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Icon – Pentax Q

A teeny interchangeable lens compact that's big on retro styling

Yet another retro cam? Yawn.

Yep. And you’d better close your mouth, or someone might pop a Pentax Q right in there. Retro-styles it may be, but compared with Fujifilm’s X100 rangefinder or the Olympus Pen (yes, even the new mini one), the Pentax Q is positively Lilliputian. In fact, it’s the world’s smallest and lightest interchangeable lens camera.

Until the next one comes along.

Records are made to be broken – although the Q might hold this one for a while yet. The reason it’s so small is that this isn’t a Micro Four Thirds or Sony NEX-style DSLR-in-a-compact-body. The sensor inside it is the same size as that of a compact camera – it’s a rather tiny 12MP CMOS, with all of the compromises that entails.

I suddenly feel like yawning again…

Ah, but you won’t find any normal compact with interchangeable lenses, and that means the Q is the most versatile snapper of its size. There’ll be a choice of five lenses at launch, including a 5-15mm zoom, a 160º fish-eye and two ‘toy’ lenses that produce Lomo-style snaps. Pentax has shortened the mount to accommodate them, which means there’s no space for an optical viewfinder. You can attach one if you want, but that’ll practically double the Q’s size.

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About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home