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Another strong Pentax camera is ready to join their Optio S line up.  The S series is a slim-line digital camera full of state of the art features.  The S7 is raising up to 7 megapixels, and will introduce their “Face Recognition AF & AE”.  This function isn’t what it sounds like, but it still adds a lot to the camera.  Pentax says it “simplifies portrait-taking by automatically detecting the position of the subject’s face and adjusting the focus and exposure based on the detected position.“

The Optio S7 has a 3X optical zoom, a 2.5 inch LCD monitor and 23 MB of internal memory.  The camera also has a MPEG-4 DivX Movie Mode and will accept both SD memory cards and SDHC cards, up to 4GB.  The camera will go on the open market in September 2006, with a price under $300.

Read [Press Release]

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The Pentax Optio W20 follows in the path of the W10.  Both digital cameras are waterproof to a depth of five feet for up to 30 minutes.  The W10 offered a 6 megapixel resolution, while the W20 ups that to 7 megapixels.  Pentax also added to the W20, a new “Blur Reduction High ISO mode that selects ISO up to 1600”.  Other features for the W20 are the same as the W10, which include a 2.5 inch-115,000 pixel LCD monitor, QuickTime motion JPEG (640 x 480) at 30fps with anti-shake technology, and .6 second start-up and 0.05 second shutter lag.  This shutter lag will make multiple picture taking virtually uninterrupted.

According to Pentax’s announcement earlier this week, the Optio W20 will ship in September 2006 and sell for under $300.  Our only advice is not to take it into the deep end of the pool…we don’t want you to drown.

Via [Livingroom.org]

Read [Pentax]

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