Pentax Optio V20

Manual Focus (2.00)
When you choose Manual Focus, a sliding bar appears along the left side of the screen, with distances ranging from infinity down to 0.1 meters. You adjust the focus by pressing up and down on the four-way controller. The movement is slow, though, and jumps in large increments through most of the focus range. If you want to adjust the focus after initially setting it, you have to reselect manual focus mode before making any changes. All in all, this manual focus capability could prove useful when shooting a still life, and is certainly better than the lack of any manual focus offered by most point-and-shoots, but we can't see using it very often.

ISO (9.00)
The V20 has an extensive range of ISO settings, from 80 up to 6400, but there's a significant caveat: the ISO 3200 and 6400 settings limit resolution to 5 megapixels. Beyond that, the high levels of image noise typical of this camera become excessive at these top ISO settings. Better than missing a shot entirely when the lights are very low, certainly, but image quality is seriously compromised.

White Balance (5.50)
White balance options include Auto and manual presets for Daylight, Shade, Tungsten Light and Fluorescent Light. Fortunately there is also a manual white balance option, which allows you to set the system to current lighting conditions by shooting a white card. Considering the generally poor results we experienced using the camera's automatic and preset options, the manual choice is a lifesaver for critical shots, and works quite well.

Exposure (2.00)
Exposure compensation can be set ± 2 in 1/3 EV steps, in every recording mode except the fully automated Green mode. Even movie mode allows exposure compensation control, an unusual feature that's truly useful. The changes made to exposure comp are reflected live on the LCD as they're made, eliminating guesswork.

Metering (6.50)
Metering mode can be adjusted when shooting in Auto Picture and Program modes. Multi-segment metering divides the image into 256 areas and sets a balanced exposure for the whole. Center-weighted metering evaluates the entire image also, but weights the center of the image more heavily when setting the exposure, while spot metering uses only the center of the screen to set aperture and shutter speed.

Shutter Speed (7.00)
Shutter speeds start at 1/2000 and can linger as long as 4 seconds, a reasonable range on both ends of the spectrum. Unfortunately, though, there is no manual shutter speed control, which is a serious shortcoming if you want to make use of those fast speeds for catching speedy action, or the slow speeds to maximize depth of field.

Aperture (4.50)
Like shutter speed, aperture cannot be controlled by the user – it is automatically determined by the camera in all modes. The maximum lens opening ranges from f/3.5 at the widest setting to f/5.6 at maximum telephoto. That f/.3.5 setting isn't uncommon, but it isn't impressive either: a faster lens, like the f/2.6 lens found on the 4x zoom Casio Exilim EX-Z300, allows more light through, which in turns allows faster shutter speeds, making both low-light and action photography more practical.