Pentax Announces Retro-Styled Consumer Point-And-Shoot

By

That retro look
That retro look

Pentax has just announced a new retro-styled point-and-shoot zoom camera, the MX-1. The trend for cameras that look like they’ve fallen through a time warp from the 1960s is trickling down from the high-end and into lower-cost, consumer-oriented models.

The f/1.8-2.5 lens is 28mm at its wide end, and zooms as far as 218mm. Inside there’s a 12 megapixel CMOS sensor with maximum ISO capability of 12,800 for those really dim dark indoor evenings. It also boasts something called “Handheld Night Snap” mode, which lets you take a bunch of useless blurry images that are composited into something usable by software. Hmmm. I’ll believe it when I see it.

On the rear there’s a tiltable 3-inch screen, but no touch screen controls. On top you’ll find an exposure compensation dial, although all other adjustments are going to be done via menus and function keys on the back. For video recording, there’s dedicated “Start recording” button, which gives you HD, H264, 30 frames per second footage.

Tiltable, not sure if that means fully movable though
Tiltable, not sure if that means fully movable though

The camera is compatible with Eye-Fi cards, shoots RAW if you need it, and comes with anti-shake software to smooth out your rough edges. There’s an all-black version as well as the black-and-silver one pictured. Pentas has splashed out on brass for the top and bottom body panels, and rubber for the grips. It goes on sale in February at around $500 (£400 in the UK).

Source: Pentax

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.