Overview
The Pentax Optio M10 is a six megapixel digital camera with a three times optical zoom lens. It is available for around £100. This places it at the cheaper end of the price range. It is easy to use and the Optio M10 is likely to attract anyone who is looking for a fairly basic digital camera at a reasonable price.
Main Features
Megapixels:
Zoom:
LCD Screen:
Dimensions:
Weight:
6
3x
2.5 inches
89 x 60 x 25mm
120g
Macro:
HD Movies:
Manual Controls:
Batteries:
Memory Cards:
10cm
No
No
AA
SD
Image Quality
You have to expect a few compromises when buying a camera in this price range. Although the Optio M10 is a six megapixel camera the maximum size I would suggest printing at is 7x5". This is because the camera's focusing tends to fall away towards the edges of each shot. As you go for larger prints this weakness tends to become more and more apparent.
In general terms I would say the pictures produced by the Optio M10 are roughly in line with many other cameras at this end of the market. A standard outdoor shot is of fair quality. Colours are strong. A couple of pleasant surprises include the indoor portrait and the macro shot. Problem areas include a loss of detail in light coloured areas and a darkening around the edges of photos when the zoom lens is not being used at all.
Running through the test shots the first and third outdoor shots highlight the loss of detail in lighter areas and also the reduction in sharpness as you move away from the centre of the picture. The white wooden slats under the roof of the building in the first test photo show a lack of detail and the boats in the pictures are also similarly affected.
The second outdoor shot is taken without using zoom and this is where darker areas tend to creep in towards the edges. This shot in particular shows the strong colours and the sky is especially blue.
This strength also shows up in the dedicated test for colours. Looking at this test result leaves me in no doubt that the Optio M10 does appear to favour blue over other colours. This is good news if you like the strong skies as many people will.
Out of the two portrait shots I prefer the indoor photo and it is not often I say that. There is red eye visible in the shot, but the camera manages to produce a photo that is much sharper than the majority of its direct competitors are able to do. The outdoor portrait highlights the strength of the colours and my feeling is that the photo has too much of a pink tinge for my liking.
When the light gets low the Optio M10 starts to really struggle. This can be seen in the photo of beer bottles. Here the camera finds it difficult to focus properly and the result is a blurred photo.
The macro shot is a success. Again cameras in this price bracket are not always able to produce the sharp and clear picture that the Optio M10 was able to.
The final test shot is taken using a high ISO rating. This setting is often used indoors to reduce the need to use flash. As is fairly typical pushing the ISO rating up to 400 means there is loss of quality in the picture.
Shutter Lag and Recycling Times
Shutter lag is often a big issue with less expensive digital cameras. Therefore I was quite pleased with the times produced by the Optio M10. I was able to take a single shot in 0.4 seconds and five shots in 12.33 seconds.
You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.
Features
The 3x optical zoom lens has a focal length equivalent to 35 - 105mm in 35mm format. There is also a 4x digital zoom feature.
Flash works to a maximum range of 4m. This falls to 2.5m when the zoom lens is in use. The flash modes are Flash Auto, Flash-off, Flash-on and Red-eye reduction.
The 2.5 inch LCD monitor is made up of around 115,000 pixels. There is no viewfinder.
For focusing you can set the focusing area to 9-point Multi AF, Spot and Tracking AF. The macro mode can focus from 10cm away from the subject.
To help you take the best possible shots a series of scene modes are available. When you select a scene mode the camera will use what it considers to be the optimum settings for the scene. The scene modes you can use are Night scene, Landscape, Flower, Portrait, Surf & Snow, Sport, Kids, Pet, Soft, Firework, Food and Self-portrait.
After a picture has been taken, you can add a voice memo to it. You can also make a small copy of a photo. Cropping is available too.
For when you would like to appear in the picture there is a self timer. The delay period can be set to either two or ten seconds. The Optio M10 can also be used purely as a voice recorder.
Among the more advanced features are White Balance (Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten light, Fluorescent light), Exposure Compensation (+/-2 EV (1/3 steps)) and ISO (auto, 64, 100, 200, 400).
Shutter speeds work in the range 2 seconds to 1/1500. The aperture range is F2.8 -F4.9. Both the aperture and shutter speed are set automatically by the camera.
Movies can be recorded up to the capacity of the memory card. The maximum resolution is 320 x 240 and the top speed is 30 frames per second. Sound can be captured and zoom is available while the recording is in progress.
Pentax supplies all the necessary cables and software to connect the Optio M10 to a PictBridge compatible printer, computer and television set.
Ease of Use
The features available to you with the Optio M10 are fairly basic. The upside of this is that it helps to make the camera easier to use. Help text is available throughout the menu system. All in all the camera is straightforward. If you do find the features the camera has daunting you can switch to green mode. In this mode most of the settings are locked and all you need to do is take the pictures.
Cost
You can pick up a Pentax Optio M10 for around £105. This compares to around £105 for a Sony DSC S600, £105 for a Fuji Finepix A600 and £110 for a Nikon Coolpix L2.
As you can see there is quite a bit of choice if you are looking for a straightforward six megapixel digital camera. You are likely to find that most digital cameras available for around this price have some imperfections. The Optio M10 is a fairly typical model and offers average value for money.
Style
Pentax have produced a camera with an above average design for the price. It is fairly slim and has a useful grip on the front. Although the body is made of plastic the build quality appears to be good.
The dimensions are 89 x 60 x 25mm and the Optio M10 weighs in at 120g.
Batteries and Memory Cards
Two AA batteries are used to provide power to the camera. Pentax estimate you should be able to take around 220 shots with the supplied batteries.
Pentax has built 22MB of memory into the Optio M10. Therefore a memory card is not supplied as standard. I was able to take 17 shots before the memory was full. The camera is compatible with SD cards.
Click here to save money on SD cards..
Points I like:
Ease of use
Style
Where it is not so hot:
Picture quality can be variable
Summary
The Pentax Optio M10 is a fairly standard entry level digital camera. It has plenty of megapixels and is easy to use. Picture quality for this type of camera is about average and as ever a realistic view of the camera's capabilities needs to be taken.
Pentax Optio M10 Front View
Pentax Optio M10 Back View
Pentax Optio M10 Top View
Sample Menus
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Related Pages
Pentax Optio M10 Review Pentax Optio M10 Specification Pentax Optio M10 Sample Images
Review Date
October 2006
