Originally posted by Ontarian50 Pentax had too much honesty to put higher resolution sensors in the cameras, even though sensors in the 16 and 20 megapixel range were available
When the Q was introduced in 2011, the 1/2.33" CMOS sensor it used was available at 12MP.
When the Q7 was introduced 2 years later, the 1/1.7" CMOS sensor it used was available at 12MP.
"Honesty" had nothing to do with it, Pentax simply used what was available at the time. There were higher-megapixel CCD sensors available, but they were noisy and had poor video quality and were used only in bargain-basement compacts and lower-end superzoom cameras.