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

Pentax - Optio S review

It would be easy to start this review with the well-worn cliché about all good things and their predilection for small packages. However, when it comes to cameras, size really is important. If a model is too big or clunky it's more likely to be left at home, while one that's very small may be portable but can lose out on features or suffer from shaking hand syndrome.

At first glance, the Optio S is off to a good start. Smaller than a packet of 20 Marlborough, this camera will genuinely fit into most trouser pockets and handbags. It's also incredibly light, weighing just 113g complete with lithium battery and memory card, but the small dimensions belie a remarkably robust design. The aluminium body feels solid in your hands and a slightly milled finish makes it easy to grip.

Pentax has managed to pack an enormous amount of features into something so tiny. Along with its 3.2-megapixel resolution, the Optio S offers 3x optical (35-105mm equivalent) and 2x digital zooms, a 1.6-inch colour LCD display, 11MB of built-in memory and video-out facilities. There are eight shooting modes, including Panoramic Assist, 3D and movie settings, and seven picture modes with two macro options for close up work.

Images are captured at up to 2,048 x 1,536 pixels, with a choice of three compression settings, while movies come in at 320 x 240 in 12 frames per second AVI format. The latter trades the zoom facility for audio capture and 30-second sound bursts can be attached to still images. There's also a neat time-lapse video mode and the camera can even act as a digital voice-recorder, though how many people will use it as such remains to be seen. The internal memory stores seven pictures at full-quality and this can be supplemented with both MMC and SD storage cards.

We really enjoyed testing the Optio S. The menu system and settings are clear and the majority of images we snapped were crisp and noise-free. What's more, the automatic picture mode performed admirably in a variety of lighting conditions. Transferring pictures to a PC is simply a matter of attaching the USB lead; the camera then appears as another drive.

In fact, aside from a slight lag in shooting speed and some blurred night scene photos there's really only one thing we can moan about. The Optio's size has forced Pentax to mount a tiny four-way controller for accessing menus and settings. It's not the worst we've seen but it is fiddly, making it easy to select an option accidentally when you want to scroll around and vice versa. You do get used to it after a while but you still need to use it slowly. Fitting a slightly larger version would make a world of difference. Hopefully Pentax will take note for the S2.

Pentax - Optio 450 review

With a 4-megapixel resolution, the Optio 450 should meet most general hobbyists' needs. A4 prints can be output at very usable quality from a camera of this specification, and anything requiring lower resolutions, from standard-sized snaps to Web imaging, is also possible.

What's important with a camera like this are things like build quality and ease of use - the features which will give it a long life. Certainly the build quality impresses. Its aluminium casing means that the camera is robust. This makes for a weighty package, though, and at 250g you will notice it in your pocket.

Along with the usual digital camera facilities like self-timer, macro mode, auto flash, video and movie shooting, comes a range of on-device filters such as sepia and black and white. There's also a 5x optical zoom which is supplemented by a further 4x digital zoom.

A progress bar on the LCD shows when you switch from one type of zoom to the other so you can avoid using the digital zoom, which can degrade image quality (you can also permanently disable digital zoom if you prefer). Interestingly there is a 3D stereoscopic shooting mode, and Pentax provides a rather rough and ready stereoscope to help you view images in 3D.

The LCD is relatively small at just 1.8 diagonal inches. Don't let this concern you unless you anticipate visual problems seeing information at this size, as it is perfectly clear and crisp. Smaller LCDs save on battery power, after all, and maximizing battery life is crucial for real world usage. In this case power is supplied by a rechargeable cell, and you can't use disposables as an alternative, so you may want to invest in a spare cell.

There are many options and choices which can be made when using this camera, and Pentax has rather gone to town with buttons and switches. There's a directional cursor and select button for working with LCD displayed menus, supplemented by three quick select buttons which have multiple functions.

Then there's a further rotating selector which sits around the shutter button. Once you grasp the operation of all these tools, everything's fine, but the learning curve may be a little steep, especially if you are new to digital photography.

The camera comes with a 16MB SD memory card. This won't be enough if you want to consistently work at high resolution and you will almost certainly need to invest in a higher capacity card. And a carry case, for that matter, as there isn't one in the box.

Pentax - Optio SVi review

5-megapixel cameras seem to be everywhere nowadays, and Pentax has recently expanded its already strong family at this specification to include two new models, the Optio S5z and the Optio SVi.

The headline feature of our review choice, the Optio SVi, is probably its 5x optical zoom. While not unique, this amount of optical zoom means you can safely disable the 4x digital zoom (which we'd always advise anyway as digital zooming reduces image quality).

There are twelve pre-configured shooting modes for different types of shot. The range includes largely familiar settings for landscape, sport, portrait, sunset, autumn colours and so on and includes a panorama assist mode. More unusual is the 3D mode nestled among the twelve.

