Pentax Optio M20

Latest Camera Reviews
DSLR Point & Shoot Samsung NX10 Panasonic DMC-TS2 Olympus E-P1 Casio EX-G1 Nikon D300S Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 Pentax K-X Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX5 Nikon D3000 Samsung TL500

Recently Viewed Products
Canon PowerShot A710 IS $599 GE G1 $150

Top Point & Shoot Cameras
Max Price: $1050 $0 $262.5 $525 $787.5 $1050 Filters All Canon Casio Fuji Kodak Nikon Olympus Panasonic Pentax Samsung Sony All Compact High-End Pocket Ultra-Zoom 1. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 Ultra-Zoom $420 2. Canon SX1 IS Ultra-Zoom $499 3. Panasonic DMC-ZS3 Compact $260 4. Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 Ultra-Zoom $400 5. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX7 Compact $350

Optio M20 Prices

External Reviews
Cameras.co.uk Pentax Optio M20 Review

While not necessarily expansive in the controls that they cover, the manual options found on the Pentax Optio M20 are easy to locate, engage, and adjust, helping minimize the amount of time novice users will have to spend reading the manual.  Manual options are listed through external controls like the four-way buttons or in the shooting menu. Manual controls that can be set with the four-way buttons include focus mode via the right arrow and flash via the left arrow. Manual controls found within the shooting menu will allow users to make adjustments to exposure compensation, image sensitivity (ISO) and white balance. Aperture, shutter and exposure metering are all fully automatic. Users will find that in shooting situations with backlighting, for example, the fully automatic metering mode will fall short of the results attained with other cameras that have a manually selectable spot, center-weighted and multi metering options.  If consumers want a digital camera with more manual controls, they should keep looking. There are a number of cameras on the market now that will provide equal (or better) image quality, along with far more manual control, for the same general price. 

 

Auto focus is an area that is chock full of control. The auto focus is set through the use of a TTL contrast detection system with a 9-point array. The auto focus settings are found by pressing the right arrow of the four-way control; this action opens a display on the right side of the LCD that easily scrolls through with the up and down arrows on the same four-way control. AF options on the Optio M20 include standard, macro, super-macro, infinity and pan focus. In addition to these auto focus options, users can further customize their AF shooting by selecting from three AF area options listed within the shooting menu of the camera: multiple, spot and automatic tracking AF.

 

The focusing range for the Pentax Optio M20 in normal shooting mode is approximately 0.4 meters to infinity, while macro shoots from approximately 0.1-1.0 meter in full wide-angle.  When switched into the super-macro AF mode, the range is reduced to 0.05-0.4 meters. The extreme opposite of this is the landscape mode that shoots in the full zoom range to infinity. The pan focus in wide-angle is successful from around 1.4 meters to infinity; while in telephoto, the range begins at 5.8 meters and continues out to infinity. 

 

Accessing and adjusting the AF area options will depend on which shooting mode the camera is currently selected. In Program mode, all three options are available, while in modes like frame composite, auto, portrait and movie, the options are restricted individually to a specific setting or settings. The auto focus took about a second to function and more complicated shots lagged several seconds. The system takes its time, but it works effectively. Occasionally, the camera displayed a red frame to indicate the need to recompose the shot in order to attain proper focus. This happened often in low light situations, however, the inclusion of the red frame indicator was helpful in confirming focus. 
 

Manual focus is accessible through the sub-menu that opens when the right arrow of the four-way control is pressed. Manual focus is not accessible in the following modes: frame composite, voice recording, green, and movie modes. Users can activate the manual focus setting in the remaining auto, preset, and program modes. This is a great option to include in all modes since it’s a concept that is familiar to all photographers regardless of skill. While success with it may be varied, it is at least an option that remains on the table even when employing a preset mode option like sports mode.  When activated, the manual focus setting opens a vertical bar along the left side of the LCD screen. Moving through this vertical scale is accomplished by pressing the up and down arrows of the four-way control in the appropriate direction. Movement from infinity to one meter is a bit hasty while the lag from one meter to 0.1 meters is several seconds at its fastest. The range for manual focus is approximately 0.1 meters to infinity in wide-angle and 0.6 meters to infinity in telephoto. Switching out of manual focus is accomplished by pressing the right arrow once if the vertical bar display is currently shown or twice if the bar is not shown. This will return the user to the general focal mode display that is positioned on the right side of the LCD screen.

