The Pentax Optio S7 is a pocket sized digital camera. It has seven megapixels and a three times optical zoom lens. In terms of features the Optio S7 has roughly what you would expect in this type of camera. Therefore is basically a straightforward, point and shoot camera with a metal body and stylish design.
The camera is likely to appeal to someone who is looking for a camera that is easy to use, can be taken anywhere and price wise comes in at the less expensive end of the market.
Image Quality
Starting with the three outdoor scenic shots the Optio S7 focuses well on the whole. The odd picture out is the middle one of the three. This is where the zoom lens is not used. This causes a noticeable decrease in the levels of sharpness throughout the shot. Also in this shot I can detect a darkening towards the edges of the photo.
One area where the Optio S7 does well is the manner in which it handles the sun reflecting off lighter areas. This can be seen in the boats and the wooden beams in the first picture. The downside to this is that the darker areas of the shot tend to lose detail. This can lead to an overall impression of a photo looking darker than I would like it to.
The dedicated test for colours produces a result that is less vivid than I am used to seeing. How much people like strong colours comes down to personal taste. I would like to see some extra depth, but many people may think the colours produced by the Optio S7 have a more natural feel to them.
One shot that does not lack colour is the outdoor portrait. Here I used the cloudy white balance setting to add some extra warmth to the photo. A lot of the outdoor portrait shots I have taken recently seem to have lacked a little zest. One common problem is that where light has fallen on the face it has given a washed out affect to the photo. The Optio S7 has no problems here at all. There is plenty of colour in the shot. Some people may feel the picture goes too far in terms of colour. I would personally rather see the deeper colours here than the duller versions I have seen from other cameras.
I felt the result of the macro test was one of the strong points of the Optio S7. It is true you cannot get in as close as you can with some other digital cameras, but the photo is a good one. The camera has no problem with lighting and the picture is sharp and bright.
As is standard when I take the indoor portrait shot I leave the ISO setting for the camera on automatic. Looking at the result it appears that the camera has selected a high ISO setting. Although the picture is sharper than many I have seen, overall quality is not so good. A lot of noise (heavy grain) has crept into the picture and reduces the overall quality. The picture is also much darker than I would like to see.
The other indoor shot of some beer bottles suffers in exactly the same way. Once again the camera is able to produce a fairly sharp picture considering the conditions, but noise affects the picture quite badly. The picture is brighter and I put this down to the camera not being so far away from the bottles as in the portrait shot. This gives less chance of the flash falling away. Taking the two pictures in combination this suggests to me that the power of the flash unit falls away quickly and this is likely to be a handicap for lowlight photography.
It is no big surprise to me given the indoor test shots that the test for higher ISO settings produces a disappointing result. Although many cameras struggle in this area, the Optio S7 falls below average.
Shutter Lag and Recycling Times
I was able to take a single picture in 1.61 seconds and five shots in 16.98 seconds. These are slow times. To be honest the Optio S7 did not appear to enjoy my tests very much and at times it became difficult to take a picture. Be warned. This camera could freeze at the vital moment and you could miss the picture. This is especially true if you are trying to take two or more shots in quick succession.
You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.
Features
For composing images there is a 2.5" LCD screen. This is comprised of 232,000 pixels. There is no viewfinder.
The 3x optical zoom lens has a focal length of 37.5 - 112.5mm in 35mm format. The lens aperture is f/2.7 - f/5.2. There is also a 4x digital zoom feature.
Help in taking better photos is available through pre programmed scene modes. When you use a scene mode the Optio S7 uses what it considers to be the optimum settings for the type of shot. The scene modes are: Night Scene, Landscape, Flower, Portrait, Kids,Blur reduction, Surf & Snow, Sport, Pet, Text and Food.
The built in flash unit has a maximum range of 5.1m. This falls to around 2.7m when the zoom lens is in use. The flash modes available are on, off, automatic, red eye reduction and soft flash.
If you are looking to produce close up photos the macro mode allows you to get within 15cm from the subject. This is what the specification says, but I managed to produce a decent macro shot from a lot closer in. Manual focusing is also available.
