with a toy camera.

If you’ve a Pentax wireless remote control, it’ll hook up to that and it has an in-camera charging mechanism, a bit like a mobile phone. Now that does seem sensible.

Just in case you really wanted to know, it’s a 14mp sensor.

All of that for somewhere around £120, available from the end of March.

More details on the Pentax Optio S1are available from Pentax, obviously.