Pentax Optio S60 Digital Camera

This was the second digital camera I purchased. My first one was a Fujifilm 6800z Porsche design camera (see my review of it). I like the Fujifilm camera, however it is a slight bit bulky for simply carrying it around casually. This Pentax camera, on the other hand, is extremely portable. It can basically fit into an Altoids breath mint can! I don't want to bore you by regurgitating all the technical specs which you can find anywhere - rather I wish to tell you breifly what I think so you can make an informed purchase decision rather than spending two days reading reviews on the internet.

Yes - this is a moderate level camera. It is 3.2 megapixels...I feel this is more than adequate for casual photographic use. ONLY if someone is going to make an 8" x 11 1/2" enlargement or bigger in a photo-realistic quality would you need to dump big bucks for a 6 megapixel or higher camera. In fact, most pictures I've taken with this and my other digital camera are a low-moderate resolution (not even taking full advantage of the pixel rating). My point is: don't feel that 3 MP is horribly less than 5 MP or higher unless you do photo shoots for a magazine.

Okay...now that I have that off my back, my impressions. Size, by far, is its "biggest" advantage. If you don't have your camera with you, you can't take pictures. You will be less likely to carry a bulky camera and therefore will be less likely to have one at the ready for the "perfect shot" when you need it. The camera is well-made, with an aluminum case. The ability to use SD memory cards is awesome as these are relatively cheap (I just saw a 1 Gigabyte SD card at Sam's Club for less than a hundred bucks!!) and have fast read/write attributes. The flash is on the front face of the camera rather than some pop-up flash that can break off or must be deployed in advance of a picture perhaps letting the moment escape before it can be recorded for posterity's sake. Yes, the LCD display is small - but it is a small camera-- besides, you aren't going to have slide shows on the camera itself. You can use the optical viewfinder to save on battery juice.

Talking to others, I have come to conclude that the battery life on this camera is above average. If you plan on a long day of photos, simply buy yourself a few extra lithium batteries and stop your complaining. There is NO small camera out there with phenomenal battery life.

Bells and whistles: Simply letting the camera take control often yeilds very nice results. Autofocus is awesome. Rarely have I had a blurry photo - including close-up shots! Colors are nicely balanced. If you wish, you can adjust white balance, sharpness, Auto Exposure metering, Focus area (general, central, grid, etc.), contrast, saturation and even EV compensation. Yes, there are odd things you can do such as a thing called 3-D mode where you can take a frame split in two and then use the included 3-D glasses to view a true 3-Dimensional photo. You can take a 30 second movie in decent resolution...My only photo gripe is the slight shutter lag of about a second before a photo is recorded.

Some people have complained about the interface...I think that Pentax has done a nice job. The back of the camera has a central game-boy type button which lets you push it to the 12:00, 3:00, 6:00 and 9:00 axis positions and then you push it inward to choose "o.k.". It functions kind of like IBM's infamous keyboard mouse button located next to the "j" key. It is small, about 7 mm across. However, this one button lets you quickly adjust common needs like picture resolution, timer and photo-mode with a few quick motions - No complicated menu tree to navigate!! There are a few other buttons such as menu, display, playback, delete, zoom and focus control - but honestly, I think they are quite logical and intuitive. My only gripe is that they are small - however, with my large hands and wide fingers I can manipulate them nicely, though it does require a little concentration. Yes, it would have been nice if Pentax did not place the recessed power button next to the shutter button...it's just another thing to keep track of. It would have been nice if there was a charger cradle with the camera. You have two options to charge a battery: remove it from the camera and put it into the separate charger tray OR buy the optional 4.5 volt power adapter which plugs into the side of the camera and allows you to charge without removing the battery.

The USB 2.0 interface works perfectly with my Windows XP and allows me to quickly transfer photos. The photos this camera takes are totally adequate, even the close-up photos have little "barrel" distortion so common to other cameras. If you want any better photos, you will have to buy a large SLR size camera which you most likely will not carry with you on those little day trips or airline flights to see your family.