14 DAY TRIAL // Although the possibility of customizing the look of their digital camera is not exactly the first thing that comes to mind when deciding to purchase such a product, it seems that Pentax considers it quite a major feature, because it turned it into the major selling point of their new Optio RS1500 model.
According to Pentax, the new compact point and shoot digital camera is “infinitely customizable”, and that's because it has been fitted with a new removable PENTAX-original faceplate system that consists of a screwless faceplate and interchangeable lens ring snap (choice of orange or black included).
In this way, users will be able to easily insert custom skins of any personal choice or design into this faceplate, without requiring all sorts of extra tools or complicated procedures in order to do so.
Leaving apart these external design features, we'll have to mention that the RS1500 is a fairly straightforward, consumer-grade point and shoot digital camera, sporting a 14 megapixels imaging sensor, accompanied by a 4X optical zoom lens covering 27.5mm wide angle to 110mm telephoto.
Beside taking photos, the new Pentax Optio RS1500 can also record 1280 x 720 pixels movie clips, and for this reason, it packs a Movie SR (Shake Reduction) mode, whose purpose is to compensate for camera shake, enabling smoother, better-looking videos.
And speaking of special shooting modes, it's interesting to point out that the camera offers nine digital filters, designed to add a variety of visual effects to images, and multiple shooting models, including an interesting Digital Panorama mode (no mention regarding a possible 3D shooting feature, sadly, but since Pentax has not jumped on the 3D bandwagon just yet, it's likely that we'll have to wait a bit longer in order to see Pentax cameras providing such capabilities arrive on the market).
As expected, the Pentax Optio RX1500 is not exactly very expensive, but it's not particularly cheap either, since it will be available in pearl white or silver starting with April 2011 for $149.95 USD.