It is tiny when compared to my previous model and even up against the biscuit thin ultra compact models of today, it is still an impressively small case especially when you consider how much technology it has packed into that case.
It isn't totally without fault though as Pentax still insist on using that rediculously inadequate D-Li8 battery and as usual, while the main body of the camera is a lovely alloy (that get's annoyingly hot when in operation for a long time...) the secondary fittings, spcifically the covers to the battery/SD card slots, the ext/ power port and the pc/usb port covers are the typical flimsy plastic.
Shame really as this is supposed to be their new flagship camera.
I do wonder why they didn't spend that little bit more money to have those covers fshioned out of metal as well.
Performance wise I cannot fault it.
There is a slight issue with the focussing but there's an user upgrade available to deal with that.
At the full 8MB, the images are bigger than 99% of all pc monitors out there and at this size, it is just setting up the camera for failures as at such a large resolution, you'd expect more flaws to show up.... And they do. The lens system, while compact, is still victim of distortion at the extremeties and vignetting is still a problem but heck, I've lived with it before so it doesn't really bother me, especially seeing as nearly all other zoom digital cameras as well as traditional film SLRs suffer from this depending on the lens as well.
Here's a quick pic of a simple line up of my old metal tin/wallet, the camera and an empty tic tac tub.
How's that?
I'd get some better pics when my battery on the old camera is fulling charged.
Until the next time.
Off the record, on the QT and strictly.....
