Pentax X70 Digital Camera Review

Pentax X70

Digital Camera Review

Pentax launches its first ultra-zoom with the X70, with an impressive 24x zoom, 12-megapixel resolution and CCD-shfit stabilization to help prevent camera shake. The camera will arrive in April for a recommended price of $399.95 We had the opportunity to try out a pre-production model at the PMA trade show in Las Vegas. Here's what we discovered.
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Modes
 
image Design & Layout Page 5 of 8 Controls image

Auto Mode


The X70 uses a couple of different types of auto modes, depending on what you need, and your familiarity with the system. For those completely new to the camera, there's the Green mode which removes almost all controls. Then there's Auto Pict, which attempts to analyze what you're shooting to chose the best scene mode. Finally, program mode just sets the aperture and shutter speed, leaving the rest in your hands.

Movie Mode


In movie mode, you can shoot 1280 x 720 at 15fps, or 848 x 480, 640 x 480 and 320 x 240 at 30fps.

Drive/Burst Mode


There are three speeds of burst mode available, 11fps for 21 images, 6.3fps for 7 images, and 4fps for 7 images. We assume the faster speeds are at lower resolution, but we don't know for sure, since there was no documentation for our pre-production sample. There's also an auto bracketing mode, and interval shooting, which lets you take time-lapse photography.

Playback Mode


In Playback Mode, you can view the images in calendar view, as nine thumbnails per page, or enlarged up to 10x. There are a large number of editing effects on offer too: you can add a frame to the image, resize, crop, rotate, remove red-eye, add a memo, capture a single frame from a video or divide movies into parts. There are also image filters. You can alter the image to black and white; sepia; tint to red, pink, purple, blue, green or yellow; isolate colors in red, green or blue; add a soft filter; fisheye; or tweak brightness.
 

Custom Image Presets


For customization purposes, there's a User mode on the X70, which lets you save your settings for later use. There's also a wide array of scene modes for those who like such things. On the mode dial are Sport mode and Digital Shake Reduction, while the rest are found in scene mode: Landscape, Flower, Portrait, Backlight, Half Length Portrait (3M), Night Scene, Night Scene Portrait, Stage Lighting, Surf & Snow, Baby, Kids, Pet, Food, Fireworks, Frame Composite (3M), Party, Museum, Sunset, Digital Wide (5M), Digital Panorama (2M per frame).

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