GADGET REVIEWS Just another GADGET NEWS

Somebody at Pentax has just plain lost it. Here you see the forthcoming limited-edition K-r, a custom version of the regular 12 megapixel DSLR. It seems to have been built from eye-searingly bright children’s building blocks, and somebody has even wedged a robot-head into the hot-shoe.

Pentax has a history of colorful experimentation, from the “world’s reddest DSLR” to the rainbow-colored K-x which “requires sunglasses to use”. But with this Korejanairobomoderu, or Korejanai robot edition, Pentax has reached a new high. And I mean “high” in the drug-smoking sense.

Other than its candy-coated shell (and decapitated robot head), the camera is unchanged from the stock K-r. It does have a matching lens, though, a special-edition version of the 35mm 2.4, which equates roughly to the length of a 50mm when used on a crop-frame body.

The price for this Willy Wonka camera will be 99,800, or $1,190, and only 100 will be made (that’s precisely 100 too many). Pre-ordering opens at 12PM on December 24th, for delivery in January.

K-r colorama [Pentax]

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Olympus SLR boss Toshiyuki Terada has said that the company will make no more entry-level SLRs. Speaking in an interview, Terada said that “We do not have concrete plans to replace the E-620 and other recent SLRs.”

But don’t worry, Olympus isn’t about to dump the SLR category altogether – yet. While Terada says that “the entry level SLR class can be completely replaced by the Pen system in terms of performance,” the company will continue to support the higher-end SLR market for the immediate future.

In fact, Olympus plans on adding ever more powerful cameras to the Pen lineup and sending all of its customers, even the pros, over to the mirrorless Micro Four Thirds format. And that’s not all. Olympus is also planning on a new range of high-performance compacts.

The first of these cameras will appear next year and will have a very fast lens and “good image quality in comparison to other compacts.” It will also have an electronic port that will be compatible with existing Micro Four Thirds accessories, such as the plug-in optical viewfinders. It seems that the sensors will be smaller than those found in the Micro Four Thirds bodies, but the machine translation (from Polish, which I find impossible) makes this unclear. Any Polish readers care to help out?

I guess there are no surprises here. The mirrorless format is better than an SLR for the majority of photographers, and Olympus has always been a leader in next-gen camera tech. One thing is certain: now that film-shackled camera design is finally being abandoned, we might start to see the full potential of digital photography.

We talk to Toshiyuki Terada of Olympus [Fotopolis via Photorumors via Photography Bay]

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It’s clearly the season for new camera gear, and today it’s Canon’s turn in the spotlight. Along with a few new lenses comes the EOS 60D, a “replacement” for the two-year-old 50D. Those looking to upgrade from their 50D should look elsewhere, though, perhaps to the 7D, as this new camera is more for consumers than enthusiastic amateurs.

The magnesium body of the 50D is now plastic, and the 60D uses SD-cards instead of Compact Flash. It also gets a slew of gimmicky image processing features (Toy Camera, anyone?) and the obligatory video capabilities.

In fact, video seems to be what this camera was made for. The rear screen is the pop-out, tilt-and-swivel type, Canon’s first on an SLR, and has the over a million dots of resolution (or around 330,000-pixels). Video is shot at varying sizes and speeds. 1080p is available at 24p, 25p or 30p frame rates. Drop to 720p resolution and you can shoot at up to 60fps. Whatever picture you choose, you get full manual control, including sound with 64 audio-levels.

The 18MP sensor (like the LCD panel) is the same as that found in the 550D (or Rebel T2i), the AF system comes from the old 50D and the 63-zone exposure meter comes from the 7D. It’s almost like the Canon engineers just picked through a shelf of existing parts and snapped them together like Lego, producing what seems like a pretty sweet-looking camera.

The 60D will go on sale in September for $1,100 body-only, or as part of a $1,400 kit with a 18-135mm lens.

EOS 60D product page [Canon]

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

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