1. What's in The Box - Optio M20 / USB Cable I-USB7 / AV Cable I-AVC7(B), Strap O-ST51, Dock Insert O-DI58, (2) AA Alkaline Batteries, Software S-SW58 (CD-ROM)
2. 7 Megapixel for stills up to 3072x2304 resolution or Movie mode at up to 640x480 VGA resolution
3. Bright 2.5 LCD Screen
4. Multimode Electronic-Flash
5. High-quality extended movie captures QuickTime motion JPEG (640 x 480) at 30fps

Editorial Review :

Meet the PENTAX Optio M20 with so much more than you might expect from a digital-camera at such an afforable price. Outstanding image quality thanks to a 7.0 megapixel CCD, 3X optical SMC PENTAX lens, and an ultra-efficient power management system for up to 700 shots with lithium AA batteries, this is a perfect camera for any occasion! Offering easy capture and easy review with a 115,000 pixel 2.5 inch LCD monitor with 100% field of view, the Optio M20 lets you take high resolution still pictures as well as VGA quality movies. Add 9-point multi auto focus with Spot-focus, Infinity landscape and Auto tracking focus modes or use the Mode palette to choose from a wide selection of Capture modes. It's the top of its class! Storage Media - Approx. 22MB built-in memory, SD memory card removable; we recommend purchasing an Optional 512MB SD or MMC memory card. It will allow you to store a lot more Video and images, as well as take advantage of the camera's high Resolution abilities Lens Features - Type - PENTAX power zoom; Focal Length - 6.3mm - 18.9mm; 35mm Equivalent - 38mm - 114mm; Aperture Range - F3.1 - F5.9; Construction - 6 elements in 5 groups (1 aspherical element); Optical Zoom - 3X; Digital Zoom - 4X; Combined - Approx. 12X USB capability for image transfer with Windows PC or Macintosh computers IMAGELINK print system enabled, providing greater compatibility with snapshot printers / PictBridge compatible Power Source - Two AA Batteries ( Alkaline or rechargeable NiMH ), AC adapter kit (optional) (allows up to 640 shots with optional rechargeable 2500mAh NiMH, up to 220 shots with Alkaline) Unit Dimensions (W x H x D) - 3.5 x 2.3 x 1.0 inches (89 x 60 x 25mm); Weight - 4.2 oz. (120g) without battery and SD memory card, 5.8 oz. (165g) loaded and ready Pentax 1 Year Warranty

Customer Review :

Amazing camera for the price

In September, based on last year's Consumer Report recommendations, I purchased both this camera and the Canon S3 for a vacation in Japan. This Pentax was to be my back up. I always carry a second camera. Too many horror stories of ruined vacations. I used this camera for 260 photos and 3 videos. The Canon for 30 photos. Incredibly, other than the excellent S3 zoom feature, no quality difference between the Optio and Canon S3. I did use primarily the auto focus in both. Excellent videos, longer than the S3. Took good low light photos in the Tsujki fish market in early dawn hours, and good outside night photos of lighted buildings in Ginza. Some red eye effect. Awesome pet photos. You can see every strand of hair on my chow chow. This camera is very easy to use, and takes SDHC cards. It replaces a camcorder, with excellent sound quality, and is an excellent photo camera. Original pair of AA batteries died quickly. Lithium replacements are outstanding. No viewfinder makes it more difficult in sunshine. On my return, I ordered two more as Christmas gifts for my adult children. A great gift at a silly list price. Go figure. Final note. I purchased a holster pack fitted at my local camera store, to carry my camera on my belt. Small enough to fit perfectly. Stayed on my belt during the long flight to/from Tokyo. Hugged the seat belt. Barely knew it was there.

Rating :

Great Camera

I love this camera. The pictures turn out clear and sharp. The camera is easy to use. The software has great options for creativity with your pictures.

