Pentax S7 Review

The Optio S7 combines Pentax's "Sliding Lens System" technology seen in some of the company's past models (which removes elements from the optical path as the lens retracts, allowing a slimmer profile when the camera is powered off) with a 1/2.5" seven megapixel CCD imager. There's also a smc Pentax-branded 3x optical zoom lens and 2.5" LCD display with a higher-than-average 232,000 pixels - but no optical viewfinder - in a compact body with smooth lines that should make for pocket-friendliness.

The Pentax S7 includes new FotoNation Face Recognition AF and AE technology, which "allows you to take bright, beautiful photos of people with perfectly focused faces free of shadows caused by exposing for the background or for the colors of clothing", according to Pentax.

The Pentax S7 offers a high quality movie mode, capturing VGA resolution (640 x 480 pixles) at 30 frames-per-second, employing a DivX (MPEG-4 compliant) encoder. Camera shake while recording videos can also be corrected automatically by switching on the software-based movie anti-shake feature.

Other S7 features include sensitiviy as high as ISO 1600 (available in Blur Reduction mode), digital red-eye correction, 23MB of built-in storage memory, a slot for a Secure Digital memory card (with SDHC compatibility), NTSC / PAL video and USB 2.0 High-Speed data connectivity, as well as a built-in flash. Power comes from a proprietary D-LI8 Lithium Ion rechargeable battery.

The Pentax Optio S7 ships from September 2006 at a suggested price of under US$400.