Pentax Optio W20 review

Verdict:

Review Date: 19 Jan 2007

Price when reviewed: inc VAT

Reviewed By: Ben Pitt

Our Rating 5 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

The Optio W20 is the latest in Pentax's series of waterproof cameras, and can survive sustained submersion at depths of up to 1.5 metres.

Sadly, it arrived for review out of sync with our beach holiday schedule. We underestimated how much fun it would be just to stick it under the bathroom tap, and the resulting video was a veritable sensory overload of colour and sound.

On a more practical level, the camera is perfectly happy in wet weather, and it's also dustproof. One downside of this resilience to the elements is that Pentax hasn't managed to incorporate a lens cover, so we'd recommend keeping a dry, lint-free cloth handy. The manual also helpfully points out that the W20 will sink in water, so using the supplied strap is a worthwhile precaution in open seas.

Otherwise, the W20 is a decent compact camera. Performance is tolerable at just under three seconds between shots. The screen's 115,000-pixel resolution is disappointing, but its 2in diameter is just the thing when you're bobbing about with a snorkel and mask. The controls and menu system are simplistic but perfectly adequate as long as you don't need regular access to custom settings. Image quality is generally excellent, with pleasing colours, reasonably low noise and considerably sharper detail than the other 7-megapixel cameras in our group test this month. The ISO control goes all the way up to 1,600 without completely trashing image quality, and the 1cm macro focus is a real treat.

The W20 is a decent though not particularly exciting camera. However, it's the only one we know of that's waterproof, and as such it presents considerable savings over buying a regular digital camera and a separate waterproof housing.

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