Pentax Optio E10

Manual Control Options
Manual control isn’t this camera’s forte: basically, it doesn’t offer much. There’s no manual exposure mode and no manual focus. There is, however some manual control over settings like white balance and ISO, but for the target audience, these may be better left on automatic anyway.

Focus
Auto Focus
The multi-point contrast detection autofocus is a little sluggish. It often took several seconds of hunting around to find the focus point, especially in low light. This is too bad, as it is possible to find a decent autofocus on other cameras at this price point.

Manual Focus
No manual focus is included on the E10. It’s automatic only.

Metering
Unsurprisingly, the metering modes are pretty basic: you only get the choice of weighted or spot metering. The Optio E10 has none of the multi-zone evaluative modes that are present on Pentax’s higher-end models like the A10.

Exposure
A simple but functional exposure compensation mode offers adjustments for 2 stops up or down, in one third steps. That’s pretty typical for this type of camera and should be enough to compensate for most lighting situations such as backlighting, or an excessively light or dark background.

White Balance
Most users attracted to this type of camera will want to leave the white balance on auto, but there are presets if desired. There are settings for daylight, cloudy, tungsten, and florescent. There’s no way to input a specific color temperature or balance the camera manually, the latter of which is an inclusion we always like to see if possible, no matter the price.

ISO
The E10 has a rather limited ISO range of three settings: 64, 100, and 200. This could be a serious limitation for low light shooting: a maximum ISO of 200 is going to lead to long exposure times in anything but bright sunlight. But then again, if it did have a 400 setting, chances are that on a budget camera like this, the images would be incredibly noisy. However, nearly all competing models will extend beyond the ISO 200 limitation on this camera.

Shutter Speed
Shutter speed goes from 1/1000 of a second to 2 seconds. Higher shutter speeds can be useful for capturing sports action and the like, but 1/1000 is adequate for most purposes. Many point-and-shoots offer 1/2000 or at least 1/1400, however, so the E10’s options could be better.

Aperture
A range of f/2.8 to f/4.8 is a little smaller than most, and the lack of higher apertures limits the creative potential by narrowing the depth of field (the area into your shot that can be in focus). This might make it more difficult to do group shots and the like; but again, it should be fine for general use and snapshot portraiture.