The New BenQ Digital Cameras

The two new BenQ digital cameras revealed at the launch are the BenQ E510 and E520 digital cameras. Featuring Pentax's Super Multi Coated lens and BenQ's Senseye Technology, they boast superior image quality, better colour integrity and significantly reduced image noise.

Let's take a look at the key features of both models!

The Pentax SMC Lens

The key feature of the new BenQ E510 and E520 digital cameras are the Pentax SMC lenses they incorporate. Pentax's SMC (Super Multi Coating) technology involves applying multiple layers of different coatings to reduce light reflection and boost the transmission of light into the lens. These multiple coatings allow over 99.8% of light to be transmitted into the Pentax SMC lens.

Although multi-coating isn't a new lens technology, it's usually present only in high-end SLR lenses. Therefore, there's little wonder why BenQ is publicizing so much about the Super Multi Coating that the Pentax lens come with. It certainly differentiates the cameras from other consumer-grade cameras in the same price range.

The Pentax SMC lens also comes with a unique sliding mechanism. While the camera body can be made very thin, an optical zoom range of 3X require the lens to be of a certain size. But thanks to the Pentax's lens sliding mechanism, the BenQ cameras can retract the lens when turned off. This allows it to assume a much thinner profile than would be possible with normal zoom lenses.

You can identify this Pentax technology by examining the lens barrel. Take a look at the picture below.

The front aperture for such lenses will only take up a small area at the lower end of the lens barrel. The lens barrel itself is much wider than the lens' front aperture to provide space for the lens elements to slide out of the optical line for a thinner profile. That's the key to this unique Pentax technology.

Finally, the Pentax lens in both cameras incorporates an extra-low dispersion (ED) glass lens element and two aspherical (ASP) lens elements. The use of ED glass allows the lens to better control chromatic aberration, which is a colour distortion that appears as purple fringes. The aspherical lens elements help reduce image distortion and allows the lens to be lighter and more compact.

The BenQ Senseye Technology

Both cameras also incorporate BenQ's proprietary image processing technology. Called Senseye Technology, it processes images captured by the CCD sensor to enhance their colour and significantly reduce the amount of image noise in those pictures.

According to BenQ, camera tests hosted by a camera website revealed that the BenQ Senseye Technology outshone other competitors in terms of image noise reduction, speed and battery life. Unfortunately, BenQ did not reveal the name of the website nor the actual test results that prompted those claims.

Now, let's check out each camera and their unique features!