Pentax Optio SV

Opinion: I thought this would be a great camera because of its 5MP and 5 x optical zoom! Since a friend of mine was quite happy with his PENTAX Optio S, I decided to switch brands. (until now I always had Canon).

So on paper it all looks great, but now the reality: If you buy a camera with 5MP and 5 x Optical zoom, you expect the best don't you? Well, what a disaster this camera came out to be. 3 BIG negative points are:

1) The camera is soooooooooooo slow, especially when you are using the flash. Since I had a Canon EOS 300 SLR before, I was used to speed. Now I upgraded the 300 for the 350D and I'm quite happy again.

2) The (auto) white balance of this camera always seems to be completely off. The pictures are either too light or too dark. You just always have to edit your pics through photoshop or other digital-photography software program.

3) The batteries are very poor. When you are using the camera "normally" you already have to recharge the batteries after one day. Very poor batteries!

This camera made me realize I had to buy a Digital SLR again. Probably I would have been more happy with a CANON DIGITAL IXUS. My advice: GO CANON!

Opinion: Well, since there are no comments about this camera so far I will have a go at posting some. It should be noted however that this is the first time I have owned a digital camera, having previously been used to good quality manual and automatic 35mm film cameras, so I don't have a lot of experience to compare this camera to other than what I have read and seen online.

First the positive things..

Nice compact size

Controls and buttons are well placed and ergonomic to operate.

Comprehensive but easy to use user-interface - I particularly like how you have rapid access to 4 user-chosen settings via the function button, and can set up each dial-selected mode with your own custom settings.

Very nice to have the options to do some things or everything manually.

5x zoom, which seems to zoom in and out quite quickly

Nice close macro focusing

Good picture quality in good light

Minimal drivers/software needs to be installed on PC (actually you don't need to install anything at all unless you have an old OS like Windows 98)

Opinion: I’ve been using Pentax digital cameras for over three years. My first was Optio 330 and then I went to the Optio 4s. After leaving the 4s in the my pants pocket and then subsequently doing laundry, I managed to make an expensive hunk of metal. I then had to go camera shopping and after looking around, I settled on the Optio SV.

The 5X zoom was the reason I wanted to go with the SV. But in retrospect that seems to be the only advantage. Actually, because of either me, the lens, or the camera, when I zoomed it all the way out, I was taking mostly blurry pictures. The cycle time between pictures was slower than the 4s. One of the final reasons why I am returning it is that they decreased the file size (quality) so more pictures fit on a memory card. When I first got the camera I put it at 4MP and shot some pictures. The file size was about where my old 3MP camera was. So, I upped to 5MP (at the highest quality) and it still wasn't the same file size as the 4MP on highest quality. As it usually goes with JPEG, the larger the file size the higher the quality. This means they adjusted the SV to lower the picture quality so it looks like more pictures fit on a memory card. Also, it might have been their way to increase the cycle time (which seems slower than the 4S anyway). I would love to see some stats comparing cameras with cycle time, actual picture quality, etc. Oh, and another thing, there is a small dial on the back of the camera that sticks out. It is made to easily switch modes (manual, movie, night, etc). But the location of the dial is that it gets caught when I take the camera in and out of the case and changes modes, something I seem to notice after I take all my pictures. For the increase in physical size and the extra zoom, the rest of the features/operations make for a disappointment.

Opinion: I have this camera for 2 months, and I like it.

It's my third digital camera, I've started with a Minolta dimage S304. Then bought a Sony Cybershot F828 for some serious (and fun) photography, but this one is quite big.
I was looking for a replacement for my day to day camera and choose the Pentax Optio SV

I've chosen it for the 5x zoom and the manual options and the small size. And no other camera has all these features.
I like the feel of the camera, the operation of the setting is quite intuitive.
The quality in good (outdoor) light is good, and I was surprised by quality of the macro, supermacro and outdoor nightshots

In the end I like this camera as a second camera.

for some examples http://www.pbase.com/boegheim/pentax_sv