I've got a ~4 year old Optio S5i

This review could've been applied to it almost verbatim. You'd think in four years they'd improve more than just the megapixel count :\

In one word .....

I can sum up the results in one word: Uninspiring. Even if I was looking for a cheap camera to take to a pop festival, I'd still give the E70L a miss and look for an end-of-line special.

Truly, this is a product which aspires towards mediocrity. I'd expect it to carry a supermarket's own brand name, not Pentax.

PS. Still no sensor array area! I'd rather have more mm² than more megapixels.

Photo of the stripes

Were those stripes parallel and straight in real life? If so, that's some of the worst barrel distortion I've seen in a long time.