Customer Reviews

Pentax Optio W10 6MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I obssessively researched several waterproof cameras for my trip to hawaii. It came down to the Olympus 720Sw, Olypmus 600, the Pentax Wpi and the Pentax W10. Been a big fan of Olympus since i had previously owned two olympus cameras. Although packed with great features, the $379.99 plus price tag of the olympus turned me off.

So it came down to the two pentax cameras. If your like me, upon looking at the WPi and the W10, you will think there the same camera with slightly different cases. However let me point out several diffences between the two cameras.

1) The Optio W10 is the newest H20 Camera released from Pentax. I believe release in Feb, vs. the WPi released last year.

2) The WPi has 2.0" LCD screen, while the W10 has a huge 2.5" LCD screen. I swear it looks bigger that 2.5"'s

3) Both Cameras have movie mode. However, the new W10 can record at 640x480 at 30fps!! Thats awesome for those cheesy videos we all take on vacation. The max on the WPi is 320x240@30fps.

4) The W10 has a digital stabilizer in movie mode (anti-shake) which helps you stabilize while you take movies. The WPi does not. This is an awesome feature.

5) The W10 has several more user options than the WPi does, but nothing to substantial.

6) I have put a 2Gig High Speed SD card in the W10 and it supports it fine. Im not verified if the WPi can read the 2gig SD cards.

7) They both are 6.0MP cameras and both waterproof and built very rugged. Also both are very light, slim and easily portable digital cameras.

These is nothing better than not having to worry about your camera getting dirty, wet or any other adverse conditions. I will be posting some of my videos of my underwater journeys in hawaii as well as pictures. All and all, this is the best camera I have owned!

I had considered the WPi and I'm glad I waited. This one has a bigger LCD that I found works pretty well, even in the direct sunlight. No LCD will be perfect in the glaring sun. It has as many preset modes as you would ever need, even some rather absurd ones (putting frilly borders around your shot, I wish I could delete those) No viewfinder but I don't miss one on a point n shoot. Start up and focusing is reasonably fast. The movie modes are great and have excellent video quality, but the sound is a bit spotty but very usable. Wind noise can be a bit of a problem, and keep your finger away from the mic. Zooming in movie mode introduces some digital noise, so it's best to go without zoom when making movies. You can get 15 minutes high quality mode video with sound on a 1 GB card. I used a standard (not "high speed") Kingston SD card with excellent results, no drop outs, stutters, etc. Don't waste your money on the high end SD cards with this camera.

The negatives...

I wish the case was a bit better "armored". The materials used for the case are fine quality, but I'd prefer something a bit more rugged (ie rubberized case) because I intend to use this for kayaking and active outdoor sports. I'd hate to see what would happen to the case if it were dropped or bumped around. The smooth case is slick when wet.

The battery door is OK, but I could see where it could be easily popped open as the latching mechanism is a bit to easy to inadvertently unlock by casual use. Make sure you check it before you take it to water/rain.

All in all a nice camera at a nice price for those need a waterproof point n shoot digital.

I do a lot of kayaking and having a camera that is not only waterproof but small is important. I was drawn to the Optio W10 because of it's waterproof body, it's size, and it's ability to take TV quality video.

After I bought the Optio W10 I kept finding new things that made me happy I decided on it. Like being able to set the video compression in both the 640p and 320p video settings. To fit the TV quality video on a SD card really needed that option. However, I was disappointed in the audio quality. It was kind of muffled, probably due to the waterproofing. But the quality of the video was excellent!

Also as I was playing around with the functions I stumbled on a setting that has not been talked about. This camera has an interval shot option. Which means it can be set-up to shoot 0 to 24 hours from the time you hit the shutter and take a picture every 10 seconds to every 90 minutes for a maximum number of about 450 shots. In other words, you can set up the camera to shoot for almost an entire month capturing an image every 90 minutes. The camera shuts off in between shots to conserve the battery. This is a great feature that I have never seen in a consumer camera. True it is not for everyone, but for those who like to be creative and shoot time lapse photography, it is a great feature!

