Pentax Optio A40 review

Pentax's flagship compact looks surprisingly plain, but its metal shell feels robust.

There's nothing modest about what's inside, with a 12 megapixel sensor and manual exposure control. Optical image stabilisation counteracts shake, but the 3x zoom is a little on the small side.

Face recognition is now obligatory on a camera like this, but the A40's isn't as effective as Sony and Canon's latest. The Optio has another new technology for improving image quality, labelled 'D-Range Comp'. Short for dynamic range compression, this aims to capture a wider range of bright and dark colours in a scene. Often, the brightest and darkest areas come out as pure white and noisy black. D-Range Comp subtly boosts darker parts to make them easier to see. This isn't the first camera with such a feature, but Pentax's system works well, keeping noise under control as it boosts shadows. The only disappointment is that it doesn't lower the exposure slightly to capture a little more highlight detail as well.

Innovative features are only useful if core image quality, controls and performance are up to scratch. Fortunately, we had few concerns here. Aside from the unremarkable 1.1fps continuous shooting speed, the A40 never kept us waiting. The streamlined menu is quick to navigate and a programmable Function button keeps key settings close to hand. Manual exposure is a little fiddly, though, and the lack of aperture priority is odd.

Image quality was generally excellent, with superb detail, balanced colours and reasonably low noise - something most 12 megapixel cameras struggle with. However, the image stabilisation could be better at eliminating blur in low light.

Ultimately, the A40 is a capable camera with few flaws and plenty of strengths. For us, the sharp detail from the 12 megapixel sensor wasn't quite enough to justify the price.