 

Metering is not a manual control option included on the Pentax Optio M20 and photographers will need to rely on the occasionally successful but often problematic TTL multi-metering system. I say problematic because when forced to handle backlighting or multiple light sources, the camera tends to produce sub-par results that require either adjustments to lighting or camera position. While a number of overall metering systems would be fooled by similar situations, unfortunately, the M20 does not include a spot meter or any other options to help handle challenging lighting.

 

The M20’s exposure compensation sub-menu is found in the shooting menu of the program mode and 12 of the 13 preset modes.  Exposure compensation is not available when shooting in Green mode, auto, and voice recording modes. This control option allows for a +/-2 EV range to be transitioned through in 1/3-stop steps. To bias the exposure, users can adjust the EV compensation by pressing the left and right arrows of the four-way control in the appropriate direction. While monitoring of adjustment can be accomplished due to the semi-transparent menu structure, Pentax doesn’t allow for the unblocked live view provided with white balance control. While not a huge drawback in terms of functionality, it would be nice to have that same clear view available when making adjustments to exposure.

White Balance (7.25)

White balance is an area of manual control where the Pentax Optio M20 excels in the options provided and interface design. White balance options are located within the shooting menu. However, white balance can also be set to the green button by making the appropriate adjustment to the green button setting in the setup menu. White balance options on the M20 will be displayed on the left side of the LCD monitor. The sub-menu for white balance is displayed only along the perimeter of the LCD and leaves a large portion of the screen free for live view. This is a great asset for the novice user looking to expand into manual control but is unsure of the result. The inclusion of an unobstructed live view means that no doubt will remain when preset options are scanned through or the custom white balance mode is engaged. Setting custom white balance is easily accomplished by selecting the custom option and pressing the shutter button. A temporary filler screen is displayed during adjustment that is then replaced by the live view image post-adjustment. The white balance in custom mode performed competently , and it was able to make up for bright daylight, fluorescent, and incandescent interior lighting without setbacks.  If looking to make white balance adjustments and you are lacking a white surface or are unsure of the results found with custom mode, the Pentax Optio M20 comes with daylight, shade, tungsten light and fluorescent light presets.

ISO is another parameter that can be manually controlled by the photographer shooting with the Pentax Optio M20. The sensitivity menu option is accessible in all but the green, video, voice recording and blur-reduction shooting modes. The ISO range is expansive, with ISO 64, 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1600 settings provided, in addition to the auto setting. The higher ISO settings like 400, 800, and 1600 produced a large amount of noise in the final image. Check the Testing section for more performance details. At the higher ISO levels, the noise is unavoidable and, if objectionable, it will require users to either find better lighting or use the harsh in-camera flash. 

Not surprisingly, the shutter speed for the Pentax Optio M20 is a fully automatic setting that cannot be manually set by the user. The shutter of the Optio M20 is an electronic/mechanical shutter, and it has a speed range of 1/2000th of a second to 4 seconds – although the camera seems to favor exposures under a half-second even under very low light.

Aperture, like shutter speed, is a fully automatic feature.  With a maximum aperture of f/3.1 being anything but impressive, photographers may find it necessary to rely on the camera's flash unit in less than ideal lighting conditions. The full aperture range for this digital camera is f/3.1 to f/5.9. This maximum aperture is barely better than cameras like the Olympus FE-200, and it falls short when compared to a number of cameras by Kodak that can be found at half the price.