The Incredible Shrinking Camera

Pentax announced a new digital camera, the Pentax Q. The Q, which will be available in the United States in Fall 2011 for about $800, is the smallest, lightest camera you can get that still has interchangeable lenses. It measures 3.9″ wide by 2.3″ high by 1.2″ deep and weighs 7.1 oz when the battery and memory card are in the camera.
Pentax says that the Q has “superior image quality”. Because the camera isn’t yet available, I haven’t see test photos taken with it, but I admit to being a little skeptical. In order to make the camera so small, Pentax had to shrink its sensor, and that could theoretically affect image quality. The 12.4MP CMOS sensor measures 1/2.3″, which puts the Q into a new category, different from traditional SLRs and 4/3 digital cameras. When the Q camera body ships, there will be five lenses that fit it: the standard kit lens (included in the $800 price tag), and $300 zoom, $130 fish-eye, $80 toy, and $80 telephoto lenses.

You can shoot in manual, automatic, and in-between. The Q also offers in-camera HDR, which captures three images of varying exposures and immediately blends them. In addition to its still photos, the Q also captures 1080p HD video at 30 frames per second.
To compose your shots, you can use the 3″ LCD on the back of the camera, or buy the $250 shoe-mounted optical viewfinder.