Pentax X90 touts claimed 162.5X zoom
updated 09:10 am EST, Wed February 24, 2010
Pentax X90 uses SW to extend 26X to 162X
Pentax today brought out a replacement for its long-serving X70. As an ultrazoom, the X90 already carries a 26X lens (26-676mm equivalent) but uses an "intelligent zoom" in software to reach 162.5X (4,225mm). Like most of these features, Pentax claims to avoid most of the typical degradation in image quality but hasn't said whether any obvious sacrifices are needed to reach the record-setting distance.
The 12-megapixel camera appropriately uses image stabilization through sensor shifting. It captures movies at up to 720p and has a special anti-shake movie mode to reduce blurring for video. Pentax adds a particularly fast face detection system that can recognizes as many as 32 individual subjects in 0.03 seconds and estimates longer than average battery life.
Release dates and pricing haven't yet been given for the X90.
Professional Poster
Joined: Sep 1999
26x, not 162.5x
If it's not done by the lens, then it's not real zoom. Perhaps they have a new digital zooming algorithm, but I doubt it's any near as good as what can be done in post processing on a computer.