Pentax

Pentax spent the year 2012 aggressively building out its lens lineup with glass designed for serious photographers. It unveiled its HD 560mm f/5.6 ED AW supertele, its generous 15X all-in-one 18–270mm, and its shockingly compact 40mm f/2.8 pancake. Then there is this 50mm f/1.8 DA SMC ($250, street), which seems more of a workaday tool than an exceptional instrument.

Pentax has announced a followup to its popular WG-2 tough cameras in the form of the predictably-named WG-3 and WG-3 GPS. As we've seen with a number of recently announced tough cameras, waterproofing continues to improve, and this new iteration is rated down to 45 feet. It's also "shockproof from drops of up to 6.6 feet, coldproof to 14 degrees Fahrenheit and crushproof, withstanding up to 220 foot pounds of force."

For some time now, style has been high on the list of Pentax's priorities and their new venture into advanced compact territory is no different. The MX-1 has a fast 4x zoom lens that starts at 28mm and has a maximum aperture range of F/1.8-F/2.5. Behind that is a familiar 1/1.7-inch, 12.0-megapixel backlit CMOS sensor.The case is actually encased in brass and covered with a textured grip that also gives is a rather retro aesthetic not unlike the Leica X2. There are even tactile mode knobs on the top for mode selection and exposure controls.

We haven't heard all that much from Pentax's adorable Q interchangeable-lens compact camera since it was launched in 2011, but now there's a new body and a lens adapter to give the system a boost.The Q10, according to the press material, is about the size of a pack of cards and packs the vast array of filters and creative shooting modes found in the original Q. The back-illuminated CMOS sensor has a 12.4-megapixel effective resolution, which maxes out at 6400 ISO.