Buy A Digital Camera

Having the competitor’s camera and the desire to upgrade its VGA to HD underwater video still with the great picture quality – bad move.

Pros:

- good look

- rubber type corners

- macro picture using the 3 LED is cool

Cons:

- picture quality not very good compared to competition

- video quality poor

- no zoom when recording

Going to return it…
Rating: 1 / 5

I had this camera for about three weeks, I really liked the physical appearance, ease of operation, and menus (I think the menu/user interface was really good). However, the quality of the pictures and HD video is not there for what it costs. I ordered the Panasonic TS2 last week from Amazon and compared them side by side, picture for picture. The Panasonic won hands down in my opinion. The video was clearer, did not have all the noise which plagued the Pentax (especially in sunny conditions), and you can use the optical zoom with the Panasonic (with the Pentax you are limited to digital zoom while recording video). Granted these weather/waterproof cameras don’t replace dedicated DSLR’s or high-end consumer camcorders (I just bought a Sony HDR-CX550v – it is GREAT), but for the price, they really should give us more quality. I paid $276 for the Pentax, and $326 for the Panasonic – well worth the extra few dollars. Kudos to Amazon for their return policy! (FYI – I also looked hard at the Olympus 8010 and 6020, while at Best buy on several occasions. While not comparing it directly with the Pentax or Panasonic, I was not happy with the slow shutter lag, menu operation, and general feel of it. Again, just my opinion. )
Rating: 2 / 5

This camera offers a lot of features for the price. I bought it to go with an earlier model of the same camera, Optio W20, that offered a lot less of the “surprise and delight” kind of wizbang stuff this new model now offers. I use it on a boat and wanted it for it’s waterproof qualities and general toughness along with its multiple features.

The still photos are excellent resolution. The multiple face capture features and the joining of two and three photos together for super wide photos is pretty neat.

It even takes pretty good movies….although the auto focus doesn’t seem to work on the zoom in the movie mode. Maybe it is something I’m doing wrong. But that is the only beef I have with it.

I’m happy with it. Great technological stuff in a small tough package.
Rating: 5 / 5

my kid already treated this as his toy when in swimming pool, he is only 4 and can use this user friendly digital camera w/o any problem. he loves to take pics of us as well as his friends in pool.
Rating: 5 / 5

I used this camera for a week and returned it to Amazon.

The good.

1. It is waterproof. Took to the pool and used it for an hour and it did great.

2. Takes good video underwater.

3. Panoramic mode and Digital Microscope mode are really cool and work well.

4. Picture quality is pretty good.

5. Colors are accurate

6. Size and weight are great. Very easy to take everywhere.

7. I think it looks great.

8. Feels very solid and well made.

The bad.

1. The video quality is terrible. It is not HD video. It may be HD resolution but the video is so smeared and poor quality that it might as well be just standard def.

2. Can’t zoom or focus while taking video. This was the deal breaker for me.

3. No orientation sensor. This should just be standard on any new digicam.

4. Automatic flash always uses red eye reduction. I wish autoflash would just use regular flash. This may not be a con for some people but to me it was annoying. I had to manually set to force flash to use regular flash.

5. No image stabilization

6. Video in HD mode is limited to 10 minutes regardless of flash memory size.

EDIT:

Because someone pointed out that this review could use some clarification.

The underwater video quality is much better than its “out of water” video quality. I don’t expect much underwater and it met my expectations underwater. Out in the air, I expected crisp video that changes focus and you can zoom with. It is not crisp. It does not focus – whatever you have focused on at the start of the video is where the focus is stuck at for the remainder so if you’ve focused on something close to start and you pan away from it to something far away, that will be completely blurry. The reverse is also true. The only zoom that it has during video is digital zoom which makes an already poor picture worse.

It does not have true image stabilization which means that it shifts either the lens elements or the sensor to stabilize the image. Pentax uses software to try to emulate this – they call it pixel track. Some other camera manufacturers boost the ISO and call that “anti-shake”. Both of these are misleading to the uninformed public. The difference between real image stabilization and these software methods is like the difference between real optical zoom and digital zoom.. both appear to do the same thing but only one truly does it.

You can goto youtube and look for video samples taken both with the Pentax W90 and the Panasonic TS2. The difference is dramatic.

I think if video is not important to you, this is a good camera. I think if video is important to you, this camera is subpar.
Rating: 3 / 5