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View Full Version : Being Pentax first bridge cam, why it is not fully loaded!?



Ron Cobalt
03-17-2009, 05:27 PM
I am a lifetime Pentax follower. In recent years, the company really showed that it has made solid efforts on improving its already high quality products in order to build new markets and to keep the ones already earned.

When I read that Pentax had released the X70 I was very enthusiastic on getting one, specially because its 24x mega zoom, its HD movie recording capability and its 12 Mpx sensor.

At first sight, the camera seemed to me as a very strong competitor to the Canon PowerShot SX1, the Nikon Coolpix P90 and to the Olympus SP590, but reading more about it, I felt a little disappointed on some aspects.

I understand that the camera has a good set of unique features and it will probably hit the market since it carries the Pentax badge, like 24X optical + 6.3X digital, 12 Mpx sensor, HD Movie mode, face recognition, high speed shooting, 1 cm macro close-ups, 33.6MB onboard memory, and the list continues.

However I wonder why Pentax decided not to load it with ALL the current market features, in order to make the difference (as the new motto goes: “be interesting”) .

And why it does not either follow the line of the K100D and K200D on using AA batteries for convenience?!, particularly being this X70 a smaller portable bridge camera. Instead, it uses a Pentax rechargeable Li-Ion battery D-LI92 which barely gives you 170 shots !!

The features I would have liked to see were:

• A vari-angle tilt display.
• Stereo movie sound recorder.
• 30 fps HD movie mode (instead of only 15 fps)
• A hot shoe.
• Raw
• AA batteries (or longer battery life)


I will give a try to the X70 anyway as soon as it is available, but I certainly hope that Pentax should consider these features in future releases.

Ron.
//

ghost
03-25-2009, 09:37 AM
Unfortunately, Pentax outsourced the camera. Ironically, I believe it is the same as the coolpix P90 just tweaked a little bit. That is the nature of the beast though. 90% of P&S are outsourced to Chinese companies and re branded. So, The X70 is being used to generate cash flow. Outsourcing increases the amount that Pentax sees, as there is no R&D.

Sorry if this doesn't make sense, been up for 20 hours. night night!

speaklightly
05-16-2009, 10:01 PM
ghost is very correct!

The Pentax X-70, the Nikon P-90 and the Kodak Z-980 all share the same lens, although the size of the LCD may vary, and that the Kodak Z-980 uses the Kodak P-20 External Flash, they are essentially the same camera with different brand name variations.

Sarah Joyce

speaklightly
05-28-2009, 09:21 PM
Ron-

www.steves-digicams.com just completed a full professional review of the new Penatax X-70.

Sarah Joyce