March 8, 2006

Pentax Optio WPi

I've been putting off writing this review for some time. The camera came highly recommended, but I had noticed focus issues with both the WP and WPi models. But Marek was taking some AWESOME photos with his camera, so I convinced myself the others were flukes.

I should caveat everything I'm about to say by telling you I'm not a photographer. I couldn't tell you the difference between an f stop and a bus stop if my life depended on it. I've also followed the philosophy that if I take a hundred pictures with a digital camera, a few may actually be worth saving. Extra batteries and large memory cards are my first purchases.

My prior digital camera experience was with a Sony Cyber-ShotU, an awesome little water resistant camera that took great pictures. Point, shoot, and tuck back into my PFD. The camera had 2 downsides - It had only a 2 megapixel resolution, and no zoom.

My first pictures with the Optio WPi were very disappointing. Items 3 feet from each other in the same photo would be in and out of focus. Although the view finder would show which item it was selecting to focus on, I wanted _everything_ to be in focus!

Through trial and error I discovered PAN focus, which attempts to get everything focused, but I was having big problems with camera jitter. Marek's idea of using the paddle to steady the camera helped a lot, but I greatly missed the mindless shooting I could do with the Sony.

The second revelation came when I experimented with the sensitivity setting. Using ISO 400 (vice letting the camera decide via AUTO) I found a near match for my Sony's ability to point and shoot. On very overcast days I think the Sony still does a better job, but most of the time the Optio rocks considering I'm snapping pictures from the cockpit of my kayak. Point, shoot, and put it back in the PFD pocket. I still need to take hundreds of photos to get composition good enough to put a few on the web site, but at least now I have many more in focus to choose from.

Be sure to review Marek's suggestions - they are all excellent nuggets of advice - even if you don't use an Optio...