The handling of the camera was a little difficult. It could use a little more grip in the front. The other thing that bothered me was the LCD screen cover. It was a bit difficult to view the screen in the sunlight. I think that the matte finish on the screen makes the light more diffused and causes the screen to look hazy. It is nice to have a 2.5 inch screen though!

The Optio W10 camera will stand out for one feature: the fact that it is waterproof. But that might take away from the point that this is a very good camera without that feature.

This is a refined, 3rd generation of the "W" series. Handling, features, menus, etc. are all handled very well. One very nice feature is that Pentax continues to use the same battery over and over, make it very easy to find.

Without the waterproofing, it would be a solid, 3 star camera. Good photos, but average 3x zoom, average 2.5" LCD, average 6 megapixels, and a tad larger, plastic body. However, the latter is a part of the waterproofing.

The waterproofing gets a well deserved extra star. Not going in the water? Well, you might get caught in the snow or rain; and it's a feature you might use if you had it. The internal sliding zoom feature with built-in filter protects the lens from bumps and drops.

Another terrific optional accessory is the "skin", a rubberized material that stretches over the body, giving it more protection and giving you a better grip. It doesn't get in the way of operating the camera at all.

After returning from my whitewater rafting trip in Costa Rica, I was disappointed with the photos I took from the disposable waterproof cameras they sell at the shop. I paid $20 for 27 exposures and then more money for developing and you hope you get the shots and then have to pay more for extra prints or blowups. So I wanted a waterproof camera, did my research, Olympus and Pentax came up, Olympus was rated for deeper depths, but Pentax had a sweeter price (over $100) that is the main reason I bought the camera.

Well I must say the Pentax Optio W10 is fantastic, it really is waterproof, though I have not submerged it for long periods or very deep, since it is only rated for 5 feet, and I probably won't take the chance too often, if you lock the battery seal improperly you can damage the camera. Still getting it wet, dropping it in water and just getting soaked was no problem. The 6MP pictures are beautiful outdoors, and the indoors with flash are very nice. If your subject gets too far from the flash, quality does drop noticeably. The camera also shoots 30fps VGA with sound and looks really nice too, though camera shake is very noticeable and zoom looks choppy, listening to the internal speakers are a joke though, still having an underwater video camera is pretty cool. The camera only has 3X zoom, but comes with a wealth of shooting modes, internal frames and internal memory.

I have a nice 2GB SD card which lets me shoot over 600+ photos on the highest quality. Compact, easy to use, waterproof, and a nice 2.5 LCD screen for viewing, the screen is hard to see in bright daylight but still useable since if you lock the button into focus mode the screen brightens. I gave the camera to a 7 year old girl at a picnic and she shot photos all day, dropped it, got it wet, and it worked perfectly with no scratches or faults.

The best part is that the camera is about the same cost for a similar camera that isn't waterproof. I bought mine from Willoughby's for $230 and got free shipping too.
A great camera for anyone who wants to take it to the beach, rafting, pool, or in the rain. I plan to shoot some underwater footage soon and will report back. Shoot Fast Brothers!

Yours truly,
John Dae Min

The W10 (and W20, 7MP) is/are waterproof as indicated by Pentax.

What is not indicated is that to retain the waterproofing, you need to return the camera to a Pentax service center every year to have the seals replaced, at a current price of about US$50.

I was so excited to recieve this camera after obsessively researching it for two weeks. I looked up every review online, went to the stores and tried out the camera and its main competitor the Olympus Stylus 720sw. From what I gathered, the Olympus is overpriced and not as high quality as the Optio. Ive had the camera for two weeks now and it did take some fantastic pictures, great fun in the water and for scenic and portrait shots. Unfortunately today after taking it in the water for only 10 minutes to take some surf shots, it promptly filled up with water and broke. The screen had water trapped behind it and it refused to turn back on. It wasnt even submerged under the water, just floating on top and was in the lock position the whole time. After drying it and opening it up, I see that the water seal has failed and the battery and memory card are soaked. Hopefully I just got unlucky and recieved the bad one in a huge batch. I am very dissapointed as I am heading off on vacation now without a camera. One call was the seller and they were helpful, but cant get me a new camera for a week. I had only the 30 day warrantee that comes with the camera, and luckily I am still covered. But as waterproofing seems to be a relatively new technology I would suggest buying the extended warranty. Who knows if this will happen again. I liked the camera so Im willing to give it one more shot. Ill let you know what happens.

