Pentax Optio W10 Digital Camera Review

Pentax Optio W10

Digital Camera Review

1.7 The Pentax Optio W10 is a waterproof compact camera with a 3x zoom lens, 6-megapixel CCD and a list price of $299.95. Though waterproofing might seem like a gimmick – how many pictures does anyone need of their kids underwater? -- Waterproof cameras are, by definition, sealed against dust, dirt, and moisture. The W10 should be a durable camera, ready to be carried in pockets and taken out in the rain. It's also tough enough for even small children to use on their own.
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Pentax Optio W10


Picture Quality / Size Options (8.5)
Choice is a good thing, but with 8 different resolution settings and 3 quality levels, the Optio W10 offers 24 general file sizes: overkill for a fun little pocket camera. The resolutions are: 2816x2112, 2560x1920, 2304x1728, 2048x1536, 1600x1200, 1280x960, 1024x768 and 640x480. Quality settings are Best, Better and Good. Best files are about twice as big as Better files, and Better files are about one-and-a-half times the size of Good files. Better and Good files look significantly worse than Best files. We recommend leaving the camera on Best and using the full image size whenever possible – as cheap as SD cards are most W10 buyers can afford enough storage to hold all the photos they'll shoot in a day or even a whole vacation.

Picture Effects Mode (8.0)
The best time to add special effects to a picture is after saving it as a normal image. The Optio W10's Digital filters follow that credo and operate only on saved images. The filters can tint images the following colors: black and white, sepia, red, pink, purple, blue, green or yellow. There is also a soft focus filter and a brightness adjustment, as well as contrast, sharpness and saturation adjustments that function during shooting. We found that these tools tended to decrease image quality. The W10 can also add three different borders to images: a ring of red roses, a heart silhouette, or a generic cartoon character saying, “Happy!” (If you can't tell that your subject is happy without the frame, it may be best to try another shot.)
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