New PENTAX Optio V20

PENTAX just announced the PENTAX Optio V20 compact digital camera with a 5X zoom lens, 8.0 megapixels, and a 3.0 inch LCD monitor. The camera has three features to help consumers optimize portrait photographs – Face Recognition, Smile Capture and Blink Detection.

• Face Recognition function automatically detects and focuses on faces, then sets the optimum exposure.
  
• Smile Capture detects the key facial expression of happy people and releases the shutter automatically.
  
• Blink Detection reports to the user whether any subjects closed their eyes in an image, so that the shot may be recaptured if necessary.
  

Additional features include Auto-tracking AF for continuously focusing on a moving subject, 52MB of built-in memory, and an Auto-Macro mode that allows close-up photography as near as 4 inches (10 cm) without changing the normal focusing mode.

The PENTAX Optio V20 will ship in May 2008 for $279.95. www.pentax.com