Pentax Optio E60
Digital Camera Review
Sep 22, 2008
- By Tim Barribeau
The Optio E60 is Pentax's new ultra-low-budget point-and-shoot. It's a very, compact 10-megapixel camera with only the barest of features and settings, its appeal resting instead on extreme affordability. This low price manifests itself not just in the minimal features and controls, but in an overall feeling of cheapness. It's very light, has only a 2.4 inch LCD screen, and feels like it will fall apart under a stiff breeze. On the plus side, it has competent face detection, uses easy-to-find AA batteries, is lightweight for travel and won't cause exquisite agony if lost or damaged. The Optio E60 is priced at $140.
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Manual Control Options
The E60 has no manual controls to speak of. The most flexible setting is Program mode, and even here manual input is minimal. There is no way to directly set the aperture or shutter speed.
Focus
Auto Focus
The auto focus appeared to work relatively well, and quite quickly. Face detection is available in every mode, and can handle up to 10 faces. Focus modes available are Multiple, Spot and Automatic Tracking.
ISO
The E60 has an ISO range of 100-6400, which sounds generous, except ISO 3200 and 6400 are only available at a reduced 5M resolution.
White Balance
The E60 has no manual white balance controls, which is disappointing, and symptomatic of the overall lack of control options on the camera.
Metering
The E60 has no metering controls, which is no great surprise given the overall design direction.
Shutter Speed
The shutter speed of the E60 ranges from 1/2000 to 1/4 second, or as long as 4 seconds in Night Mode. We would ordinarily hope to see more exposure lengths beyond 1 second.
Aperture
The aperture range of the Pentax lens on the E60 is f/2.9 at the widest end, and f/5.2 at maximum telephoto.
Image Stabilization
Called Shake Reduction, the E60 has a digital image stabilizer that is only accessibly as a scene mode/image preset. We did not get a chance to test it, so we cannot vouch for its effectiveness.
Picture Quality / Size Options
Images can be taken at a range of sizes from 640 x 480 to 3648 x 2736 (10.1 megapixels), with a 16:9 widescreen 1920 x 1080 option as well.
Picture Effects Mode
The E60 will let you stick one of 27 different composite frames over your picture, so your amour can be surrounded by border of hearts, if you so choose. You can also cast various hues over the image using Digital Filters while editing during playback.
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