Choose this and the LCD splits into two sections and helps you take a pair of shots from slightly different angles. Pentax sells a simple 3D viewer as an add-on, but it is easy enough to make one - and the assembly diagram in the manual should give you enough clues about where to start.

You can apply filters like a 21-step sepia grading after shooting, overwriting the original image or saving a second tweaked version. You also have the opportunity to fiddle with things like the shutter speed and aperture setting using a relatively straightforward combination of menu buttons and the four-way control pad.

Shutter speeds range between 1/1000 to 4 seconds and aperture stops from F2.8 to F8. When it comes to shooting close-ups you can choose the macro mode which will cope with subjects between 12 and 70cm from the lens, or super macro which caters for those 3 to 14cm from the lens. You can also adjust the focus manually using the four-way controller. If you know what you are doing this combination of capabilities will be very useful.

The Optio SVi comes with a charging cradle that has a separate slot for battery charging. This means you can buy a spare and charge it separately from the camera, but the bad news is that you have to carry the cradle around or buy an optional charge cable that uses a proprietary connector at the camera end.

In terms of construction the Optio SVi feels a little less weighty than some cameras in the hand despite its aluminium bodywork, and the shutter button in particular had a bit of a tacky feel. But Pentax has done well to provide quick and easy access to many of the settings, with no fewer than four buttons, a zoom rocker, four-way controller and mode dial wheel ranged on the back of the casing. One of the four buttons takes you immediately to photo viewing mode, the other three to features like the flash, macro mode, self-timer and aperture and shutter speed settings.

Two further buttons embedded in the bottom of the LCD's black surround provide access to the camera's full set of options and settings respectively.

Pentax - Optio T20 review

In 2003 Pentax wowed the compact digicam market with the release of the Optio S. It was small and sleek enough to fit into a pack of cards yet offered a 3x optical zoom thanks to its unique sliding lens design.

Over the next three years the design ethic that underlined that success marches on and we've seen a swathe of compact yet powerful models grace the shelves. The successor to the recent T10, the Optio T20 still offers this 3x optical zoom using the same sliding lens system, but has an upgraded CCD, higher maximum ISO and a few design tweaks.

It does look very similar to the T10, which is attractive enough, but the front seems a little busy: the silver bar, logos and lens cover can make things look a little cluttered. Pentax's use of a touch-screen display with these models means the control interface for the camera is mostly based around the screen, and there are just two separate buttons to switch modes and access the main menu.

A silver case finished with the black panels on the back does make the camera look a little dated in our opinion, but this is a minor and individual style point. The touch-screen is responsive and nice to use, buttons are large enough for greasy fingers to find their way around and a print-resistant coating means that marks don't dirty up the LCD. It'd be a shame if they did, as we liked the colourful, sharp screen and it's large enough to get a decent idea of the quality of your shots on the move.

The combination of the touch-screen and top-mounted swivel-zoom control means that it's pretty awkward to use the Optio T20 with one hand. You'll either end up accidentally pressing the touch-screen and opening the shot menu or run the risk of dropping the thing while you try to adjust the zoom. A back-mounted zoom control would have solved this problem. To be on the safe side, you'll find yourself putting down whatever you're carrying to have both hands free to take a shot.

There are 12 modes to play with, from landscape to activity and portrait shots, and for the most part these are well considered and make it easy to select an appropriate setting for your environment. Of course you can make manual adjustments or simply use an automatic setting, and handily you can add your three most commonly used functions to the main menu for easy access.

The upgraded 7-megapixel CCD brings it in line with today's high-end compacts, but we'd like to have seen a better improvement to the ISO rating. Many other companies are starting to realise that people are more likely, if anything, to use compact cameras in low light conditions, something that's not really reflected here. The Optio T20's performance does suffer a little in dark environments although it is reasonably forgiving in terms of camera shake, provided you make an effort to bolster it (or yourself) against something.

Other modes are impressive, though: macro mode is clean and crisp and the automatic setting does a decent job of adjusting aperture and shutter speed for your environment. An overlaid histogram display gives you the information you need to help fine tune settings to improve your photos, but if you're a beginner or in the market for a camera that offers decent 'point-and-shoot' results you won't be disappointed.

Anyone who's used Pentax's previous model, the Optio T10, will know that taking photos is just part of the functionality on offer. You're also given a range of features to manipulate your photos in playback mode. These include slideshow creation and filters to adjust image settings, combat red-eye and crop and rotate your photos.

There's also a drawing mode that'll allow you to write or draw on your images using the touch-screen as a canvas and the provided stylus as the brush. There's plenty of fun to be had with the Optio T20, then, making it more than just a well-performing digital camera. While many people might prefer to make these sorts of changes on a computer it's nice to have the option to correct or jazz up your photos on the move.

In addition to photography you'll also find a voice recorder (which you can use to add music or speech to specific photographs) and a video recorder, now pretty standard on these compact models.

