Viewfinder (0.0)
Instead of an optical viewfinder, there is a 2.5-inch LCD screen on the camera's back for composing shots. This is just as well, because optical viewfinders generally aren’t very accurate on point-and-shoots. The Z10’s view on the LCD isn’t very smooth. If either the camera or the subject moves, the screen shows some blur. The refresh rate isn’t very fast: it’s definitely slower than 30 fps, so moving subjects really don’t look good unless the camera is panned at exactly the same speed.
Pushing the OK button cycles through a host of display options. The screen can be void of info, turned off completely, basic camera info can appear, such as battery life and remaining pictures left on a card, or full file info can be displayed, with a histogram and flashing highlight/shadow indicator. The latter looks a little crowded in the 2.5-inch space. The highlights flash red and the shadows flash yellow: the bright colors and the constant flashing are enough to cause a headache.
LCD Screen (7.5)
The 2.5-inch LCD screen on the Pentax Z10 has excellent 230,000-pixel resolution and a 170-degree viewing angle. As mentioned above, its refresh rate isn’t fantastic, so it makes a much better playback screen.
In the Setup menu, users can adjust the brightness of the LCD on a +/- 3 scale. This is somewhat helpful when shooting outdoors under the bright sun, as the normal setting is impossible to see at all. Boosting the brightness doesn’t solve the problem of glare, though. Users can check their smiles in the screen easier than they can see what’s going on in front of the camera.
Unfortunately, the screen also collects finger grease that is so visible kids will want to finger paint on it. All in all, the LCD screen is decently sized and has great resolution, but is tough to see in harsh lighting because of its glare and grease.
Flash (5.0)
The Pentax Optio Z10 has a flash unit on the upper edge of the camera that is off-axis with the lens but still out of the way of wandering fingertips. The flash’s reach is decent for a camera of this size, but its performance is still questionable.
The flash is effective from 0.52 to 17.7 feet when the lens is zoomed out. When zoomed to telephoto, the flash can reach 0.98 to 13.1 feet – decent for a flash unit of its size. The flash doesn’t necessarily look great, though. It casts harsh shadows and seems to highlight blemishes and splotchy skin.
The Flash modes can be found by pushing the left portion of the multi-selector: Auto, On, Off, Red-Eye Reduction, and Soft Flash are the normal palette. Soft Flash is a nice inclusion for close-up subjects, but still doesn’t hide blemishes or eliminate shadows. Unfortunately, the flash output in any of these modes isn’t very even. The corners are significantly darker than the center of the image.
There is a red-eye fix function available in Playback mode. This feature is brought to you by FotoNation, a company that has licensed its technology to several manufacturers to provide a solution to red eyes. This technology comes in handy, as this tiny flash caused dozens of red-eyed photos during the review process. The red-eye compensation is surprisingly effective. It takes a few seconds for the camera to process the image, and again to save or overwrite, but it’s worth it. It worked on every red eye in our test images. Too bad there’s no magic fix for the uneven and unflattering lighting.
Zoom Lens (7.0)
The Pentax Optio Z10 has a 7x optical zoom lens that remains in the camera body at all times. The Pentax lens remains flat and when the camera is powered down, a metal sliding door covers it to protect it from scratches and debris.
The lens measures 6.3-44.1mm, equivalent to 38-266mm in the traditional 35mm format. This makes it the longest nonextending lens on a Pentax Optio digital camera, not that there’s any real prize for that. The widest 38mm focal length isn’t very impressive when many compact digital cameras are as wide as 28mm. Pentax acknowledges the competition and attempts to respond with its “Digital Wide” mode, which shrinks the image size to five megapixels and zooms in to simulate a 28mm focal length.
The lens is built from 12 elements in nine groups; that number includes two dual aspherical elements and two single aspherical elements. The 7x optical zoom lens’ widest aperture is only f/3.5, a couple stops slower than the average f/2.8 aperture available on most compact digital cameras. The narrow aperture allows much less light to hit the sensor – and it only gets worse when the lens is zoomed to its 266mm focal length. In telephoto, the aperture shrinks to f/5.4.
The realm of the 7x optical zoom can be extended if the image size is reduced. The “intelligent zoom” uses the entire image sensor to capture a picture rather than using part of the sensor and enlarging individual pixels. This feature doesn’t show up in any menus, though. It is automatically activated when the image size is reduced and the digital zoom is turned on in the Setup menu. When the 5.1x digital zoom is turned on and users are zooming in and out, a horizontal line appears on the LCD screen and shows a line where the standard optical zoom ends, where the intelligent zoom ends, and where the digital zoom ends. The intelligent zoom offers the following zoom powers at reduced resolution: 8.8x at 5 MP, 9.9x at 4 MP, 11.2x at 3 MP, 14.3x at 2 MP, 22.3x at 1024, 35.7x at VGA.
The Z10’s 7x optical zoom lens is controlled by a low-quality-feeling rocking button on the upper right corner of the back. When pushed on its left side, it zooms out. The right side zooms in. The control takes some getting used to, but can stop at 15 focal lengths throughout its range when finagled with.
The Pentax Z10 has a shake reduction system that has almost nothing to do with the lens, whereas optical systems on other cameras are built into the lens. The system on the Z10 reduces blur by quickening the shutter speed and increasing the ISO. When the flash is on, it’s hard to tell the difference between a picture taken in the “Digital SR” mode and one taken in the Program mode. With the flash turned off, though, it’s a world of difference. The Program image has soft edges and is underexposed, but the Digital SR image is overexposed and so noisy that the edges of its subjects are soft, too.
The 7x optical zoom lens functions in the Movie mode and stays nice and quiet. There is a “Movie SR” – shake reduction – option available in the menu. This is also a digital image stabilization system and isn’t as effective as optical image stabilization technology.
The Casio Exilim EX-V8 has a similar internal 7x optical zoom lens. It has the exact same 38-266mm zoom range, but slightly wider max apertures of f/3.4 to f/5.3. It functions fully in the camera’s Movie mode, just like the Z10. The Casio V8 has the edge on image stabilization, though: it includes an optical CCD-shift system, rather than the less-effective digital stabilization the Z10 has.
All in all, the Pentax Optio Z10’s 7x optical zoom lens isn’t stellar. There’s not much to get excited about other than its 7x power. It isn’t very wide, and its shake reduction system is inferior to most other cameras’ systems. But when zooming in it keeps going and going, a nice component to have on such a small camera.
