Pentax Q is so small we almost forgot about its existence, but here's a fresh review of this exercise in minisculeness:

"One feature did feel like something of a missed opportunity, though. The Quick dial on the front panel is a great idea, but the list of features which can be assigned to this dial is very brief, and really only of interest to JPEG shooters: Smart Effects, Custom

And now for the Barbiecam of compact camera systems, the mighty little Pentax Q.  Choosing to shoot with a 'Q' instead of with a Barbie Photo fashion comes with the added benefit of not having Chris Hansen looking suspiciously at you.  The Reg haves a seat, right over there, with a Pentax Q:

One of the 3 'weird sisters'  the Pentax Q system (the others being the newly announced K-01 and the Ricoh GXR) is not performing as expected 

according to Pentax rep. Jonathan Martin:

"Noise levels are pretty good for a camera with a 1/2.3" image sensor. From ISO 125 on up to 1600 look great, with 1600 showing a decent amount of luminous noise, but there's still a lot of fine detail in the image. At ISO 3200, you start to see a lot of noise, and these images will be

"Pentax offers two different species of lenses for the Q system - mainstream and "toy" lenses. The Pentax 03 3.2mm f/5.6 Fisheye is the third mainstream lens if this classification can be applied to a Fisheye lens anyway. That said it shares a couple of aspects with the "toy" Q lens group

"The new Pentax Q takes that concept in a completely different direction by building a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera with no optical viewfinder around a tiny 1/2.3 inch CMOS image sensor (like those found on most P&S digicams) which allows for an even smaller footprint. The Pentax Q is the smallest interchangeable lens camera currently available - noticeably smaller than Micro 4/3 format digital cameras like the

"Don't let its diminutive dimensions fool you into thinking this is a cut-down sharp shooter, though. Shutter speeds run from 1/2,000 second to 30 seconds, with a bulb option for use in low light. In this mode you'll probably want to employ the remote sensor built into the grip to avoid touching it and blurring your results. Burst mode tops out at a respectable 5fps."

FTA:  "When you read the specs for the Pentax Q, you know intellectually that it's small, but it doesn't really hit home until you see it for yourself. It really is tiny. In fact, it's so dinky you'd be forgiven for thinking that it's a toy… before you hold it in your hand (just the one).

FTA: "Several factors have combined to make the Beginners' class the most competitive of the Mirrorless camera market. The main one is the camera makers' belief that there is an un-tapped market of buyers who would like to get better pictures than their compact camera

"The Pentax-02 Standard Zoom 5-15mm f/2.8-4.5 is the 2nd kit lens offered for the Pentax Q. Its focal lenght range is equivalent to a 27.5-83mm lens in full format terms. Just like in our previous Pentax Q lens review we need to point out that the max. aperture sounds attractive regarding the

"As of the time of this review the system offers 5 lenses - two "kit" lenses, a fisheye lens and two "toy" lenses. This review will focus on the Pentax-01 Standard Prime 8.5mm f/1.9. The first thing that we'll get used to is the focal length here. APS-C or micro-four-thirds lens specs are