At the Pentax booth the new Pentax K10D draw quit a lot of attention which is honestly not surprising. We believe Pentax has an interesting digital SLR that is able to conquer an impressive market share in the segment of 10 Megapixel digital SLR cameras. Although the Pentax K10 is their latest introduction, other products drew our attention. Pentax showcased some digital camera concepts which were quite interesting.
Pentax digital camera concepts
Pentax L-size digital camera concept
What about the Pentax L-size digital camera concept which is a concept idea to develop a digital camera with an integrated photo album. This concept is created in 2002 and was developed to find out how to integrate a large format 3-inch LCD display into a small compact camera and change the operation of the camera by incorporating a touch-screen function. What began as a concept lead to the production of the Pentax Optio T10 and T20 cameras.
Pentax Digital K concept
Another interesting digital concept is the Pentax Digital K. You may heard of the Olympus E-330 DSLR that offers 'live view' with digital SLR photography. Well in 1997, yes that is almost ten years ago…, Pentax studied on a concept that actually had the same basic idea as today's digital SLR cameras with live view mode. The Pentax Digital K concept is a digital system camera with interchangeable lenses and supposed to offer full features of a digital SLR camera. A digital SLR camera with live view…. almost ten years ago!
Pentax Optio T-series
The Pentax Optio T-series offer touch-screen and a large monitor. These digital camera models are today quit unique and offer a simple, almost intuitive operation just by touching the screen. Back in 1997 the engineers of Pentax worked on a concept that basically had the same idea as today's modern Pentax Optio T10 or T20 camera. The digital camera concept exists out of a large monitor and a compact ultra-thin housing.
Pentax digital camera concepts
Pentax Twinz digital camera concept
You also may have learned about the Kodak EasyShare dual lens concept. A digital camera with two lenses integrated offering extra wide next to an optical zoom. The Pentax Twinz digital camera concept was developed in 2002 and had the same basic idea; develop an ultra-small digital camera with two integrated lens systems. One for the optical zoom, the other for an extra wide angle offering a total of 4x wide zoom. Why this concept did not make it to a final stage only Pentax knows…
Pentax X-Change concept
The last digital concept we would like to introduce you to, is the Pentax X-Change concept. This concept is developed to create a digital SLR concept with the same compact dimensions of a compact camera. The Pentax X-Change was created in 2002, and is a very interesting idea. The Pentax X-Change is a body with ultra-thin dimensions, an integrated pop-up flash and interchangeable lenses. It sounds like a digital SLR, isn't it? However, the lenses of this concept all have integrated CCD image sensors offering a variety of focal lengths. Brilliant or?
Pentax digital camera concepts
Pentax concepts - Innovations
The concepts proof that manufacturers are often much further ahead with their ideas and innovations we normally tend to think of. These digital camera concepts show us that some of the ideas were at that time just not ready for the mass market, but some details we now actually see in today's line-up of digital cameras. Imagine today's concepts of all the major brands… what innovative feature or revolution idea is already out there waiting for its turn to be unveiled?