Rating :

Great color, easy to use

I have had this camera for over a year and have take about 1000
photos with it. Almost all in Auto mode. Pictures have great color
saturation. Focus is good - not significant blurriness except
on horizon in some distant lanscape shots recently. Perhaps I need to take a close look and clean my lens which I know has caused me bluriness problems in other cameras. Good size and relatively rugged.
I would definitely buy again.

Rating :

Pentax Optio M20 7MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

Excellent camera. I am giving it 4 stars only because the alkaline batteries are depleted too quickly. I am now using lithium AA's. They're supposed to last 7 times longer, it they are to be believed.

Rating :

MEDIOCRE AT BEST

Very average camera overall. Good to very good outdoor pictures in daylight. Fair outdoor night time pictures. Fair to average indoor pictures with flash- not sharp and crisp like outdoor daytime pics. Decent battery life. Nice compact size, although a little heavy. Average video with sound. Lots of extra features, although I question how many are really needed or useful. I think there are better 7MP cameras out there, for roughly the same price...Just not impressed overall.

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1. 5-megapixel sensor captures enough detail for photo-quality 13 x 17-inch prints
2. 3x optical zoom, 2.6x digital zoom
3. 1.8-inch LCD monitor
4. Store images on 11 MB internal memory or SD card slot
5. Powered by CR-V3 or 2 AA batteries, about 420 shots on single charge

Editorial Review :

A successor to the popular Optio S40, the PENTAX Optio S50 offers an easy-to-use help function menu to help guide digital newcomers through the camera's array of digital features.With the superior imaging capability of 5.0 effective megapixels and a generous 1.8-inch LCD monitor, the Optio S50 is equipped with a handy mode dial that allows users to select one of nine modes with a simple turn. Two AA batteries power the Optio S50 making it a perfect travel choice. Other easy-to-use features include 13 shooting modes to match any scene at hand and a menu display enlargement function. The Optio S50 also is PictBridge compatible to allow direct printing to compatible printers.While positioned as a perfect choice for new digital users, the Optio S50 offers uncompromized image quality. The camera incorporates an smc PENTAX lens that delivers crystal clear images, a high-resolution CCD with 5.36 total megapixels, and a 12-bit A/D converter that achieves smooth reproduction for gradations.

Customer Review :

New digital camera

I love the camera, it came with all the needed software and wiring to download pictures, but the battery life is pretty short, so keep plenty of batteries on hand.

Rating :

Perfect quality

- I'm really impressed of this camera, i bougt a new and the same one again, because my old one was broken from salty water... ;-(

- The only thing i think its the speed of the reload of the flash which shold be a little bit faster.

Rating :

It has some drawbacks!

It's an ok camera if you don't compare it with pther camera's but when you do you realize you could get as good for cheaper and better for the same price
Here's why I don't like this camera:
The pictures can look a little pixelated at times I'd prefer if it was a bit smoother

It uses alkline batteries which can get expensive since the battery life it not great.

It takes too long to warm up to take the shot

The indoor setting gives you alot of light streaks and its really useless and that's no exageration, I almost never use it

My roomate has a 5megapixel canon for less $20 more I always take the photos from her camera to put on facebook instead of from mines cause it would be the same shot but hers just looked better, smoother, cleaner.

Rating :

There's Far Better Out There

When I first purchased this camera I was excited- it was my first digital camera. But after about a month or so it broke, and customer service was not at all helpful in having it repaired, and wound up costing an additional $100, so the low price no longer seemed so wonderful. Once it was returned (months later!) it worked very well for a while. My biggest complaint was the noise! It makes noise every time it turns on or off, which makes getting candid shots impossible! Adding to the problem with candid shots is the fact that it is INCREDIBLY slow! And asking people to hold a pose again and again because your camera is so darn slow doesnt make you the most popular photographer. It also doesnt take pictures of people moving, which I have recently learned is very uncommon. Most decent cameras come with a sport mode, which this lacks. It also apparently comes with all these features, but after having it over a year I'm still trying to figure out how to work them!

what is great though, is the large memory size, and the amazing color features. You can choose to go in black and white, but highlight one color (blue, pink, and green), which is great, and takes some really cool shots (captures pink cheeks of a new baby!).

