Pentax Optio S4.

[right arrow] All right, all right, it may be another 4-megapixel digicam, but it's incredibly slim and stylish. That must count for something! Measuring 83 x 20 x 52mm and weighing 98g, it is exactly the same dimensions as the lesser Option S from the same company. Writing this, it strikes me that the figure 98g seems to be cropping up a lot these days.

[right arrow] Applying extensive and thorough journalistic methodology, for which we gadget hacks are renowned the world over--by which I mean I tapped a few words into Google and hit the "enter" button--I have discovered that this weight, namely 98g, is very popular in the consumer electronics industry. If it were a 98g chain made of 14 karat gold, it'd cost you well over 2,000 bucks. But the Pentax Optio S4 is only going to cost you a quarter of that--bargain!

[right arrow] Technophiles will be delighted to hear that the spanky new S4 has a 3-times optical zoom lens, a 4.23-million-pixel CCD (the old model only had a 3.2-million-pixel one) allowing max images of 2,304 x 1,728 pixels, 15 frame-per-second movie clips (improved from 12fps) at 320 x 240 dots, one-touch image reviewing and more focus, white balance and other options than you can shake a stick at. The camera lays images down either to the integral 11MB of Flash RAM or to an SD or MM card. And it's very slim and lovely looking. Did I say that already?

More info: www.pentax.co.jp/japan/ news/2003/200354.html