One more post about the Pentax Q
Engadget has some nice video coverage of the Pentax Q. Pentax claims it can produce good results at ISO6400 and did a demo to prove it. They only used the camera’s screen and it is a preproduction model, but it looks and promising. Image noise is easily seen on a camera’s playback screen and if they did not see any then it is quite an accomplishment.
Pentax has been doing a great job with high ISO settings in their digital SLRs and if it translates over to the Q, the image quality could be very nice indeed. Clean at ISO 6400 likely means very clean at ISO 100 or ISO 200. I will reserve judgment until I try one myself but the news is encouraging. It won’t make it the equal of a large sensor camera but it would make it an outstanding picture taker.
See it here: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/23/pentax-releases-q-worlds-smallest-interchangeable-lens-digital/
I also spoke with Chris Pound of Pentax USA this afternoon. He said that they studied the market and wanted to do something different and very small in an interchangeable lens camera, something really unique and convenient to carry. When asked about the image quality to price ratio and the implications of the small sensor, he said they are doing great things with teh Q’s backlit CMOS sensor and end users would be pleased. He “gets it” and related that they weren’t going to bring out a camera like this and charge $800 for it if it only delivered image quality comparable to other small sensor compacts. We should start seeing the Pentax Q for sale around the end of September/early October.
Questions? Email Don