Rating :

Good Basic Camera

This a very good basic Camera for Adult beginners. Eats battery's but most
camera of this type do. Excellent basic camera. Amazon supplier as usual gave excellent service.

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1. 4.0-megapixel sensor creates photo-quality 2304 by 1728 pixel images
2. 10x optical, 10x digital zoom
3. 1.8-inch LCD screen, MPEG4 movie mode
4. Store images on SD memory card (not included)
5. Powered by CR-V3 lithium battery, estimated for 180 shots

Editorial Review :

Optio MX4 Digital Camera - Your child's first step. Graduation day. A family reunion. The OptioMX4 lets you capture life's moments in still images or full-motion videos in a single digital camera. With the touch of a button, change from still pictures to high resolution movies and back again. Get close to the action with a powerful 10X optical zoom lens. Capture every detail with 3.2 megapixel resolution. And never miss a moment with its unique, rotating trigger handle. Its compact design fits in the palm of your hand and travels anywhere you do. Perfect for active families on the go. Lens - 10x smc PENTAX power zoom Focal Length - 5.8mm- 58mm 35mm Equivalent - 38mm-380mm Aperture Range - f 2.9- f 3.5 4 Megapixel effective from a 4.23 megapixel CCD Storage Media -SD memory card (removable) File Formats - Still - JPEG (Exif 2.2), DCF (Design rule for Camera File system), DPOF (Digital Print Order Format), Print Image Matching II Movie - MOV (MPEG-4) 30/15fps with sound (PCM, monaural)Sound - WAV (ADPCM), Monaural, Recordable time depends on the remaining capacity of the memory card Unit Dimensions (W x H x D) - 2.9 x 2.3 x 4.1 Inches / Weighs about 11 ounces

Customer Review :

it's a versatile digital camera

I bought this camera a month ago and it really serve its purpose. with a camera like this, what more can u ask for? it has a 10x optical zoom and a 10x digital zoom which u can adjust and a digital camera & video camra in one! this is my first digital camera and i think i really made a good deal buying this.

Rating :

Cam Corder & Digital Cam, what else do you need?

I bought this recently because of the good reviews on here so far and I must say I'm not disappointed. It looked quite big when I viewed the picture but trust me this baby is so tiny and looks really cute. It's very easy to use and much better if you buy a lets say 1GB SD card since you can record longer, obviously and take more pics but like the previous reviewer said, you can by a multimedia storage and store them in it if you're on holiday.

The quality of the images are very good and the video cam isn't too bad either. You can play around with the quality and obviously the lesser quality the more you can store in the SD.

Only thing I have to say is that if you are looking for a cam corder more than a digital than this isn't your best option and vice versa for Digital cam as there are so many now and some better in quality but this baby is great and has both in one package so it's like best of both worlds.

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2 Year Update.

I realize that probably no one is going to read this review due to the fact that the Optio MX is now considered to be out-dated. With the new absurd mega pixel monsters on the market, which by the way is just a marketing ploy and really has nothing to do with quality, I'm sure that not many of you are interested in this updated review. But here it goes...

The Optio MX was a camera that was ahead of it's time! We've had this camera for over 2 years now. Wanting a more compact camera with the current modern features such as image stableization and longer battery life, we bought a few other camera's since, Sony, Fuji, Canon, but we always went back to the Optio MX. The picture quality of the Optio MX is superior to all the other camera's that we purchased. The video with the Optio MX is also superior. One of the big problems with video is the low-light performance, but the Optio MX excells in this area, and makes video's that are excellent even in low-light. The unbelievable amount of features and manual controls make this camera a diamond in the rough.

It's too bad that Pentax abandoned this great camera. A few refinements would have made this camera perfect. The Optio MX is a few years old now - and that means it's almost an antique in the world of technology, but if you can find one of these beauties BUY IT! There is STILL nothing better out there than the Optio MX.

