New: Pentax Full-Frame K-1 and Panasonic GF8 for “selfies”

New: Pentax K-1

Ricoh Imaging has announced the much-teased Pentax K-1, a full-frame DSLR with a whopping 36.4 megapixels. Stepping up against established full-frame rivals from Canon, Nikon and Sony, the Pentax K-1 features:

36.4 MP AA-Filter-less CMOS Sensor
SAFOX 12 33 Point AF System
SRII 5-Axis In-camera Shake Reduction
Pixel Shift Resolution System w/ Motion Correction
15 MP APS-C Crop Mode
Cross-tilt LCD Display
GPS/Electronic Compass/ASTRO TRACER
Weather-Resistant Body
Operation Assist LED Illumination

The Pentax 645-series of medium format cameras made waves among professionals, competing against offerings from Phase One and Hasselblad. Will the K-1 do the same? The Pentax K-1 will start to ship in April, and the body-only will cost $1799 USD. See full details on the Ricoh product page.

The Panasonic GF8

Panasonic’s newest in the GF series is aimed at the selfie crowd. The GF8, unlikely to be released outside of Asia, is similar to the GF7, dpreview reports:

Panasonic has introduced the Lumix DMC-GF8, essentially a GF7 with an emphasis on selfie-friendly features. It continues to offer the GF7’s 16MP Four Thirds sensor, 1080/60p video and built-in Wi-Fi, but wraps it all up in your choice of a pink, silver, brown or orange leather-like finish. Not only does the GF8’s 3″ 1.04M-dot touchscreen tilt upward 180-degrees to take the guesswork out of self-portraits, the camera offers a ‘Soft Skin’ mode that can be combined with Panasonic’s Creative Control filters such as Retro or High Key.

Beautification doesn’t stop at image capture though. The Lumix GF8 offers a new ‘Beauty Retouch’ function to clear up skin texture, whiten teeth and add makeup after the fact. Panasonic’s press releases stresses the appeal of these features to women, but don’t feel left out gentlemen, the silver and brown versions of the camera have plenty of ‘unisex’ appeal. The GF8 also comes with 100GB of storage on Google Drive, which adds up to a lot of selfies.