One Pentax Optio follows the other Pentax Optio——if yesterday we posted about V10, today we have news on A40. I better not dwell on what is common but let me find out what is the difference between V10 and A40. While V10 came equipped with 8.0 mega-pixel; A40 of A series features 12.0 mega-pixels, and this one also boast of being the first in the Optio family to have 12.0 mega-pixels. Quite an achievement but when you compare it with biggies of the digital camera market, the boasting pales.

Unlike V10, which sports a 3.0 inch LCD monitor, A40 is sporting a /1.7-inch CCD having a wide light receiving area. It claims to give superior tone reproduction. Pentax Optio A40 records movies at 30fps at sizes up to 640x480 pixels, using the DivX (MPEG-4) movie format.

A40 is equipped with 3X optical zoom lens——same as V10 but V model has a focal range covering angles of view equivalent to those of 36-108mm lens in 35mm format——having a focal range covering angles of view equivalent to those of a 37-111mm lens in 35mm format.

The other feature that I did not see in V10 is “Dynamic Range Adjustment”. This newest addition is said to prevent white outs and black outs. Shake Reduction and Face Recognition have become the standard features of any digital camera, and even A40 is equipped with both the features.

The Price is not known to us, but we do not think it is going to make a big hole in your pocket. I am not a fan of Optio, so I would not bother knowing more on price and availability, however for you all, I will keep a watch on what is happening in Pentax Optio’s barn.

Features

• Shutter-Priority AE mode and Manual Exposure
• Intelligent zoom: magnified shooting, maintaining image quality of optical zoom
• Auto Picture mode automatically determines the best settings for shooting conditions
• Mode palette provide quick access of 18 shooting modes and 15 playback modes
• Approximately 21.0 MB of built-in-memory
• Compatible with SD memory cards and SDHC memory cards
• FotoNation’s red eye compensation function for flash shots
• Includes the ACDSee for PENTAX 3.0 image viewer/image management software
• Windows Vista support
• Support PictBridge, DPOF functions, Exif Print, and PRINT Image Matching III

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