About me:No matter what I will always aspire to be an under achiever
Member since:18.04.2004
Reviews:2
Members who trust:8
Review rated by 48 Ciao members on average: very helpful
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I needed a digital camera for part of the NVQ work that I am doing at the moment and also thought it would be a good idea for my annual leave next week. There are so many digital cameras on the market that I was at a bit of a loss which to buy.
My father has been a photographer of sorts for some time and has always recommended Pentax. The Pentax Optio immediately got my attention. It is tiny, about the size of a box of paracetamol in all dimensions.
It has an aluminium body and is very classy to look at. I have been told that the case can be scratched very easily. I have had mine now for a month and I am not the most careful of people around and there is not a scratch in sight.
By pressing the on/off button on the right hand side at the top of the camera, the zoom lens effortlessly glides outwards. Press it to off and the lens recedes back into the body. This helps to protect the lens and keeps the size of the camera to a minimum when you carry it round The lens has a 35 -105 mm range. The zoom which is both optical and digital is controlled by a button on the back of the camera letting you go from wide-angle to telephoto amazingly quickly. Optical zoom is the best because it keeps all the quality in the picture. When you use the digital zoom which kicks in automatically as you are zooming you are only enlarging the picture already on the cameras sensors and therefore loosing image quality. The optical zoom also allows you to take better pictures since it not only allows you to compose a picture of a large group of people without falling into the pond or over the edge of the cliff behind you (you must have seen it in the films) but to take a portrait shot without distorting the face of your subject.
The camera, as well as taking the usual still shots, allows you to take up to 60 seconds of video and has a sound recording facility so that you can caption the clips or still shots. With the camera, I can take macro shots of anything from about 2.5 inches, to infinity shots although you have no control over the depth of field. There is even a marine mode available. The camera can be focused both manually and automatically. These are controlled by buttons to the back of the camera next to the viewfinder. I have uploaded some examples of these below which I hope will show the quality of the camera.
To view the video or photographs on the camera, buttons next to LCD let you playback and display.
To the left hand side of the camera is a built-in flash with a red-eye reduction. It is not very strong and I would recommend that you only take shots at quite a close range if using it. Otherwise I don’t think, you will get anything at all.
The only problems with the camera were that it only has 11mb of built in memory which I found wasn’t enough and the D-L18lithium-ion battery lets you take only about 180 pictures or spend 2 hours in playback which also is not enough. However, I had a MMC card spare from a Nokia n-gage that I don’t use any more. This was compatible with the camera and gave me a 32MB in addition to the built in memory. I had to purchase a larger battery. I managed to get one of these from e.bay costing
Attached to the camera is a small wrist strap, handy I suppose but personally don’t really use it.
The camera at best resolution will give an image quality of 4Mp which means that if you want a good quality print you will be able to go to 10” X 8” but larger than this you will begin to loose image quality
A USB and an A/V cable come with the camera You can get the camera in a kit with a tripod, a memory card and a soft case.
I bought this for £250 from Boots you can get it cheaper if you shop around.
Thank you for reading if there is anything you want to know ask me in my guest book.
I want to give this an E but i dont have any left today :-( - drop a note in my guestbook to remind me and i will come back tomorrow! Great review. Em xxx
by (6%):
by (8%):
14.12.2004 19:33
I am looking for a camera for my daughter. This sounds perfect. Caroline
13.12.2004 20:50
Excellent review man, fantastic detail and lots of information.
13.12.2004 13:41
I want to give this an E but i dont have any left today :-( - drop a note in my guestbook to remind me and i will come back tomorrow! Great review. Em xxx