Among the many camera announcements made Thursday in advance of the Photo Marketing Association trade show that begins on Jan. 31, Pentax added three new consumer-level cameras to its line-up. The Optio S12, M50 and E50 all offer point-and-shoot operation in packages under $300.
The entry-level Optio E50 uses two AA batteries instead of the more traditional proprietary battery pack, and sports a thickness of 0.9 inches that carries across all three news cams. It gets an 8.1 MP CCD, 3x optical zoom and a 2.4-inch LCD. Extra options include digital shake reduction and face recognition.
