Pentax X-5

16.00 Megapixels	26.00x zoom	3.0 inch LCD

Pentax X-5 Overview

by Mike Tomkins
Posted: August 22, 2012

If you're onto a winner, why change anything? The design team at Pentax seems to have asked itself this question before creating its latest ultrazoom digital camera. It promptly answered by borrowing the extremely popular styling of its Pentax K-5 DSLR--and indeed, it's name, bar one letter--to create the Pentax X-5. The new camera takes the K-5's basic design and runs it through a shrink ray, before tacking on a powerful 26x optical zoom lens. A few changes to accommodate the smaller body and the feature-set Pentax chose for the fixed-lens X-5, and hey presto: you've got one very handsome little ultrazoom.

We've seen more than a few fixed-lens cameras with SLR-like styling over the years, but in this case the resemblance is more than uncanny. In fact, as similar as it is, we have to wonder whether basing the X-5 so closely on a fully-featured SLR may lead to some confusion in the minds of consumers. ("My camera looks just like my friend's--why aren't my pictures as good?") Because let's be clear--while it may look a lot like the K-5, the Pentax X-5 is very much closer to the typical consumer ultrazoom in terms of feature set.

Pentax has based the X-5 around a 1/2.33-inch type CMOS image sensor with a resolution of 16 megapixels. That's a a little bigger than typical camera phone sensors, but par for the course for a fixed-lens camera, and vastly smaller than the APS-C sensors in typical SLRs. It's worth noting that the sensor uses a backside-illuminated design, which moves some circuitry off the active layer of the sensor to free more space for light gathering, helping improve sensitivity and noise characteristics when compared to older, non-BSI sensors. The sensor is mounted on a movable platter that allows correction of camera shake, so you can handhold exposures in lower ambient light without having to resort to flash. (Which, if needed, is catered for with a popup flash good for up to 38 feet at wide angle, using Auto ISO.)

The Pentax X-5 is, however, rather less sophisticated than its looks might suggest. There's no hot shoe, for example, and full-resolution burst shooting is limited to a staid one frame per second. Experienced photographers may find off-putting the fact that the only format in which images can be saved is as compressed JPEG files; there's no raw file support. Nor does the X-5 support Aperture- or Shutter-priority shooting; you have a choice of Program Auto or Manual exposure modes, plus the usual raft of consumer-friendly Scene modes. (If you enjoy using these, you'll find the selection is pretty generous: Flower, Blue Sky, Sunset, Night Scene, Night Scene Portrait, Fireworks, HDR, Surf & Snow, Baby, Kids, Pet, Food, Digital SR, Stage Lighting, Text, Museum, Digital Wide,  Digital Panorama, and Frame Composite). There's also an Auto Picture (or Green) mode, which places the camera in control of most everything except framing and deciding when to press the Shutter button.

On the plus side, there is at least a physical Mode dial, something of a rarity in fixed-lens cameras, which often force you to meander through the menu system just to change the exposure mode. It sits on the opposite side of the camera from where it's placed in the K-5, likely both due to the lack of room on the X-5's smaller left shoulder, and because the X-5's right shoulder is largely empty. As you'd expect on a fixed-lens camera, there's no top-deck LCD info display, which occupies much of the same space in SLRs like the K-5.

Beyond the sensor size, the biggest difference between the Pentax X-5 and K-5 is the new camera's 26x optical zoom lens. It might look like an SLR, but like its competitors the lens is firmly fixed in place. With everything from a very generous 22.3 equivalent wide angle to a powerful to 580mm equivalent telephoto covered, though, you likely won't mind. Covering that same focal length range with an SLR is simply not an option for most consumers: the cost and bulk of the lenses required would be prohibitive. (And in fact, it wouldn't even be possible if you limited yourself to Pentax's current K-mount lens lineup; you'd have to resort to using second-hand or third-party glass, or wait for the company to introduce a stronger K-mount telephoto. At the moment, Pentax's most far-reaching K-mount lens is a 450mm-equivalent on the K-5.)

Of course, with interchangeable lenses, you'd get more than just the choice of focal lengths. The Pentax X-5's built-in lens offers impressive macro performance, focusing as close as just one centimeter if you can get sufficient light on your subject, but it doesn't have the brightest aperture around, and coupled with the small sensor this will make shallow depth-of-field effects nigh on impossible. At wide angle, the X-5's lens offers an f/3.1 maximum aperture; by telephoto this falls to f/5.9.

But then, much of this is true of most ultrazoom cameras, and we're perhaps being a little unfair by drawing the comparison to an SLR. We do so only because with the extremely direct port of the styling from the company's flagship APS-C DSLR, many of its customers are likely to do the same.

Truth be told, the Pentax X-5 does offer some features not found in all of its rivals--and in some cases, not found even on the company's digital SLRs. Key among these is an articulated LCD panel. Sadly it only tilts up and down, but can't be folded out from the camera body and swiveled. That means it's of no use for self-portraits, a pretty common use case for a camera aimed at consumers. It will, however, make shooting high above your head or low to the ground much more enjoyable, so long as you're shooting in landscape orientation. The Pentax X-5's screen tilts upwards about 90-degrees, or downwards by 60-degrees. It has a pretty standard 3.0-inch diagonal, and an above-average resolution of 460,000 dots. (That equates to around 153,000 pixels, with each pixel made up of red, green, and blue dots.)

The Pentax X-5 also offers an electronic viewfinder. That's not unique, by any means, but even in long-zoom cameras it's becoming less common. The X-5 is one of just three 26x zoom models announced so far this year with an EVF, along with two Fuji cameras; competitors from Kodak, Nikon, and Olympus all lack a finder. In fact, a quick look over the camera announcements we've covered this year suggests that of at least 30 cameras announced so far this year with more than a 20x optical zoom, almost two thirds had no viewfinder. In terms of resolution, the Pentax X-5's electronic viewfinder sits near the entry level, with a dot count (230k dots) similar to that of Fujifilm's FinePix S4300, and far below the 1,440,000 dots of the Fuji X-S1. That's to be expected when one considers their respective pricing, though.

Images shot with the Pentax X-5 are metered with a TTL multi-segment metering system that also offers center-weighted and spot modes, and shutter speeds vary from 1/1,500 to a rather short 1/4 second by default. (You can access longer shutter speeds in Manual and Night Scene exposure modes, but even there you're faced with a cap of just four seconds.) ISO sensitivity varies from 100 to 6,400 equivalents. Eight white balance modes are available, including Auto, six presets, and manual.

As well as stills, the X-5 can also capture Full HD video at a rate of 30 frames per second, or 720p high-def video at a choice of 30 or 60 fps. (There's also a standard-def 30 fps VGA mode.) Videos use MPEG-4 AVC / H.264 compression, and include monaural audio. Unfortunately, these rely solely on software techniques to fight blur; the stabilization system is disabled for movie capture.

The Pentax X-5 draws its power from four standard AA batteries, and its manufacturer says battery life with nickel-metal hydride rechargeables is about 500 shots on a charge, and even with alkaline disposables you should get around 330 shots on a set. Lithium disposables, as always, offer the best life (although that may not present the best value or environmental friendliness), at about 950 shots on a set.

Images and movies shot with the X-5 are stored in 75.3MB of built-in memory, or on Secure Digital cards. This includes both the newer, higher-capacity SDHC and SDXC card types, as well as Eye-Fi's WiFi-enabled cards.

Available from September 2012, the Pentax X-5 is priced at about US$280. Available body colors include black and silver.