Updated 14 Feb, 2012, 6:01 pm IST

REVIEWS / POINT AND SHOOT / PENTAX

Pentax Optio S10

17 Jan, 2008, 1:00 pm IST | Laiq Qureshi | Point and Shoot

The camera handles colors pretty well, but vibrancy is not one of its strengths. It gave me near-accurate to slightly dull images at times, but the detailing is good. When blown to full-size, the images showed a considerable amount of detail, even in the dark corners of a far-off building. Grain levels are controlled too. I did notice a lot of vignetting, however, in almost all the shots.

While shooting in the night, the shutter lag time is probably a cause for worry – it does take a long time, and you will need to keep the camera still while shooting night landscape shots. One piece of advice while shooting in the night: skip the auto mode and use only night scene mode. Even though the S10 doesn’t dish out noisy pictures in auto, the level of noise is far more controlled using night scene mode. The shutter lag is between 0.3-0.5 seconds, which is good.

The camera has an effective macro and super-macro mode. While the macro mode offers a focus range between 0.12m and 0.4m, the super-macro mode can reach between 0.06m and 0.15m. Macro and super-macro modes can be fun if you know what to shoot. The S10 offers brilliant resilience with super-macro shots; almost all the shots taken turned out good, and with a lot of details.

Videos can be shot at 640 x 480 and 320 x 240 pixels with 30 fps. Interestingly, the S10 allows videos to be saved in two formats" DiVX and MPEG-4. You can record video with sound, for the rear of the camera has speakers to play back the soundtrack. The camera also has a voice recorder, as an added function, that allows you to record in WAV format.

The camera accepts SD and SDHC cards, and comes with an internal memory of just 22MB. The battery life is somewhere between 80-100 shots, which I think is mediocre. On a normal outdoor trip I end up clicking 150-200 shots, and it would be damn frustrating to have the battery die on me.

The Pentax Optio S10 costs Rs 18,990, which is quite expensive even in the ultra-compact category. It does what it should quite well, and could have been a strong contender if only it came with a more affordable price tag.

Specs

Dimensions	86 x 53 x 20 mm
Weight	116 g
Type	Ultra-compact
Connectivity	USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
Storage	SD and SDHC Card
Battery Type	Lithium-Ion rechargeable
LCD Type	2.5-inch, 232,000 pixels
View Finder	No
Sensor	CCD
Effective Pixels	10.0 million
ISO Sensitivity	Auto (64 – 800), 64 – 3200
Optical Zoom	3x
Aperture	F2.8 – F5.4
Format	JPEG (EXIF 2.2)
Scene Modes	Food, night, landscape, flower, natural skin, sports, pet and text
White Balance	5 positions, plus manual one-touch
Flash	Auto, On, Off, Red-eye reduction
Self Timer	Yes
Sound	Yes
Street Price	Rs 18,990

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