Rating :

I love this camera!

I've had my Pentax Optio MX4 for two years and I can't think of a single thing that I'd change. I've used other digital cameras - HP and Sony - and this is by far the best point and shoot I've ever used. I take hundreds of shots every month and the picture quality is exception.

Rating :

Great camera; average video

Have been using MX4 for 3 months now. I have a couple other digital cameras (Kodak and Canon) . The MX4 has the most features. Several thing I especially like: 10x optical zoom, 0mm close-up, manual aperture/shutter support, movable LCD screen.

Cons: MPEG4 video is not smooth and the autofocus is slow. The video format is Quicktime. I wish it uses Divx format, so I can play the videos on Divx DVD players (e.g. Philips 642). In program mode, the photo is a little dark. With the flash, the photos are too bright and some times over-exposed.

Overall, I am happy with my purchase. It's the best digital camera you can get for under $300.

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More reviews...

1. 3.2 MegaPixel CCD
2. JIS-Class 7 water-resistant digital camera
3. Movie mode records 30 seconds of footage with sound as an AVI file 15 fps
4. Convenient USB connection to your computer
5. TTL contrast detection autofocus system with 5-point wide-focus, spot focus and infinity landscape mode

Editorial Review :

Pentax Optio 33WR 3.2 Megapixel All-Weather Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

Customer Review :

A wherever camera

This camera and its companion the 43WR have three features I want in a camera that I can take with me wherever I go. It has an optical viewfinder, uses AA size batteries and is weatherproof. It doesn't matter if it's raining or you're riding down or hiking up a whitewater river, you can still take pictures. Also, it easily fits in a shirt pocket. It is my "I always take it with me camera."

Rating :

nonstarter

The camera came with no memory chip. The online store had no more of this camera or chips so the only thing they could suggest was to return it for a refund. Not a great experience.

Rating :

Great Camera to Drop in Your Pocket

I got this camera to replace an Olympus C4000 that was too slow focusing and bulky for my needs (shooting my toddler). I have had it for about 9 months now and still think its great. One reason I bought it was the price (under $200) and the reviews I saw on the web (like dpreview.com). It is small enough to go in your pocket. It can be used in the rain without fear of damage. The fireworks shots I took , a couple can be seen in the user images for this camera, where unexpectedly good and done HANDHELD without a tripod using the fireworks program! There are a couple of cons, but minor and are to be expected for a camera of this type, ie. weak indoor flash (fix with software), sometimes takes long in low light to focus, no lens protection. But in all, would buy and recommend again. Make sure you invest in NiMH batteries and a charger and you will be all set! Happy shooting!

Rating :

A great camera

Small, good picture quality, rugged...I've taken this camera camping, canoing, hiking, biking, etc. It's covered with scratches, it's been in the rain, and yet it still takes great pictures. It fits in a pocket or backpack without any problem. I'd highly recommend this camera.

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BEST MEMORY SAVER MONEY EVER SPENT !!!

This little camera is the cats meow. Not only does it take wonderfull pics with adjustments that rate right up there with the "big dollar" camers. It is the most rugged little thing i've ever owned. Last summer, '06, i crashed on my motorcycle. I had my Pentax Optio 33WR in my shirt pocket and when i went down my camera flew out of my pocket and went tumblin down the road. It traveled about 75feet down the pavement then tumbled off into the weeds.Was it fased or damaged?..NOPE, in fact, i picked it right up and took pics of the crash.It gits a solid 10 in my book.

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More reviews...

