18 August 2008

Pentax Optio E40 Mini Review

The Pentax agent here recently had a sales promotion for their compact point-and-shoot cameras with a local electronics megastore Best Denki to tie in with Singapore's National Day celebrations.


An impulse buy at S$169...

Well yesterday was the last day for the promo and as I wandered by the Best Denki outlet in Plaza Singapura, a sales promoter asked me to look at the Pentax cameras on display. Not really wanting to buy anything, my resolve gave way when he offered to throw in a further S$30 discount from the promo price. Not wanting to spend too much, I settled upon the base model, the Pentax Optio E40.


94mm x 60mm x 24mm, 175g with batteries & SD card

This was the first time I've owned a Pentax PnS, not counting the Pentax Espio 115G compact film camera from years back. The camera is pretty compact and because I've got loads of rechargeable AA batteries from my previous K100D/K100D Super cameras, the choice to go with a camera using AA batteries was pretty easy.


2 AA sized batteries and a SD card is all you need

At first glace, this made in China camera has the usual features one can come to expect of a modern digital compact camera. 8.1 megapixels resolution, 3X optical zoom, Face-Recognition AF & AE, the usual different picture modes all wrapped in a silver plastic shell. The camera is dead easy enough to operate and I didn't have to read the camera manual to get started. Obviously with so many controls and features embedded within the menu, it makes sense to give the camera manual a thorough read.


Flash on

Load in 2 AA batteries and an SD card and the 175g camera is ready to shoot. Start-up is a leisurely 3 seconds or so, not a big deal in my book. The camera has a 6.2mm-18.6mm f/2.8~5.2 zoom lens (equivalent to 37.5-112.5mm in 35mm format), not including the 4X digital zoom capability. The lens shoots from 0.4m to infinity and 0.15m to 0.5m in macro mode. Shutter speed range is 1/2000 sec to about 4 seconds. Flash coverage is decent, though like all PnS cameras nowadays, care needs to be taken to control red-eye.


Available light

Image quality is good with quality typical of all compact PnS cameras, in other words, expect some noisy images at high ISO. The 2.4 inch TFT colour LCD is the only means to focus and view, the norm for PnS cameras today. Video and sound recording is also on hand should you need it.


Auto everything!

From the initial images that I've shot, I have little to complain about, perhaps because my expectations with such compact cameras are pretty low to begin with. Will use this camera a little more and post more images and observations later. So far I'm quite pleased with the performance and while there are many other cameras which offer more features and possibly better quality, but for much more money. Overall this camera is good value for money.


Macro mode! A close-up of my old Pentax Espio 115G film camera

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