Pentax Optio WPi 6MP Waterproof Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom
From the Manufacturer
The Pentax OptioWPi is a compact digital camera that features JIS Class 8-equivalent waterproof performance and has a body only .9 inches thick. What’s more, the OptioWPi also features a 2.0-inch LCD monitor, a 3x optical zoom lens, and the imaging power of 6.0 effective megapixels.
Developed in line with the three keywords Sportiness, Elegance, and Leisure, the OptioWPi provides the user with the advantage of waterproof performance that enables confident shooting during a range of water sports. And unusually for a camera with such sporting capability, the OptioWPi also has surprisingly sophisticated styling that makes it ideal for use on practically any kind of occasion.
With the incorporation of a truly easy-to-operate user interface and other innovations, the OptioWPi enables truly stress-free operation. A key example of this is the unique Pentax Mode palette function, which redefines user friendliness and has been exceptionally well received on other models. Indeed the OptioWPi takes the palette function a couple of steps further, allowing it to be used for playback mode selection as well as for shooting mode selection by displaying the icons for various modes on the screen at once. Additionally, the OptioWPi features a function that displays easy explanations for each function too, and all Playback operations have been carefully reviewed and simplified.
Major Features:
Slim, Flat Body
With a thin body of just 22mm, the OptioWPi can be easily slipped into and out of a pocket or bag. And despite its compact dimensions, its well-designed grip ensures the camera remains safe and stable in the hands when shooting at all times. With a front panel crafted from an aluminum alloy, the camera conveys a sense of accessible sophistication, while the round water ring design and four-way key are every bit as attractive as they are practical.
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Waterproof Performance
Offering JIS Class 8-equivalent waterproof performance, the OptioWPi enables the user to shoot continuously for up to approximately 30 minutes underwater at a maximum depth of 1.5 meters. Such waterproof capability also allows the user to wash the camera with water to rinse away sand and dirt. The perfect companion for watersports, skiing, and other outdoor leisure activities, the OptioWPi also allows the user to shoot in places that would be too dirty to take other cameras.
3x Optical Zoom Lens and 6.0 Effective Megapixels
The OptioWPi incorporates an optical lens unit specially designed to suit underwater photography. Delivering 6.3-18.9mm 3x optical zooming performance, it provides a focal range covering angles of view equivalent to those of a 38-114mm lens in 35mm format. Such zooming power can also be combined with approximate 4x digital zoom, making a maximum zooming power of 12x possible whenever desired. Like all Pentax zoom lenses, the lens of the OptioWPi offers excellent imaging performance. It is also composed of 9 groups of 11 elements (3 of which are aspherical lenses) to achieve optimal compensation for aberrations and make the most of the impressive 5.0 effective megapixels.
Large, 2.0-Inch LCD Monitor
Despite its compact and slim body dimensions of 4.0 by 2.0 by 0.9 inches, the OptioWPi features a large, 2.0-inch LCD monitor. Incorporating low-reflection technology and a backlighting system, this LCD monitor remains extremely easy to view, even when used outdoors on sunny days. The LCD monitor also features a power saving mode that extends battery life by automatically reducing the intensity of the aforementioned backlighting.
Green Mode
Green mode fixes all camera settings to a standard combination with a single press of the Green button (with the exception of the zoom setting). This is of particular use should the user become confused with the selection of settings or should the user wish to ask someone else to take a picture. The photographer also has the ability to allocate up to 4 frequently used functions to the Green button as short cuts, providing direct access to exposure compensation and white balance, for example.
Other features
- Becomes ready to shoot just 0.6 seconds after the power is turned on.
- The red-eye compensation function touches up red eyes in recorded images.
- Real-time warnings indicate washed out and blacked out areas.
- Digital zooming provides up to 4x performance.
- Macro mode enables shooting from as close as 1 centimeter from the subject.
- Full-color, black and white, and sepia color modes are available for movie shooting.
- Features SD memory card compatibility and has approximately 10.5MB of built-in memory.
