Pentax Optio W60

Opinion: Had it over a year now, overall satisfied. Not good in low light, but I bought it for outdoor action photos so not really a problem for me. Low light pictures are very grainy.

Decided on this one over Olympus as for same price it had a few more features I liked. However not shockproof, and casing is just plastic. Part of it broke (my fault) which meant the battery/card hatch could move slightly, didn't reallise and when swimming one time a bit of water leaked in, took 1.5 months to come back to life. Camera is still waterproof.

Macro focus is good. Very compact and light. Good photos in good light.

Opinion: Sorry thought it was W80
For the price at $180.00 from adorama it is a great
camera. Very clear images at low ISO, video is OK but
not
great but when you factor you can use it in any
weather
condition it is a very good value.
Has intervalometer built in for both still and video worth
the price of camera alone. Size is great.
Also Pentax gives you a great printed manual!

Opinion: I bought this camera for my sister last year. In pink it is surprisingly pretty digicam. I was surprised to see that the image quality is not much worse than what I get with my higher specified Canon S80 comact camera. Very good for compact in this category - even relatively high ISO images looked good. Operating speed is good as well.
Great camera for outdoor sports or documentation of your home aquarium.

Opinion: This camera sucks in every way possible. I bought this camera to keep in my shell bag for a carry along hunting camera. I often encounter less than desireable lighting conditions. This camera often takes 15 seconds for the focus to lock on. There is also up a 10 second lag between pressing the shutter button the shutter to actually take a photo.
It stays on a shelf because I HATE this camera. If there was a rating below 0,this camera would get that rating. Dont waste your money!!!
I am sorry I ever bought this camera

Opinion: I bought this camera for AU$299. My impression is that if it wasn't waterproof it would sell for about $100, maybe $150. I played with it for few hours after the purchase and the next morning it went back to the store for a refund.

First impressions: slow and hard to operate. Buttons are small and not well placed, it is difficult to hold it with one hand only, so think about long time snorkeling in this context... And you get this feeling that there is always a little lag between what you do and the camera's reaction, noticed especially when browsing taken photos (this was really irritating).

But I could live with the above. What really made me to ask for refund was the image quality. Noise, noise, noise. Even when taking a photo in a light room the ISO setting jumped to 800 even at wide angle. I suspect this is because of the small lenses. When manually set to ISO 200, the image was way to dark. Flash does not help much as its very weak.

Image quality of movies is affected by high compression, I really like the small size of the files, but it does have an impact on the quality. So it would be better if a user could set his preference.

Also what surprised me was the motor noise made when zooming in and out. I have not heard anything like that in other cameras. There is also an unpleasant noise when using AF while taking movies.

So it seems the purpose of the camera is really to take photos in wet conditions on nice sunny days. For me this is not worth A$300. But then if its main purpose is to be used rough conditions, then it is a pity this camera is not shockproof.

Finally, I am surprised it scored so well in the DP group test of underwater cameras (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/Q209waterproofgroup). This just makes me fear to even try to play with other cameras, given the good note for image quality Pentax W60 got in it.

Opinion: Image quality is pretty average. It really depends on lighting. Purchased it yesterday, it is going back today. All my pictures from last night are very blury, no matter what the program/flash/etc settings. In bright conditions no problems. In semi-bright the problem starts. In dark conditions I've never seen worse. Even from short distances you'd expect a relatively bright flash to work ok (granted, it's a point and shoot but still.... ) ... but no. I'm not talking midnight dark. I'm talking restaurant dark.

My Nikon Coolpix 4300, which is probably 7 or 8 years old, is much better all-around. Feature-wise they don't compare. Picture wise it's a non-starter.

Your money is better spent elsewhere, unless it's going to be used in light conditions. I haven't tested that (and not going to).

Opinion: I purchased the Pentax Optio W60 just over a week ago when the sales person assured me it would be a good replacement for my Canon Ixus400 which had finally "given up the ghost". I had intended purchasing a Fugifilm F100fd. I told the salesperson that I wanted something with the picture quality of the Canon.

The Pentax is very easy to use, has some great features but the picture quality is very poor. Pictures are not sharp and are pixellalted. Also, it is very hard to use outside in bright sun as has no viewfinder and the LCD screen is impossible to see. My Canon 4MP camera took sharp pictures, which were far superior to the 10MP Pentax.

I am returning this camera to the shop - have informed the salesperson.

Opinion: I was looking for something small&light when the DSLR is too large to carry with you. Also I like wide angle and a tough "inside zoom", waterproof was just nice to have for me.
The older Olympus 725 and 770 mju SW really disappointed me in image quality, AF and shutter lag and manual settings, I hoped the W60 may be a little bit better, even if i didn't expect miracles in noise...

The W60 is just a liittle bit better, AF und shutter lag better than the older Olympuses but still poor and far from up to date, almost any Canon Powershot or my old Fuji F30 do it far far better. There are still no real manual settings, but enough special programs to fulfill at least the most important needs, e.g. night shots are possible, even if you still need to trust the automatic completely.

Image quality is average concerning highlights, dynamic range and CAs, but it's really lousy in noise. Together with the really slow lens it's fatal in everything else than bright sunlight or at full tele zoom. Compared to my old F30 I need at least to double the shutter time for the same picture and to get the same low noise as the F30 needs doubling the time (at least...) once more, so the W60 is about 2-2,5 apertures slower than the F30.

Why can't they make something like the W60 with 4-5MP? Or why does no one continue something like the F30/F31 und puts it in an case like the W60 or the mju SW? Even if lots of beginners want more MP, there would be enough customers interested in that! I definitely don't understand it...

Opinion: I ruined a Canon SD800is on a river rafting trip, so I bought this Pentax waterproof camera. It's a huge disappointment and inferior to the Canon in every respect (except waterproofing).

The camera is sluggish in operation. Shutter lag is bad.

The auto focus frequently fails to focus properly, even in bright sunlight. The low light performance is bad - the pictures are very grainy. The flash is underpowered. The white balance works poorly (especially in the snow in shade).

In movie mode, when you zoom, the motor noise ruins the audio.

The ergonomics are poor. It is difficult to operate the camera one-handed (it's nearly impossible to zoom, unlike the Canon).

I also evaluated the Olympus 1050SW which I didn't like because the controls were too hard for my middle-aged eyes to see and it uses xD flash cards.

I was so disappointed in the Pentax W60 that I bought a used Canon SD800is (like I used to own) within nine days of getting the Pentax.