Digital Camera Reviews

The Pentax Optio S10 is 10 mega pixel camera with ultra compact body. The camera features 2.5 inch LCD and 3x optical zoom.

The Camera has Digital Shake reduction. The Camera can shoot up to ISO 3200.

The VGA quality movie can be recorded in MPEG-4 DIVx  format.  The inbuilt memory is 22 MB.

The Street Price of Camera will be $249.95 USD and will be sold by Wal-Mart in September 2007.

 Pentax Optio S10 News Release
PENTAX Corporation is pleased to announce the new PENTAX Optio S10, the newest model in the “Optio S” series of highly acclaimed compact digital cameras, with a stylish and ultra-compact body and realizing 10.0 effective mega pixels and high resolution images. In addition to enabling easy mobility and photography of high resolution images, the Optio S10 comes with enhanced usability by upgrading Shake Reduction and Face Recognition functions.

Main Features

1. Ultra Compact body with a stylish design

The Optio S10’s compact design makes carrying more comfortable and convenient not only in travel and leisure but also in the daily snapshots and business scenes. The aluminum alloy adopted as outer cover gives a sophisticated texture to the camera, and the front face with glossy spindle finish creates an elegant appearance. Despite a 3X optical zoom lens and a large 2.5 inch LCD monitor, the Optio S10 realizes one of the smallest and the lightest ultra compact camera body with 10.0 megapixels, by miniaturizing circuit board and applying high-density compact mounting technology.

2. 10.0 effective megapixcels with high resolution

With an upgraded 10.0 effective megapixels, the Optio S10 ensures much higher resolution and delivers clear and crisp photo even when images are enlarged to A3 ( 11.7 x 16.5 inch ) size. A large 1/1.8 inch CCD with large sensing area is newly used for the image sensor, so it provides excellent performance for tone reproduction, texture delineation and noise reduction.

3. Digital SR ( Shake Reduction )

Digital SR ( Shake Reduction ) *1 mode reduces camera shakes and blurring of the subject when photographing still images. The sensitivity is adjusted automatically, to as high as the ultrahigh sensitivity of ISO 3200, to match the brightness of the subjects. This enables photography with fast shutter speeds, and images with less blurs can be obtained.

*1 Recording image is fixed at 5M ( 2592 x 1944 pixels ) when “Digital SR” mode is selected

4. “Face Recognition AF & AE” function that photographs portrait more beautifully with simple operation

The Optio S10 is equipped with a “Face Recognition AF & AE” function *2 that automatically detects and focuses on faces. In addition, the Optio S10 also comes with new functions that apply face recognition technology, such as “Natural Skin Tone” mode, which smoothly presents skin texture based on the detected information, and “Half-length Portrait” mode *3 , which automatically takes close-up photograph of the upper body by trimming the people recognized in photo frame.

*2 Available when the picture mode is “Portrait”, “Natural Skin Tone”, “Kids”, or “Half-length Portrait” and the camera is directed at people from the front
*3 Recording size is fixed at 3M ( 2048 x 1536 pixels ) when “Half-length Portrait” mode is selected
This Camera’s Face Recognition AF & AE function use the Face Tracker face-recognition technology from FotoNation.

5. Auto Picture mode automatically determines the best settings for the shooting conditions

The Auto Picture mode lets the camera automatically determines the shooting conditions for Landscape, Portrait, Night Scene, and Normal mode and choose the optimum settings for each subject. This function makes photography a lot easier for users since it eliminate the necessity of making a number of individual settings.

6. Bright and easy-to view LCD monitor

This LCD monitor is a high intensity type equipped with an LCD booster that adjusts the brightness of screen, which users can easily check the screen even at the outdoors. With 2.5-inch and high resolution of 232,000 pixels, it is easy to confirm picture compositions and the focus. Due to its wide viewing angle, the screen can also be easily viewed, since there is little change in brightness and colors even when looking at the monitor diagonally.

7. Video recording function enabling high-quality recording for long period of time

The Optio S10 smoothly captures movies at 30 fps ( frames per second ) at sizes up to 640×480 pixels with image quality rivaling camcorders. Since it employs the DivX® ( MPEG-4 ) movie format *4 , the Optio S10 can record long, high-quality movies. In addition, Movie SR ( Shake reduction ) effectively corrects blurring in images through software, so it enables users to easily enjoy movie recording.

*4 The Optio S10 is DivX® certified. Movie playback is not supported on Macintosh operating systems

8. Other features

* A “Green button” that enables you to assign functions that are frequently used, and recall them in just one touch
* An “Intelligent zoom” function which enables images to be magnified even larger and stored, while maintaining the image quality of optical zoom
* Mode palette provide quick access to 18 shooting modes and 15 playback modes
* Data imprint function for easier image categorizing
* Approximately 22.0 MB of built-in-memory
* Compatible with SD memory cards and SDHC memory cards
* FotoNation’s red-eye compensation function for flash shots
* Includes the ACDsee for PENTAX image viewer/image management software
* Support PictBridge, DPOF functions, Eixf Print, and PRINT Image Matching III