- Compatible with exclusive, rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries.
- Comes complete with ACDSee for Pentax Standard image viewer software.
- Features DPOF functionality, Exif Print, and PRINT Image Matching III compatibility.
What’s in the Box
Optio WPi Camera, rechargeable lithium-ion battery D-L18, battery charger D-BC8 (A), AC plug cord D-CO2U, AV cable I-AVC7 (B), USB cable I-USB7, software S-SW30 (CD ROM), strap O-ST20, operating manual, serial number card, service network directory.
Product Description
The PENTAX Optio WPI is all about lifeproof digital and high resolution images. With 6.0 megapixels and a large monitor, this waterproof digital goes just about anywhere life takes you – including 5 feet underwater for up to 30 minutes. Capture stunning on land or see images with the quick start-up, 3X zoom and an ultra-fast 9-point Autofocus that track and keeps your subjects sharp.
Buy Pentax Optio WPi 6MP Waterproof Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom at Amazon
I picked this camera up about a month ago at samys.com (much better price than Amazon) and took it on a week-long trip to the Bahamas. Since I forgot to bring a decent memory card, I was limited to a 256 mb card that I had in the camera, so I took all of my pix at 4mp under the medium quality setting. I found the image quality to be perfectly acceptable and got about 300 pictures and a few very short videos on the card.
Many other people have left great reviews of the camera, so I’ll concentrate on the waterproof aspects. I had the camera in the water for an hour or more on each snorkel, typically twice a day, and never had any problems with water getting inside. This is about twice the recommended length of 30 minutes in the water. I don’t dive, so never had the camera below 5 feet. I attached a floating key ring (available at any marine store for a couple of dollars) to the strap so that I wouldn’t have to worry about letting the camera go and having it sink to the bottom. The camera is light enough that the key ring would actually keep it at the surface–I’d expected that it would simply slow it down on the trip to the bottom. This was a nice bonus, since I could just leave the camera floating while I dove to the bottom to get shells. I’d recommend a closed-cell foam float instead of the hollow plastic kind, as the plastic will eventually fill up with water and lose buoyancy.
In the water, I found the camera quite easy to use, although the buttons could have been a little bigger. The camera seemed to struggle to focus in areas where I was shooting fish from a distance or fish that blended in with the water (like a barracuda), but the pictures came out pretty well at the end. Snorkelers will note that it takes some practice to get a picture of a fish as the camera moves around with the smallest waves and there is just enough shutter delay to make things difficult. I found that by prefocusing (press shutter halfway and hold, with a green box indicating the focused area) and then waiting for the right moment, I got much better results. I couldn’t tell a difference in photo quality between the camera’s underwater setting and the normal setting. I used the macro setting for some close ups on land and was quite impressed with that.
If you’d like to see some underwater pictures for yourself, here is a link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/turgeon/sets/72057594083368500/ Remember that I used the 4 Mpixel setting and 2 star quality setting to save space.
I rinsed the camera off at the end of each day but did not soak it as recommended and I haven’t had any trouble or seen any signs of salt in the battery compartment. Speaking of the battery, I was a little disappointed here. I didn’t like that I had to bring a bulky battery charger on my vacation–would much prefer that the camera ran on AAA batteries. I found battery life to be so-so. I could go about one full day, taking lots of pictures, then editing out all the bad ones, shooting videos, and keeping the camera on for hours at a time. But if I didn’t charge it that night, it would quickly die on the second day. The battery level indicator is useless–it goes from full to half to dead in a matter of minutes, so keep the battery charged and if you’re going to use it a lot, buy a spare. One other note about the battery–since you have to charge it every night (out of the camera), you can’t use the camera’s alarm clock feature. This was an issue for me, since I don’t wear a watch, wasn’t able to use my cell phone in the Bahamas, and had planned on using the alarm. The alarm isn’t really loud enough to wake a heavy sleeper, by the way.
All in all, this camera does what it sets out to excellently. This is a camera for active people who want to take good quality snapshots while snorkeling, playing in the rain, kayaking, etc. It’s not a camera for professional photographers or divers, but it doesn’t claim to be.