When you would like to appear in a picture there is a self timer. The delay can be set to either two or ten seconds.
After a photo has been taken there are a fairly comprehensive set of features you can apply to it. These include making a small copy, crop/trim, applying colour and digital filters, adjusting brightness levels, attempting to remove red eye and adding a voice memo. The colour filters include black and white and sepia. You can also pick out a single colour (red, blue or green) setting the remainder of the photo to black and white.
More advanced features include sensitivity (50/100/200/400), white balance (Auto, Daylight, Shade, Tungsten light, Fluorescent light, Manual setting), metering (Multi-segment metering, Center-weighted metering, Spot) and exposure compensation (- +/-2EV (1/3 EV steps)). Continuous shooting is also available. In continuous shooting mode you can continue to take photos until the memory card is full.
Shutter speeds are operated automatically by the camera. These work in a range between 4 seconds and 1/2000 seconds.
Movies can be recorded at a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. The top speed is 30 frames per second. This is good enough for TV playback. Movies are only limited in duration by the capacity of the memory card. Sound can be recorded. Zoom cannot be used while recording is in progress, but you can zoom in and out before recording starts.
Pentax supplies all the necessary cables and software to connect the Optio S7 to a television set, computer and PictBridge compatible printer.
The Optio S7 can also be used purely as a voice recorder.
A remote control for the camera can be bought separately.
Ease of Use
In my view digital cameras are becoming easier to use. Perhaps I have now reviewed so many that I have become used to them. The Optio S7 does appear to be quite straightforward. Key buttons for flash, zoom, macro are and your fingertips and it should not take you long to come to terms with the menu system. There is also a Green Mode that disables the menu if you want complete point and shoot simplicity.
Cost
You can pick up a Pentax Optio S7 for around £155. This compares to around £235 for a Sony DSC T30, £175 for a Casio Exilim EX-Z700 and £210 for a Olympus MJU 740.
As you can see the Optio S7 is one of the cheaper seven megapixel, pocket sized digital cameras. Although it is not perfect it offers good value for money.
Style
In most respects the Optio S7 is another identikit digital camera. It is another shiny silver rectangle that looks much like a number of other cameras. That is not to say it looks unpleasant in any way and it has quite a neat and tidy look about it.
It weighs 100g and has dimensions of 85.5 × 53.5 × 19.5mm. It is certainly one of the lightest cameras you will find.
Batteries and Memory Card
Power is supplied to the camera through a rechargeable lithium ion battery (D-LI8). Both a battery and charger are supplied as standard. Pentax estimates the Optio S7 should be able to take around 180 shots before the battery needs to be recharged.
With 23mb of memory built into the Optio S7 no memory card is supplied as standard. The camera is compatible with SD cards and the new SDHC (high capacity) cards.
I was able to take 17 shots before the internal memory was full. Therefore before you can get serious about taking pictures you will need to pick up a high capacity memory card.
Click here to save money on SD cards..
Points I like:
Ease of use
Low cost pocket sized digital camera
Where it is not so hot:
Pictures can be on the dark side
Shutter lag
Summary
The Pentax Optio S7 is a bit of a mixed bag. Whilst it gives you the chance to pick up a pocket sized, seven megapixel digital camera at a relatively low price there are issues outlined in this review that give me cause for concern.
Front View
Back View
Top View
Sample Menus
| Pentax Optio S7 Summary |
| Description: | Seven megapixels with a three times optical zoom lens |
| Ease of Use: | 9 |
| Features: | 7 |
| Colour: | 7 |
| Macro: | 8 |
| Indoors: | 6 |
| Value for Money: | 7 |
| Style: | 7 |
| Movie Mode: | 8 |
| Image Quality: | 7 |
| Build Quality: | 8 |
| Total: | 74 |
| Verdict: | "The Pentax Optio S7 is one of the cheapest pocket sized, seven megapixel digital cameras you will find. I did experience a degree of inconsistency with picture quality and shutter lag was a major problem too." |
| Review Date: | November 2006 |
| Click for: | Specification Sample Images |
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