The Pentax Optio S7 camera is the newest addition to Pentax's line of slim and stylish digital cameras called the Pentax Optio S series.

This baby boasts of 7.0 megapixels plus a feature known as the Blur Reduction High ISO mode that reduces camera shake and subject blur due to poor or minimal lighting. Another neat feature is the Face Recognition AF & AE, which guarantees perfectly focused faces devoid of shadows by automatically detecting the position of the subject's face and adjusting the focus and exposure based on the detected position. Also, the camera adjusts shutter speeds automatically to an ISO as high as 1600 to match the brightness of the subject.

Sources add that the Optio S7 captures movies at 30 fps (frames per second) at sizes up to 640 x 480 pixels with image quality rivaling camcorders. Since it employs the DivX® (MPEG-4 compliant) movie format, the Optio S7 can record longer, high-quality movies. Camera shake while filming can also be corrected automatically by switching on the movie anti-shake feature. Smart, eh?

That's not all. The Optio S7 also features 3X optical zoom, a 2.5-inch LCD monitor,an Auto Picture Mode for a plethora of settings (Landscape, Portrait, Night Scene and Program Modes), 23MB internal memory, and MPEG-4 DivX Movie Mode. It is also the first digital camera by Pentax to accept the new SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) memory cards that have capacities up to 4GB.

The Pentax Optio S7 goes for $300.00 and will be available in the US beginning September 2006 - limited stocks only, though.

Casio Europe have announced that they will be soon be releasing the Exilim Card EX-S600D. Based entirely on the Ex-S600, which came out last October, this model adds the functionality of video recorded in DivX format! Yes you heard, DivX. One of the most popular formats of video around, this compresses footage into a smaller size with lower loss of quality than rival formats.

Other main features it took from its predecessor include, DSP Anti shake technology, long battery life (average 300 still images), revive shot for bringing old pictures back to life again and also the Past movie, which records movies 5 seconds before the button is pressed. All these features are very ingenious.

Hardware wise it includes a 6.0 megapixel CCD 1/2.5 sensor capable of resolutions up to 2816 x 2112 pixels, 3x optical zoom, and a 84'950 pixel 2.2" display. Memory is in the form of SD/MMC cards, or the internal 8.3MB memory. Because of its weight and small form factor, its a very popular unit in sales, and prepare for its new features to increase those sales.

However, the only people taking advantage of this new release, will be those in Europe only.