1. 7.1-megapixel CCD captures enough detail for photo-quality 15 x 20-inch prints
2. 2.4-inch LCD display; 3x optical zoom
3. Automatic adjustment of LCD brightness in sunlight
4. VGA-quality movies at 640 x 480 resolution with sound
5. Stores images on SD memory cards (includes 11MB internal memory); powered by 2 AA-size batteries (2 alkaline batteries included)

Editorial Review :

Pentax Optio E30 offers one of the highest resolution CCD's in its class with 7.1 megapixels offers high quality images. The 3x optical zoom lens covers a wide range of shooting conditions, from wide angle landscape shots to sharp portraits. With its large, 2.4" LCD monitor, the E30 offers easy composition and framing of shots, and offers a bright image during playback for review. Using easy-to-find AA batteries, you can be assured of finding power virtually anywhere in the world. We recommend considering rechargeable batteries for more enduring performance and economy. The Optio E30 offers lots of features while sticking to simple operation. If you're just starting out, please set the E30 to the Green Mode for simple operation with the minimum amount of adjustments. The Mode Pallet lets you select from a wide range of shooting options to perfectly optimize the camera to a wide range of shooting conditions. ImageLink compatibility means the E30 can be docked with compatible printers and pictures can be printed without using a PC. Scene Modes program, night scene, movie, voice recording, landscape, flower, portrait, surf & snow, sport, pet, food, frame composite, self-portrait, fireworks, sunset / Movie modes - AVI (MotionJPEG) with audio; 640x480 and 320x240; Max. frame-rate - 28 frames per second Slot accepts SD or MMC memory card for image storage / 11MB memory is built-in Electronic-Flash mode Unit Dimensions 3.7 x 2.4 x 1.4 (94.0 x 61.0 x 36.0mm); 6.4 ounce

Customer Review :

it's not bad

for this price- camera is ok.it's nice, menu is easy to navigate.it doesn't have viewfinder and this is real disadvantage.macro mode really sucks....and the zoom is little noisy...but unless you've got focus, the picture will be good.true point-and-shoot camera.if you want more-have to pay more:))

Rating :

Eats batteries

I bought a Pentax Optio E30 a few months ago. After taking a few pictures (10-15) I had to replace the batteries. The new batteries lasted only 2-3 days and I only used the camera for less than an hour. I bought a charger and some rechargeable Ni-Mh batteries. They don't fare any better than the alkaline. I very seldom use this camera and the batteries go dead just sitting in the camera for 2 to 4 weeks. I would not recommend this camera to anyone I liked.

Rating :

Amazing Camera!! Highly recommended

This camera is the best digital camera I have ever used. The menus are intuitive and the ease of operation is unmatched. The photo quality is impeccable and the videos are amazing. The sound quality is great and there is no chop in the framing. I have used this camera for high speed sporting events and it looks like every shot was a photo that was posed.

Rating :

Its great for the price

The camera itself is great for the price. The only thing I miss is the view finder. Tried to take pictures in Badlands Nat.Park The sun was in my face so the LCD screen was very hard to see. The pictures from the camera are great. Overall its a good deal.

Rating :

Good for the money - BUT BROKEN NOW

I bought this camera for a trip I will be taking based on the reviews & the price. The pictures I have taken so far are good, except at beach. Without a viewfinder the screen is a mirror in the bright sun. Also, the description of the camera said that the batteries would last for 200 pictures. Not true at all. I only got 24 pictures out of the batteries, perhaps because it was so difficult to see in the sun and it took so long to take pictures. Guess I will take a bag of batteries on my upcoming trip to Italy!

Post Script to above review: used the camera on my trip to Italy and it was excellent!!! Took almost 200 pictures & only had to change batteries once. The battery seems to recharge itself..battery indicator sometimes reads yellow then next time you use camera it's green -- so you get lots of pictures. Pictures came out great..still miss viewfinder, but this is a great camera for the money.

Post-post-script: On May 18, 2008, less than one year after purchase of this camera, the lcd monitor inexplicably broke - did not drop it, no undue handling - camera was in my jacket pocket. Pentax claims the damage was my fault & it's not covered under warranty. $97 to fix a $99 camera!!! Absurd!! Was great camera until it broke. Went to Italy & back with no problems & took great pictures. Never thought I had to handle camera like it was a raw egg, if you get my drift - so still don't know how monitor broke. DO NOT BUY THIS CAMERA!!

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