Pentax Optio W10 Digital Camera

Author's Rating:

Pros: Slim; light-weight; lots of super easy to use modes.

Cons: Wrist strap won't cinch; no lens covering; battery/memory cover.

The Bottom Line: 
A reasonably priced, easy to use, light-weight digital waterproof camera. A definite buy for vacation photo ops!

Author's Review
Pentax Optio W10 Digital Camera


I purchased the Pentax Option W10 Digital Camera to use on our recent trip to the Walt Disney World water park Typhoon Lagoon. Last year I used a disposable water camera and was not impressed with our water park trip pictures. So, this year I started looking around at digital waterproof camera options after reading some reviews on them in Forbes. I really like my current Pentax Optio 555 and I figured with the good reviews and reasonable price on the Pentax Optio W10 that I really couldn’t go wrong.

This camera is awesome! It is very slim (4”x2”x3/4”) and super light in weight (5 ½ oz.) which made it very easy to slip into my wet, board short pocket at Typhoon Lagoon. The minor annoyance I had with it was that I was afraid it would get knocked out of my hand on the water rides and slides since it didn’t come with a type of wrist strap that you could either cinch or Velcro around your wrist; my Optio 555 has a strap that cinches. I never lost it; however, I will be switching out the wrist strap on it. Side note - apparently waterproof digital cameras are not very common at waterparks because I was asked several times by staff if it was waterproof and I shocked several nosey women who couldn't believe I would get my camera wet.

The pictures we took at the water park turned out great! The videos were decent but nothing in a camera comes close to my video camera yet in sound and picture quality, but it’s a heck of a lot lighter and smaller! The Underwater Mode, while this is a cool selling point I’m sure, my boys are the only ones that enjoy using it.

The zoom button is very accessible and the following 4 modes can be switched between quickly with your thumb using the four buttons on the back of the camera all while holding a squirming 5 month old in your other hand; that’s how easy and fabulous this camera really is:


Modes: The camera is easy to use, in fact my 9 year old loves using it in the pool. He has downloaded some great pictures of the pool vacuum, tile and his feet. Changing modes is easy (sunlight, dark, portrait). Instead of a rotating dial on top of the camera, this camera has a mode button with 25 on-screen menu choices from underwater to candlelight along with a guide button that allows you to view information on each mode such as “Kids: For capturing moving kids. Reproduces healthy and bright skin tone.” This feature is fantastic.

Four drive modes: Standard, self-timer (10 sec & 2 sec); continuous shooting, interval shoot. I love the self-timer so that I can be in an occasional picture.

Flash modes: Auto, Off, On, Auto + red eye; Flash on + red eye; soft flash.

Focus Modes: Standard; Macro, Infinity, Pan Focus, Manual Focus


Features per Pentax

I do not claim to understand much more about cameras than pointing, shooting and getting 1 out of 10 good shots, so for those who want to know detailed camera information, I’ve taken the following directly from the Pentax site:

JIS Class 8 Waterproof and Class 5 Dustproof performance allows underwater photography and video up to 1.5m for 30 min.. Rinse away sand and dirt with ease.

6.0 megapixel CCD and 3X PENTAX optical zoom lens offer excellent image quality from 0.36 inch macro shots to expansive landscapes.

115,000 pixel 2.5 inch low reflection LCD monitor remains easy to view, even on sunny days. Power saving mode extends battery life.

High performance 0.6 second start-up and 0.05 second shutter lag make getting the action shots effortless.

Ultra-fast 9-point Autofocus features Tracking AF. Portrait mode combines Face priority AF with Face priority auto-exposure for perfect results.

High-quality extended movie captures QuickTime motion JPEG (640 x 480) at 30fps with anti-shake and a range of built-in editing functions.

If you are interested in more in-depth specs on the Optio W10 they can be found at http://www.pentaximaging.com/products/product_specs/digital_camera--Optio_W10/reqID--7399568/subsection--optio


Minor Issues

Wrist Strap: The strap is only large enough to put around your wrist, but it does not cinch which caused me a bit of grief on the water rides and slides since I was getting jostled around quite a bit while trying to take pictures of my boys.

The Lens Covering: The lens does not have any type of outward cover nor does it extend out of the camera since it’s waterproof, so it tends to get spotty and leads to rather murky pictures. So cleaning of the lens area is more necessary than I’m used to.

The door that covers the battery, memory card , DC connector and USB plug connector: I’m slightly concerned that this door that functions as a waterproof door will start to lessen in it’s water proofing ability over time since it has to be opened each time in order to charge the battery and download the pictures. In the closed position the door stays shut and has the added ability to slide a switch up to ‘lock’ in order to waterproof the area.


Overall Impressions

The Pentax Optio W10 underwater digital camera is fantastic! The pictures from our water park trip turned out really well. In fact, I’m handing down my Pentax Optio 555 to my 9 year old who loves to take large quantities of pictures, and I am going to use the Pentax Optio W10 as my everyday camera. The camera is small, light-weight and super easy to use even when I only have 1 free hand. This camera is a definite keeper!