Pentax outs Optio RS1500 'chameleon cam'

The Gadget Show  Thursday 17 March 2011

Choose from a range of cover designs, or come up with your own

If you’re a fan of cheap and cheerful in the literal sense, you may already know the Pentax Optio RS1000 for its blend of affordability and the ability to chop and change the front of the camera to suit your mood.

Well, the RS1000 has just been updated to the RS1500, with Pentax having made the cheerful part far easier to work with by simplifying the mechanism used to change the front of the camera.

In the past giving your Optio a new look involved fiddling about with Allen keys so you could place your chosen design under the perspex front – hardly the kind of thing you’d be likely to do impulsively, which is supposed to be the whole point.

So Pentax went back to the drawing board and came up with a system that uses the lens ring to secure your chosen design in place. Along with a preset number of designs still to be confirmed, Pentax is even throwing in three differently coloured lens rings to better match up to your chosen theme, along with a pack of five photo sheets so you can design your own.

As far what’s behind the cosmetics, it’s a fairly standard entry level point and shoot, with 14 megapixels on offer alongside 4x optical zoom and the ability to record HD video clips at 720p. Still, all that for a penny under £90 doesn’t sound like bad value for money to us, and you’ll be able to get your hands on your own Optio RS1500 later this month.