PENTAX Optio V10 review

The Pentax Optio V10 is a 8.0 megapixel digicam featuring 3x optical zoom and 3.0" LCD squeezed into an aluminum alloy shell just 19mm thick - Pentax having achieved this feat of miniaturization through a redesigned circuit board and extra-slim battery. Face Detection AF & AE, Digital Shake Reduction and a wealth of automatic scene modes round off the specification. The Pentax Optio V10 will be available from October 2007 with a recommended price of US $249.95, more after the jump.

Main Features:

  1. An ultra-slim body with a sophisticated texture
    By using an exclusive slim battery and making the circuit board smaller, it is possible to realize an ultra-slim body of just 19mm even though featuring large LCD monitor. High quality aluminum alloy is also used for the outer cover, giving the camera a sophisticated texture.
  2. Large, 3.0 inch easy viewable LCD monitor
    The Optio V10 comes with a high resolution, a 3.0-inch LCD monitor with approximately 230,000 pixels that enables images and the text to be displayed largely and clearly. The LCD monitor has a wide viewing angle of 170 degrees from all directions, making it easy to confirm images, even when looking at the screen diagonally.
  3. Digital SR(Shake Reduction)
    Digital SR (Shake Reduction) mode automatically adjusts sensitivity, to as high as the ultrahigh sensitivity of ISO 3200 according to the brightness of the subjects, and effectively reduces camera shakes and subject blurring when photographing still images. With fast shutter speeds, photography with reduced blurring is available.
  4. ”Face Recognition AF&AE” function that is convenient when photographing portrait
    The Face Recognition AF&AE*1 function automatically detects and focuses on faces, regardless of where the people appear in the photo frame. So, it allows you to take beautiful photograph of people easily by letting the camera determine the focus and exposure.
    *1:Available when the photography mode is “Portrait” and “Natural Skin Tone”, and the camera is directed at people from the front
  5. Auto Picture mode automatically determines the best photography mode for shooting conditions
    The Auto Picture mode lets the camera automatically determines the shooting conditions for Landscape, Portrait, Night Scene, and Normal modes and choose the optimum settings for each subject. This function eliminates the necessity of making a number of individual settings.
  6. 3X optical zoom and 4X digital zoom for a maximum of 12X magnification
    The Optio V10 features a 3X optical zoom lens with a focal range covering angles of view equivalent to those of a 36-108mm lens in 35mm format, which is ideal for a broad spectrum of subjects from landscapes, through memorial photographs, to portraits. Such zooming power can also be combined with 4X digital zoom to achieve a total of approximately 12X zoom capability.
  7. High Resolution Images
    The Optio V10’s 8.0 effective megapixels and high performance PENTAX lens, which precisely captures images down to the finest details, realizes to delivers high resolution photos that look sharp even at large magnifications.
  8. Others
    1. Mode palette provides quick access to 16 shooting modes and 13 playback modes
    2. Record movies with Movie SR (Shake Reduction) function can deliver high quality image rivaling camcorders
    3. Auto-Macro mode allows for close-up photography as near as 10cm while in the normal focusing mode
    4. Auto-tracking AF continuously focusing on a moving subject
    5. Date imprint function for easier image categorizing
    6. Calendar Display function allows image retrieval based on the capture mode
    7. Approximately 52.1MB of built in memory
    8. FotoNation’s red-eye correction function for flash shots
    9. Includes the ACDSee for PENTAX 3.0 image viewer/image management software that support Windows Vista™
    10. Support PictBridge, DPOF functions, Exif Print, and PRINT Image Matching III