Pentax announces P70 compact camera

CES 2009: To hit the shelves for £179

6 January 2009 11:36 GMT / By Verity Burns

Pentax has announced the new Optio P70 compact camera.

The basic specs of the new model include a 4x optical zoom, 12-megapixels and an easy-to-view 2.7-inch colour LCD, all wrapped up in a ultra-thin metallic shell.

Looking a little further, you'll also find 1280 x 720 video recording capability, Intelligent Zoom (extending the zoom range to 25x) and triple anti-shake protection, that covers movie shake, high-sensitivity shake and pixel tracking.

Other features include Vertical Snap, which allows for easy vertical-position shooting thanks to all the icons on the LCD screen rotating automatically when you turn the camera to a portrait position. Auto Picture mode will allow for automatic selection from eight different shooting modes depending on conditions (there are 26 shooting modes in total).

Finally new super-fast face recognition will capture the subject's face in focus in 0.03 seconds, with blinking detection that warns the photographer of any blinking at the time of shutter release as well.

There's no firm release date as yet but we do know it will hit the shelves at £179. We'll get a date to you when we have it.