Pentax - Optio A30 review

If you're already a fan of Pentax's Optio range, you'll be pleased to learn that its third prodigy has now seen the light of day, and predictably it incorporates a lot of the latest technological improvements to feature in most modern compact digital cameras that want to be taken seriously.

It comes in a stylish, credit card-sized, black, aluminium casing and weighs a mere 4.6oz without battery and memory card installed. Using a maximum 10 effective megapixels with a 1/1.8-inch CCD, a wide light-sensitive area for superior tone reproduction and an SMC Pentax zoom lens with a 3x optical zoom, this is a high quality camera for both beginners and those who want a degree of manual control.

There's a new 2.5-inch LCD screen (with a resolution of 232,000 pixels) that has improved brightness, especially when shooting outdoors in strong sunlight. The 4-way controller is simplicity itself to operate and includes 11 Scene modes ranging from Flower, Kids, Surf & Snow to Food, Pets, Text and Frame Composite. A useful extra enhancement for first-time photographers is an explanatory text pop-up that appears over each Scene mode icon after 3 seconds.

The major selling point, though, is the emphasis on Shake Reduction. Calling on the new developments in its digital SLR cameras, Pentax has incorporated a high-accuracy gyro sensor and control algorithm into its compact SR mechanism which uses a shifting CCD system to stabilize images. A new Scene mode has been added - Digital SR - which automatically changes the camera's sensitivity according to the brightness of the subject. Although these images can accommodate a maximum ISO 3200, the detail is restricted to 5 megapixels.

There's even more to cheer about with the new Movie SR feature which creates much less blurry sequences. Video is captured at 30fps at sizes up to 640 x 480 pixels and, because it employs the DivX (MPEG-4 compliant) movie format, you can record for much longer and still end up with decent quality. Sound quality varies and it's worth mentioning that you can use the A30 as a separate voice recorder.

Amateur photographers who don't want everything on an auto setting can take comfort from the Shutter Priority, Manual (where you select both shutter speed and aperture) and Program AE (which keeps the auto exposure but allows you to choose other control options including White Balance) modes. Another welcome addition is the Face Recognition AF & AE which will detect and highlight the human faces in your photos.

The speed of operation has also been quickened and the overall detail and colour tones, brightness and contrast of the final images are well above average. Having an extra Super Macro setting means you can now get as close as 2.3 inches from your target and the rechargeable D-LI8 lithium ion battery allows for approximately 150 photos and 110 minutes of playback time.

Pentax - K100D review

In the days when film was king, Pentax had a mighty reputation for its SLR cameras, including a much admired K-series (K2, KM, KX) which culminated in the legendary K1000 that stayed in production from 1976 to 1997. Now that we're firmly in the digital era, Pentax has abandoned the pretentious '*ist' prefix of its last digital releases and harked back to the golden age once more with the K100D.

There have naturally been some notable alterations from the '*ist' series, both in physical design and camera operation. The body is curvier, including an expanded hand grip area which provides more comfort and solidity. Even though there remains a stainless steel chassis covered by reinforced plastic, the K100D is still relatively lightweight for a DSLR (660g) and comes as a body only or with a DA 18-55 mm lens.

Another change is a move away from the Penta-prism viewfinder typically found in the DS2 to a Penta-mirror system, which further reduces the weight. Menus and captured images are viewed in the 2.5-inch LCD monitor on the back, with a healthy 210,000 pixels. A useful new function is the digital preview which displays a test shot in the monitor that's saved in the buffer rather than the memory card.

A second mini LCD display on the top of the camera provides rapid information on camera settings and exposures, but remains stubbornly and curiously without a backlight. There's been a further change in the flash arrangement: this is now a P-TTL style which means it can pop up either manually or electronically and operates without an additional AF support light. The auto-focus itself now has three versatile modes; the highly accurate 11-point SAFOX VIII AF system, manual selection or centre point only.

There are a couple of other significant enhancements on the controls. The Auto Pict mode cleverly incorporates four scene modes (Portrait, Landscape, Macro and Moving Object) and automatically chooses which seems most suitable to the photo you're taking. If it's not sure, then it will default to Normal mode. In addition, the Function button (Fn) offers you a four-way controller to handle White balance, Flash, ISO and Drive modes, as well as DPOF, Slideshow and Digital Filters when set to playback.

Even though this is only a 6.1-megapixel camera, the sharpness, clarity and colour authenticity of the images are outstanding thanks to a new image processing engine, and this is further improved by the arrival of a built-in Shake Reduction mechanism that uses sensitive motion detectors to stabilise the CCD sensor so you can have crisp results even with low shutter speeds.

The only noticeable irritation is the somewhat useless continuous shooting mode which can only manage a maximum of four JPEG frames, but otherwise this is an excellent entry-level DSLR for both relative beginners and more experienced enthusiasts.