DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY NEWS

PENTAX Optio A10 Digital Camera Introduction

Januray 3, 2006 – CES 2006 - Pentax today announced the Optio A10 digital camera, their first compact digital with an 8.0 effective megapixel CCD packaged in the signature slim, lightweight, stylish design of the Optio digital camera line. PENTAX also introduces an innovative Shake Reduction system in the A10 to help ensure sharper images.

CES Booth Location
The Optio A10 will be on display in the Pentax Imaging Booth number 35335 in the South Hall 4 during CES.

Pricing and Availability
The Optio A10 will ship in February at a price of under $350 U.S.

High Image Quality With A Large CCD
The Optio A10 is equipped with a new large 1/1.8-inch CCD boasting 8.32 total megapixels. Featuring approximately 1.6 percent more light receiving area of conventional PENTAX compact camera CCDs, this CCD offers advantages in superior tone reproduction, texture delineation, and noise reduction.

High-Performance smc PENTAX Zoom Lens
Constructed from seven elements in five groups, including three double-sided aspherical lenses, the newly developed smc PENTAX zoom lens produces clear, high-contrast images. The design corrects effectively for spherical and other aberrations and original coating cuts out ghosting and flare.

New ASIC*
A new ASIC equips the Optio A10 with dramatically more image-processing power. The ASIC’s high-speed processing capability assists the Optio A10 in attaining a higher level of tone reproduction and color correction based on enormous amounts of actual photo data.
* Application Specific Integrated Circuit

Shake Reduction System (SR)
A Shake Reduction system unique to PENTAX delivers stability in shooting conditions that are sensitive to camera shake, such as telephoto shots or indoor shots without a flash. Specifically, the SR mechanism features:

• Two internal gyro sensors that detect the amount of camera shake.
• A dedicated CPU calculates the necessary correction from the amount of camera shake and the focusing data of the lens.
• A proprietary mechanism adjusts the CCD based on the calculated correction to compensate for the camera shake.

Super-Compact, Lightweight Body
PENTAX maintains the slim dimensions of the Optio A10 despite completely redesigning the lens unit including the optical lens and the image sensor, enlarging the CCD, and adding an anti-vibration mechanism to absorb camera shake. Furthermore, using the PENTAX Sliding Lens System and high-density mounting technology, PENTAX offers dimensions of 3.5 x 2.1 x 0.9 inches (88.5 ´ 54.5 ´ 23 mm) and a weight of 4.4 ounces (125 g) body with an efficient layout that leaves almost no spaces between components.

Note: PENTAX’s proprietary lens system offsets the central lens groups from the optical axis and houses the lenses in two separate stages in the lens barrel to reduce the overall lens length and thereby minimize the body depth.

Elegant, Stylish Design
The Optio A10 features refined highlights including a highly textured aluminum alloy exterior, a multi-faceted accent lens ring, and a connector cover designed to blend in with the camera.

Intuitive Mode Palette
The Mode palette lists various modes on the LCD monitor to allow quick navigation and selection from the 15 shooting modes and 15 playback modes through the translucent display, which superimposes mode icons over the LCD monitor image. So, changing settings while framing the subject is simple.

Auto Picture Mode
Auto picture mode makes taking photos easy and fun. Selecting the Auto picture mode from the shooting Mode palette has the camera automatically select the mode from Portrait, Landscape, Night Scene, or Standard according to the shooting conditions.

High-Quality Movie Mode With Long Recording Times
The Optio A10 smoothly captures movies at 30 fps (frames per second) at sizes up to 640 ´ 480 pixels with image quality rivaling camcorders. Since it employs the DivX® MPEG-4 movie format,* the Optio A10 can record longer, high-quality movies. Camera shake can also be corrected automatically by switching on the Movie anti-Shake feature.**

* The Optio A10 is DivX® certified. Movie playback is not supported on Macintosh operating systems.
** Using the Movie anti-Shake feature results in a narrower field of view than normal.

High-definition, easy-to-view LCD monitor
Despite the slim body, the Optio A10 manages to fit in a large 2.5 inch LCD monitor with the clarity of approximately 232,000 pixels. The monitor is easy to see even in bright locations because of its backlight and low-reflection type. All of this means it is easier to navigate menus, make settings, and compose shots as well as to display crisper, more beautiful images.

Other features:

• Precise auto focus with a tracking AF function feature
• Candlelight mode allows high-sensitivity shooting at a Standard Output Sensitivity of 800
• Approximately 24 MB of built-in memory; supports external SD memory cards
• Built-in AF-assist light (can be switched on or off)
• Frame composite function can add decorative frames to images
• Pan-focus function for effortless snapshots
• Convenient image-rotation display for confirmation of vertical shots
• ACDSee for PENTAX image viewer/image management software
• FotoNation’s red-eye compensation function for flash photography
• USB 2.0 (HI-SPEED) compatible
• DPOF functions, Exif Print, and PRINT Image Matching III compatible
• PictBridge compatible