Pentax OptioWP Digital Camera Review

The amphibious Pentax OptioWP, released this year on January 4th at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, adds to the Pentax line of small digital cameras for the point-and-shoot user. The major marketing point for the OptioWP is its waterproof abilities - it's capable of shooting in up to five feet of water. As for more traditional specs, the Pentax OptioWP has a 1/2.5-inch 5 MP CCD, 3x optical zoom lens, and can shoot in both still and movie formats, with synchro or autonomous monaural audio recording. Some manual control settings are available (but certainly limited), including Manual Focus, EV Compensation, Flash, and ISO adjustments. Since this is a point-and-shoot model, the OptioWP is geared towards preset shooting modes over full-out manual control, giving the users up to 20 modes and 10 digital preset filters. The WP has an A/V digital out and a DC in port housed in a sealed and fashioned battery cover on the bottom of the body, and also has an additional slot for an optional memory card along with 10.5 MB of built-in memory already. This camera is currently retailing online for around $349.95 (USD) but may be found for less.