Let's hope that Hoya realises there's still a great potential in Pentax. From the Amateur Photographer website:
 
"Sales of Pentax DSLRs rose substantially in the three months to 31 March, helping Pentax turn an operating loss of a year ago into a

While both cameras may be a little long in the tooth (especially the Sony), they are now at a very attractive priceponit, and they both remain very capable cameras:
 
"Comparing The Auto Focus- For this article I went ahead and bought a Tamron 70-300mm LD 1:2 macro so that I could compare both cameras with

"Comparing" is a tad harch, its more like an apples to oranges and Klingons to Jedi thing:
 
"This article compares all the affordable weather-sealed DSLR cameras in production. These DSLRs are the Canon EOS 7D, the Nikon D300S, the Olympus E-3, the Pentax K-7, the Pentax K20D and the Pentax K200D. The definition of weather-sealed varies between models but does not mean waterproof, so all DSLRs

The little brother of the K7 appears to be one of the best entry-point Dslr cameras ever, and this Dpreview.com review confirms it:
 
"Shooting a video on the K-x is very similar to the K-7 and a straightforward affair. Turn the mode dial to movie mode and press the shutter button to start recording; press again to stop. Once the camera is recording it is doing everything fully automatically and does not react to a press of any button other than

The Google translation says "most historical", and we can't quite make out some of the orther stuff, but the camera models selected speak for themselves. One interesting tidbit is the medium format film camera among the 10, and also the complete lack of any Canon models. As an added bonus they list the most historical cameras of the past 10 years too:

The Pentax K7 is the best Dslr released by Pentax so far, and one of the best cameras of this year. Voted as the best camera of 2009 by many,  now it also grabs the editor's choice award at DCR:
 
"For me, the only control that required me to retrain my brain was the mode dial. Pentax added a locking pin to the mode dial so you have to press a

One of the best affordable Dslrs gets the heads-up from the DCHQ crew:
 
"The K-x produces stunning images at base ISO and gets truly impressive results all the way up to ISO 3200. As would be expected from a sensor related to those found in the Nikon D90 and Sony A500, high-ISO performance is remarkable for an APS-C sensor. In some cases it even approaches

Pentax continues to add to its popular weather resistant lens line-up, this time a f2.8 macro lens.
Plress Release:
GOLDEN, COLORADO  (December 9, 2009)…PENTAX Imaging Company has announced the smc PENTAX D FA MACRO 100mm F2.8 WR lens designed for use with PENTAX digital SLR cameras.

This update offers the following improvements:

• Improved accuracy of Battery Level Indicator under specific conditions and improved stability for general performance
• Added three kinds of particular effect shooting function (Pre-set 1,2 and 3) on [Cross Processing]
• Added assignment of Cross Processing function to the green button
Link to firmware page

Until the "pro" reviews start coming, we'll make due with some user reviews. This one is acompanied by an endless stream of photos, both off the camera and by the camera:
2. The shutter is so quiet, never had any camera which has a quieter shutter sound.
3. The shutter lag is so short, almost non exist, makes the camera even responsive.
4. 100% viewfinder makes composition much easier, what you see is what you get!

Japan digital camera workforce=mostly Pentax staff: "Hoya Corp (7741.T) plans to cut the Japanese workforce in its digital camera operations to less than 400 employees from about 800 currently, the financial daily Nikkei said in its Wednesday edition.

Pretty small fixes, but good to see a company to respond so fast to (hello, Canon?) issues:

The following functions have been added:

1) Added selection of area (Square) to Cropping in the Playback-1 menu 
2) When Digital Filter is assigned to the Help button in the [Rec.Mode 3] menu, Digital filter can be set by pressing Help button in playback mode. 

 Stormtrooper accesory aside, it's actually pretty boring to be surounded by almost only black DSLRs. Here we have Pentax releasing it's K2000/K-m in a gorgeous white incarnation: 

Golden, CO, December 16, 2008 - Pentax Imaging Company has announced a limited edition, white PENTAX K2000 DSLR system with a double zoom kit. This new model replicates the original K2000 design that launched in September 2008 for consumers who are ready to make the transition from a point-and-shoot digital camera to digital SLR photography. The new camera body and both lenses* feature a

Downsizing in a good way:

"'s great to see Pentax fighting the corner of the user on a budget while other companies concentrate on higher spec models. For the money you will spend, the build quality is great, the colours are rich and the effects are enough fun to keep you occupied for a while.
The noise performance is good although I feel it's been capped too low, the new UI works well and although it's a little on the heavy side, it feels great in the hands.

...and tested by Camera Labs. This is probably the only REALLy waterproof compact camera with a descent and up todate set of specs:

"The Optio W60 is a return to form for Pentax and its range of underwater cameras. Rather than relying on the unique selling point of waterproofing alone, the W60 sensibly upgrades almost every aspect of its predecessor including the optical zoom range, sensor resolution and screen detail, while throwing in features like smile detection and actually improving the underwater specification.

This just in, according to a post in the Japanese newspaper Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, and loosely translated: Hoya

plans for Pentax is to gradually phase out the digicam production over the news couple of years until a full stop.  This, paired to the news that the production of the medium format 645 has been cancelled, will leave Pentax focused on just the DSLR line. However, since the DSLRs are co-produced with Samsung, this will probably mean the end of Pentax as an independent producer of cameras.

 This looks like a pretty advanced digicam at a very attractive price. Beyond the "must have" 3' lcd, 12 mp and face detection this camera sports a few unique features too.

Press release:

PENTAX INTRODUCES OPTIO A40 WITH 12 MEGAPIXELS

GOLDEN, CO. (October 1, 2007)…PENTAX Imaging Company has announced the PENTAX A40, the latest model in the Optio A series of advanced compact digital cameras with superior image quality and performance.  Featuring 12 megapixels, this latest Optio features three types of Shake Reduction including mechanical, digital and movie.  Each version helps deliver sharp, blur-free shots where camera shake is an issue such as action photography or in low light conditions at dawn, dusk or at night.  The Pentax A40 model also features the newest Face Recognition technology including a Natural Skin Tone mode and a Half-length Portrait mode, which automatically takes a head and shoulder photograph of subjects.

The Pentax A40 will ship in October 2007 for US $299.95.

 Official name:SMC PENTAX DA 18-250mm F3.5-6.3ED AL [IF]. It sports the same 14x magnification ratio as Tamron's latest zoom lens, and it is a tad darker at the tele end than Nikon's 18-200.

Press release:

GOLDEN, CO. (October 1, 2007)…PENTAX Imaging Company is pleased to announce the smc PENTAX DA 18-250mm F3.5-6.3ED AL [IF] interchangeable zoom lens designed for exclusive use with PENTAX digital SLR cameras. With an approximate 14X zoom ratio covering from wide-angle to super-telephoto ranges, this versatile lens handles a great variety of applications from wide-angle landscapes to close-up sporting events and wildlife photography.

The lens will ship in October for US $499.95.