[Alizarine]

Sony tried the tilt lcd but it did not work too well when used on tripod or when people want to take self portraits.

Now that i thought about it... yeah, I think it would be easier to do "handheld self portraits" with a phone camera instead of a superzoom...

but anyway, so hell, X-5 IS OFFICIAL!! So it was a legit leak!

[raider]

Not unique though. Olympus has a 22.4mm and Nikon has a 22.5mm bridge cam.

Ahh yes. Thanks for pointing that out. I googled and the Oly SP820UZ does have 22.4mm....good stuff. The lower range SP720UZ series don't, however.

[sb in ak]

Can't say I like it, but the price is right. Looks pretty cheap.

[Raffwal]

I wonder who actually makes those bridge cameras? It seems many brands have so similar models that my guess is that they are branded OEM products from the same source.

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Last edited by Raffwal; 08-23-2012 at 05:24 AM.

[gazonk]

I wonder who actually meakes those bridge cameras? It seems many brands have so similar models that my guess is that they are branded OEM products from the same source.

I'm not sure if they make these, but AFAIK Sanyo has been big in the OEM camera business.

[eddie1960]

For the price point the features are good, sensor should be decent. Lens we'll see but it is never a strength on any of these things anyway. the twits at dp revewi are all slamming away at it (and of course finding time to slam the Q as well, and wondering why pentax isn't bankrupt yet. same idiots of course turn around and praise the very similar more expensive nikon bridge camera. Fanboys feh
This is not a camera for enthusiasts, but as mentioned here earlier you just need to visit a big tourist sight to see how popular bridge cameras are. Good on Pentax for coming out with a sharply priced well featured cool looking little camera for the segment. the more of these they sell the more brand awareness there is and that is a very good thing for the rest of us'

[audiobomber]

I agree with you Eddie, but I still would have liked to see some innovation. Ricoh is known for thinking outside the box and Pentax is not a follower. This effort is disappointing to me. The price seems sharp but design-wise it's completely unremarkable.

[eddie1960]

I agree with you Eddie, but I still would have liked to see some innovation. Ricoh is known for thinking outside the box and Pentax is not a follower. This effort is disappointing to me. The price seems sharp but design-wise it's completely unremarkable.

Aside from mirroring the K5 look it really isn't much design wise. but the bridge market is a pretty conservative one. All the bridge cameras look pretty interchangeable for the most part, so likely there is market research driving the design. It's meant to be a low price (and likely low margin) volume piece so I'm not surprised they didn't go out on any design limbs, or build in unique stuff like WR that may have driven the price over the market range for the rest of the feature set (Also I'm not sure how easy it would be to WR the lens on one of these)
RAW would have been nice, but to be realistic it's not what that market wants since it adds a level of complexity and these are still aimed at the P&S user. Pana is the only one with a Raw file in this segment (and leica since it is a rebadged Pana). I'd bet 90% of their users though never use Raw. Heck a lot of P/S users don't shoot at the highest quality (My brother in law is a classic example. hey spend winters in India, I was out visiting ths summer and saw his shots. he has a great eye and took some excellent shots, he was wondering why they didn't fill the screen of his new flat panel since they did on his old tv (he has them burned to cd by the drugstore - a real Luddite actually- Took a look and he basically was shooting 640 x 480 because it fit more shots on the card. To bad some of them would have made fantastic prints. He has been considering a move to DSLR - both he and my sister used to shoot spotties - so I will try and move them into Pentax land. maybe i'll sell them my K10

[Kenn100D]

http://www.pentax.jp/japan/products/x-5/ex/

Our Friend the Squieee

[audiobomber]

X-5?PENTAX RICOH IMAGING

Our Friend the Squieee

Yuk! Those washed out looking images just scream p&s.

[audiobomber]

He has been considering a move to DSLR - both he and my sister used to shoot spotties - so I will try and move them into Pentax land. maybe i'll sell them my K10

You should either give them your K10D or sell them on a K-30.

My B-I-L bought a 50D because it had more pixels than my K20D and shoots more fps. He was shooting at 3.6 megapixels for the same reason, more per card. So much for resolution. He doesn't let me touch the camera because I might change a setting and he won't know how to reset it. I only had it in my hands long enough to observe that Canon DSLR controls are horrible, quite unlike their better compacts.

[eddie1960]

You should either give them your K10D or sell them on a K-30.

My B-I-L bought a 50D because it had more pixels than my K20D and shoots more fps. He was shooting at 3.6 megapixels for the same reason, more per card. So much for resolution. He doesn't let me touch the camera because I might change a setting and he won't know how to reset it. I only had it in my hands long enough to observe that Canon DSLR controls are horrible, quite unlike their better compacts.

They can afford to buy the K10, i'm not going to jack them on it but i would need to replace it at some point as it is my backup. If they weren't as frugal as they are I would push them for the K30 with 18-135. a perfect kit for India where you deal with dust, heavy rains, and festivals where people are throwing all sorts of crazy stuff at you . I doubt they would spend the money, whereas i could sell them the 10 with grip 2 batteries and 18-55wr for about the price of the x-5
I agree on the canon DSLR controls. designed by engineers for engineers, where Pentax feels like it was designed by a photographer.

[Robbod]

I too re kindled my photography into digital with the Fuji s7000, which was a pretty good bridge cam. Very good macro, sensational monochrome, reasonable zoom, RAW, but just a few blown highlights, and poor low light performance.
I bought an x90 last year(as an alternative to the Kx): Great zoom range, not so many blown highlights, awesome macro function, (flash performance is very good in macro as well). Has a movie function and does a good time lapse. The noise once you go above 6-800iso is bad and it has an auto iso function on start up, which likes going higher far too quick for my liking, plus poor battery performance. If you get familiar and know what your doing, can be a fun and handy piece of kit.

The X5, looks better IMO and if that is at least as good IQ as the Q, then its going to be a winner at that price.It seems to have a multi shot layering system for low noise, low light shooting which I think is a first for Pentax? As Pentax seem to be going back to a few more retail stores, then this is a no brainer for the market presence/image and a handy piece of kit for the hobbyist/tourist shooter.

For those happy with a laptop size image(and slightly larger), with no requirement to change lenses, bit of wildlife and macro at the flick of a button instead of a lens change, then its a great option. I have seen a few people who have created amazing images using these types of cameras, deciding they didnt need the expense or snob value of DSLR's to enjoy photography. You might loose DOF creativity and some other control, but carefuly crafted shots and even great sports images have been taken. I think its well done to Pentax, it introduces a few more strings to their bow, is a marketing tool and market share booster.