Pentax OptioS

The stylish aluminum housing of the Pentax OptioS measures just 8.3 cm (B) x 5.2 cm (H) x 2 cm (D). It conceals a CCD with an effective resolution of 3.2 million pixels and a powerful 3x zoom lens. It has a focal length of 35-105 mm (35 mm equivalent) and consists of six elements in five groups (with two aspherical elements on both sides). Pentax has made use of its exclusive sliding lens system to integrate the 3x zoom lens into this ultra-thin body. Unlike the conventional system, in which the lens elements in the optical axis slot into each other with a certain minimum gap, the central lens element group in the OptioS first moves vertically onto a second plane. Only then do the other elements on the horizontal axis move into the

camera body. This solution results in a reduction in the camera depth of 55 percent for this zoom factor.

A further miniaturization factor (namely 57 percent compared with the Pentax Optio 330RS) has been achieved by using a newly developed MCM (Multi-Chip Module).

The OptioS can be used not only for taking photos and movie sequences, it also features a speech recording mode that enables it to be used as a dictating machine. Other camera features include autofocus, digital zoom (2x), manual focusing option, various white balance modes, a memory card slot for SD and MM cards and an additional internal memory of 11 MB. The OptioS supports both DPOF functions and the Exif print format, is equipped with a USB port and is scheduled for distribution from March this year.