Pentax Optio Z10 Review

Review Date: November 19th 2007
Author: Mark Goldstein

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Conclusion

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4
Features	4
Ease-of-Use	4.5
Image Quality	3
Value for Money	3.5

The Pentax Optio Z10 is a fairly unremarkable point and shoot camera with the obvious attraction of a 7x zoom lens that covers every focal length from moderate wide-angle to sports-shooter telephoto. It's a really great addition to such a compact camera, and you'll never go back to a "standard" 3x zoom model after trying out the versatile Z10. Pentax have concentrated on making the Optio Z10 very easy-to use, with most aspects of the camera designed to be standard and non-intimidating. There are a wealth of different scene and playback modes to suit the camera's target audience. On the downside, image quality is severely hampered by noise, which appears at ISO 200, becomes very noticeable at ISO 400, and reduces images to a pixellated mess by ISO 3200. The digital Shake Reduction mode offered by the Z10 simply increases the ISO speed up to the maximum of 3200, which could leave you with some very unattractive photos. The Z10 with its 7x zoom lens really suffers from not having a true optical or CCD-shift anti-shake system, and it doesn't compare well with other 7x zoom cameras like the Ricoh R7, which do offer this system. In addition the 8cm macro mode doesn't let you get very close to your subject, and the maximum shutter speed of 4 seconds limits what can be achieved at night. The must-have feature for all compact digicams in 2007, Face Recognition, is supposedly one of the headline additions, but as with most of these systems, you'll get better results by focusing the camera yourself. Performance was quite good, with focusing fast and accurate even in low-light, but it's best to stick to the single-shot mode and not expect too much from the slow continuous mode. Overall the Pentax Optio Z10 is appealing on paper, but less so in the flesh, with poor image quality letting down what could have been a successful venture for Pentax.

PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Pentax Optio Z10 have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.

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