DP 2011 Mirrorless Round Up

Neither the Pentax or Ricoh variants come out too well.

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/8986630048/mirrorless-roundup-2011

Dave

When they say "through to the fun, rather irreverent Pentax Q", are they saying it's a joke or it's jokey?

Tiny film/sensor formats have always got some stick. Remember the James Bond like Minox or of course Pentaxes or anyone elses futile attempts to make 110 work however nice the camera itself.

I recall Kodak saying it was a revolutionary new film. Now we have sad news about Kodak failing having deliberately delayed digital that they had already to go ahead of the rest!

I think the Q ticks a lot of boxes in terms of it's features and 'pocketable' factor, and if I owned one, I'm sure I'd find it a lot of fun to use, and enjoy every picture taking moment. However, I have bought a 'mirrorless' camera, but it wasn't the Q. It is just far too over-priced for what is essentially a very good compact camera..... and standing in a camera shop and comparing it to cheaper priced, but better specified offerings by other camera makes, it just wasn't justifiable. if Pentax want the Q to succeed, then really it's battle is with the high end compacts which are in the £200 - £300 bracket, and not against the likes of Sony or Nikon or the M4/3 which it can never beat in the sensor real estate area. In fact, even with their 'before end of 2011 cashback deal', a high end compact with a similar size sensor to the Q is still cheaper and will offer a much greater zoom range.. I really would have loved to buy the Q, I really would, but when it came down to the decision, image quality trumped cuteness, and I bought the Olympus E-PM1.