Pentax Unveil New M-Series Optio M60 Compact 10MP Digital Camera [New Pentax Point & Shoot]

As if the market were not already brimming with compact point and shoot compact digital cameras Pentax has unveiled the latest in its line of M-Series compact ‘point and shoot’ digital cameras in the form of the Pentax Optio M60 which, whilst appearing to be a solid all-rounder, is, it has to be said, an altogether uninspiring affair – especially when compared to the latest point and shoot cameras unveiled by the likes of Samsung, such as their new TL34HD, TL9, SL310W and SL201 models, for example.

Offering a 10 megapixel sensor, 36-180mm 5x optical zoom lens and a ‘large’ (though we would rather suggest somewhat run-of-the-mill) 2.5” LCD screen, the Pentax Optio M60 offers pretty much everything you would expect from a lightweight point and shoot camera such as face detection (though the Optio M60 can, in fairness, recognise up to a somewhat impressive 32 faces in any particular scene), smile detection (these days a fairly standard feature on such cameras), Digital SR (shake reduction) and a host of scene modes. Additionally, however, the Optio M60 also comes with an ‘Auto Picture’ function with will act to set the optimum scene mode automatically which is a boom for those who want a device that performs with the minimum of user intervention.

Pentax Optio M60 Compact Digital Camera Key Features:

• Large, 2.5-inch LCD monitor of approximately 230,000 dots
• Wide viewing angle LCD for easy viewing even from diagonal directions
• Digital Wide merges two shots into one image for ultra-wide-angle expressions
• Panorama mode for composing photographs into one panoramic picture
• Movie recording function with shake reduction enabling high image quality rivaling camcorders
• Mode palette provides quick access to 24 shooting conditions and 15 playback mode
• Frame composite function: shoot and create images with decorative frames
• 80 built-in styles to choose from
• Auto-Macro allows for close-up photography as near as 10cm
• Date and Time imprint function for easy image categorizing
• Approximately 36.5MB of built-in memory
• FotoNation’s red-eye compensation function for flash shots
• Support PictBridge, DPOF functions, Exif Print, and PRINT Image Matching III
• Includes the ACDSee for PENTAX 3.0 image viewer/image management software that supports Windows Vista

The Pentax Optio M60 will become available in silver, blue and the all too obligatory pink from August 22 for around a wallet friendly £100 (which equates for around $198/€127 at the time of writing).