The Pentax KP is a weather sealed DSLR that offers maximum ISO of 8,19,200

Ricoh has announced a new DSLR targeted at the semi-pro and enthusiast photographer category. The new Pentax KP is a compact DSLR with a retro-styled body which is weather sealed, has a 24MP APS-C sensor and offers an ISO range of 8,19,200.

The company has focused on making the camera small and it feels closer to a mirrorless rather than a DSLR. There’s a large optical viewfinder, a tilting LCD touch display and some interesting controls including a mode dial, control dials for selecting the modes, and a dial for exposure compensation. In case you have large hands, the camera comes with interchangeable grip and an optional vertical battery grip will also be available.

“We designed the Pentax KP to appeal to the world’s most discerning outdoor photographers, who will appreciate its rich and powerful feature set and rugged, compact design, whether they are shooting a landscape on a trek in Patagonia or capturing an eclipse,” said Kaz Eguchi, President of Ricoh Imaging Americas.

The camera also borrows the five-axis Shake Reduction System with Pixel Shift Resolution from the full-frame Pentax K-1. With this, handheld images are considerably sharp at shutter speeds going as low as five stops below what is required for image stabilisation. The Pixel Shift mode moves the sensor in a square pattern by a single pixel’s width, taking a photo at each position. The four exposures are then combined to produce full-colour data at each pixel location thereby increasing the apparent resolution of the image.

Other features include shutter speeds of 1/6,000 second (electronic shutter can boost to 1/24,000), 27 point auto-focus system, Wi-Fi, and 1080p video recording at 30 frames per second. Priced at $1,100 (Rs 75,000 approx.) the camera will start shipping from 25 February in the US.