Pentax Optio Z10

Manual Control Options
The Pentax Optio Z10 isn’t going to please manual control freaks. It is built for point-and-shooters whose idea of manual control is to switch from the Auto mode to the Portrait mode. The individual exposure parameters cannot be changed on this camera, although exposure compensation is available, along with a few other controls.

Focus
Autofocus (6.75)
The first thing we noticed about the Pentax Z10’s autofocus was its slowness; we captured many blinked eyes and turned heads. The second thing we noticed was that it didn’t work well: many images look soft, especially in low light. We looked and looked for an autofocus assist lamp to no avail – no such thing on this camera. Beware in low light!

The through-the-lens contrast detection autofocus system has an upgraded version of face recognition technology that differentiates it from its sister camera, the Pentax Optio S10. The Z10 is faster, recognizing up to 15 faces at a time in three-hundredths of a second. There isn’t a menu option through which to find the Z10’s face detection; instead, it is automatically activated in the Portrait, Kids, and Natural Skin Tone scene modes. The face detection worked very quickly in testing, but strongly prefers larger faces. The face detection system has trouble when there are more than five people crammed in the frame for a full-bodied group portrait, likely because the faces are too small to detect. Still, it works well for the classic single portrait.

There is an autofocus setting option in the Recording menu, with 9-point Multi, Center, and Tracking focusing areas. The Tracking autofocus works well and is great for photographing sports like basketball, where movements aren’t always as predictable as shooting track runners, for instance. In that same option in the menu is a focus limiter that can be turned on and off: this quickens the amount of time it takes to focus. It does so by limiting the focus to faraway subjects during normal shooting and very close-up subjects in Macro shooting.

The Macro focus mode can be turned on by pushing the right side of the multi-selector. This allows the camera to shoot subjects from 0.26 to 1.64 feet. Normally, the Z10 focuses from 1.31 feet to infinity. A small sub-menu appears with other options, too: pan focus, landscape focus, and a link to the manual focus.

In the Movie mode, the continuous autofocus system is activated and makes strange grinding noises that are surprisingly noisier than the functional 7x optical zoom lens. The autofocus system lags behind the zoom lens, so if users zoom close on their subjects then they will be blurry for a moment until they come into focus.

Overall, the Pentax Z10’s autofocus system has the trendy face detection perk, but still falls behind in basic performance like speed.

Manual Focus (5.5)
The Z10 doesn’t have a slew of manual controls, but it does have manual focus. It can focus as close as 0.33 feet and as far as the eyes can see. The Manual focus can be found in the submenu that appears when the right side of the multi-selector is pushed. The view on the LCD shows the entire picture with a frame near the center. When the right side of the multi-selector is pushed again, the view is magnified to within that frame and a vertical scale shows up on the left side of the screen. The scale has numbers to indicate the approximate focal distance; users can scroll up and down to manually focus. The resolution of the LCD screen is complementary to this feature, so users can truly judge the focus.

ISO (8.75)
The Z10 has more ISO options than most digital cameras its size. Its automatic setting can even be adjusted. Many cameras now have two automatic settings: standard Auto and High ISO auto. However, the Z10 goes above and beyond by allowing users to customize the Auto setting to choose an ISO within the following ranges: 64-100, 64-200, 64-400, 64-800, 64-1600, and 64-3200.

The Manual ISO settings are just as generous: 64, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, and 3200. These can be found in the Recording menu in many of the still image shooting modes. There is a Digital Shake Reduction mode that automatically chooses higher ISO settings up to 3200 combined with quick shutter speeds to reduce blur.

Don’t get too excited about the ISO 1600 and 3200 settings: they introduce an unacceptable amount of noise into images. The noise at every ISO setting is analyzed in the Testing/Performance section, but the gist is that the Pentax Z10 didn’t perform very well.

White Balance (7.25)
There is a decent set of white balance settings in the Recording menu. Auto, Daylight, Shade, Tungsten, Fluorescent, and Manual are on the docket. There is a live view when the options are scrolled through. The Manual option is easy to set, with a prompt on the LCD screen to push the shutter button along with brackets in the center that shows where something white should be framed.

The Testing/Performance section goes into more detail, but as a general rule the Z10’s presets should be used indoors and the auto setting is fine for outdoors in sunny and plentiful light.

Exposure (6.5)
The shutter speed and aperture cannot be individually manipulated, but there is an exposure compensation option with a live view in the Recording menu. It has the same +/- 2 options in increments of a third, as most cameras have.

Metering (7.0)
The Pentax Optio Z10 has a through-the-lens metering system with three options found in the Recording menu: Multi-Segment, Center-Weighted, and Spot. The Multi-Segment metering is the default.

Shutter Speed (0.0)
The Pentax Z10 doesn’t have a very expansive range of shutter speeds and it can’t be manually adjusted. Its range is limited to 4-1/1440 of a second. Compare that to the Casio V8, with its 60-1/800 shutter speed range that has long exposures but, oddly, not very fast ones. There is also the Sony T100 with its 1/2-1/1000 range. A more expansive range can be found on the Fujifilm F50fd, with its 8-1/2000 shutter speeds.

Aperture (0.0)
The Z10 has a Pentax 7x optical zoom lens that doesn’t have the most impressive apertures – but that’s the name of the game with internal long lenses. The Z10 has a max aperture of f/3.5 at its widest and f/5.4 at its 266mm focal length. This is similar to the Casio V8’s 7x internal lens: it has max apertures of f/3.4-f/5.3, respectively. The Panasonic TZ3, also known for its long lens and compact body, has max apertures of f/3.3-f/4.9, but its 10x lens extends from the camera.