I purchased this camera primarily to take W.W. kayaking. It easily fits in the pocket of my life jacket. The shutter lag common to digital cameras is pretty fast. The LCD screen can be difficult to see in bright sunlight. Picture quality is good but not great.You can't expect too much out of that tiny little lens. With a 1 gig memory disk it will hold hundreds of pics on the highest quality setting.

I sold my Sony 2mp waterproof camera and put the money towards this one. Why? Well, the Sony was waterproof deeper and longer (the Optio10 manual states that it is only waterproof for 30 minutes at a time - the Sony had no such caveat) but the Sony had very limited functionality, few bells & whistles, small display and was only 2mp. The Optio 10, while waterproof to 5 feet, offers a ton of features. High quality video (with sound!), lots of photo resolution options (a 1 gig card holds over 325 images at the highest quality, almost Ten thousand at the lowest quality, or 15 minutes of video with sound at 30fps!), and a lot of options. You can use the "green button" for fool-proof shooting (this button is also programmable to a total of 5 functions), add your own shutter, power on and function sounds via the external mic. And set almost anything manually for more advanced use. You can set the sensitivity (ISO/ASA) as low as 64- this means noise free, fantastic quality images (but if you forced 64 asa, you'd need a tripod at lower light levels.) The camera automatically sets the sensitivity between 64 and 800, but you can override this.

When you see low-light shots that look grainy (even with high-end DSLRs) it's because of low-light shooting at a high ISO/ASA - this allows better exposure results, but lower quality. Lowering the ASA manually corrects this.

This camera really has it all. Sure there are some trade-offs. The zoom is only 3x, and it is a little larger than the more compact models. There are no external jacks or ports for video, USB, etc. There is one mini USB port under the cover that uses different cables (included) for image transfer or TV out, plus a charge/power port (the battery can also be removed for charging.)

Other features worth mentioning: Time lapse shooting (10 seconds to 99 mins, 59 seconds), basic in-camera video and image editing, anti-shake, voice memo, red-eye flash, built-in memory (enough for several HQ images), clock display (handy if you don't have a watch).

A little more on the time-lapse / interval shoot: You can set a start time plus the number of images shot at that time. For example, at 1:22pm, take 5 photos. Or starting at 4:01 pm, take one image every 10 seconds until the card is full. Lots of options and combinations.

Plus if you drop it in the sand or water, it's not going to suffer! Most cameras, digital or otherwise, would be a paperweight after dropping it in the pool or ocean. A sandy plunge usually leads to parts jamming, buttons sticking, etc. It's not like you can just wash it off. With the Optio10 - you can!

I purchased the Pentax Optio W10 this past July because of its waterproof capabilities. I was happy with the camera's performance until, less than a month after purchase, the flash function stopped working. It was over a month until I finally received my camera back from Pentax. The camera was never the same once I got it back. After having the flash repaired, my images always seemed washed out or overexposed. I was hesitant to send the camera in again because I didn't want to be without it for so long. I was forced to send it back when a crack appeared on the LCD screen. The camera had a screen protector on it and was sitting untouched in a protective case when the crack appeared. I can only assume the crack was a result of built-up pressure from the previous repair. I have now been without my camera for 2/3 of the time I have owned it.

After another four weeks of waiting, I called about the status of my camera. I was disappointed to learn that the repair would cost me 80% of what I had originally paid for the camera. When I tried talking to the customer service representative about my other options, she responded with utter rudeness. She made no attempt to make me feel that your company supports customer needs. Her supervisor was no better. He treated me not as though I was a customer, but rather like I was a nuisance to him. He was completely disrespectful and condescending. I was absolutely disgusted.

I originally bought a Pentax because of its waterproof capabilities. I decided to look past the warnings I recieved from a number of camera experts about Pentax's awful customer service. I was willing to overlook the poor service for a waterproof camera. I was hugely mistaken. I don't care if Pentax offers a waterproof camera that can swim on its own. Good customer service is more important than product features, and I will be purchasing my next camera from a brand with more reputable customer service.