Ahead of the PMA show Pentax has made several announcements including three new Optio compact digital cameras.

The Optio S12 has a twelve megapixel CCD imager and a Pentax-branded 3x optical zoom lens. A 2.5″ LCD display, and 21MB plus SD / MMC card storage. Power comes from a proprietary Lithium Ion battery. The S12 is scheduled to ship in April 2008 for US $279.95. The S12 will be available in silver and black.

The Optio M50 has an eight megapixel CCD imager coupled with a Pentax-branded 5x optical zoom lens. As with the S12, there’s a 2.5″ LCD display for image framing and reviewing, and there’s 51MB of built-in memory plus SD / MMC card storage. Power comes from a proprietary Lithium Ion battery. The Pentax M50 ships from March 2008 in silver, light blue and pink variants, priced at about $230.

Finally, the Optio E50 has an eight megapixel CCD imager and Pentax-branded 3x optical zoom lens. A 2.4″ LCD display is slightly smaller than those of the other two cameras, and befitting the camera’s entry-level status there’s just 9.5MB of built-in memory plus SD / MMC card storage. Power comes from two AA batteries. The Pentax E50 is the most affordable of the new cameras, priced at about $280 and available from March 2008.