5.0 out of 5 stars
4 years and still working well
Purchased this little camera over 4 years ago from Amazon. I’ve taken tons of pictures with it, both indoors and outdoors in all sorts of climates and conditions.
I’ve been waiting for a solid weatherproof/waterproof digital camera for quite some time now and finally decided the resolution might be good enough. I’d been sticking with my trusty Yashica T4 Super (non-zoom) which I’ve shot quite a bit in thunderstorms and other precipitation-heavy conditions and I didn’t want to give up that ability just to go digital.
To be upfront with it, the image quality is not the best. It’s 6 megapixels, but there’s a lot more to quality than having the most pixels. From a pure image quality standpoint, I’d rather have one of Canon’s many offerings. Compared side-by-side with a Canon S550 (granted a more expensive camera with more pixels), the Pentax showed noise where the Canon showed weave pattern in a subject’s sweater. Also, I’m used to shooting pro-level dSLRs so the difference in image quality was a bit of a surprise. Compared to the T4 film option I’m used to, I think I’m still bringing my film camera for those more difficult situations because there’s just more info on the film and the lens is still better on that camera. Also, it lacks an AF-assist light which would really help in dim situations.
However, and this is important, I realize that most of the images I take with this camera are only going to be viewed online or will not be printed larger than 4×6. I have not yet printed images from this camera, but I think for that print size it will probably be fine. For web purposes, it’s more than good. The many options in image size is very handy when you know you’re going to web with an image. The sunset shots I took out the airplane window, while noisy, still have good gradation from black to white.
Getting back to the reason I bought this camera in the first place, I’m very pleased with its ability to function in wet conditions. I haven’t taken it underwater yet, but I did shoot video with it while snowboarding and found out my skills definitely go down while trying to shoot video. But the camera kept going after being dunked in snow repeatedly. It was also snowing/raining so there was more than dry powder to deal with. The buttons, while small, are spaced far enough apart that I could activate them with gloves on. The screen was plenty big and legible from oblique angles while heading downhill with goggles on. Be aware, however, that the battery is physically not very big and therefore low temps have a noticable affect on battery life.
One of the best features is the green button- it can be changed to access up to four different options/settings. I use mine for 1.exposure compensation; 2. white balance; 3. ISO setting; and 4. green (dummy) mode. So easy to set up and very useful if you still want some manual overrides (since there’s no actual manual or priority modes, just different program modes). Without the green button, using the exposure compensation requires going into the menus and changing it but not seeing results until it’s set- with the green button, it operates like every other camera, ie allowing you to see the changes as you make them.
Basically, foul weather functionality was the priority and I was pleasantly surprised by the easy and customizable interface (you can change the order of the program modes and the camera remembers certain custom settings, too). I was not impressed with the image quality and it’s not replacing my film p+s or dSLRs anytime soon, but it’s good for what I need it to do which is largely surviving being on the outside of my backpack or in my pocket in the rain, snow and dirt and still be ready to take a decent image when I turn it on.
This is one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. I absolutely love this camera. It is nice and small, super easy to use, and waterproof! Unlike other reviews that I’ve read here, I have taken it underwater. My whole life is water, so in only a few days of owning it it’s been under plenty of times. It holds up like a champ!
I also really like the features it has. It has a good zoom, lots of programmed settings, movie mode, high speed shutter, and the green button which allows you to be using one mode and hit one button to be in another pre-set mode. I think that the quality and features are comparable with a lot of cameras that cost as much or more, and it’s waterproof.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great all-around waterproof camera for the family!!
We purchased the W10 in 2006. So far I have taken over 10,000 photos on it. It has been to Hawaii 4 times and the Bahamas once.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent camera
I got this for my teenage son. It’s a sturdy little camera that takes great pics on land or underwater.
4.0 out of 5 stars
I love my camera
I bought this just before we went snorkeling with the whale sharks off Holbox island this summer and loved it.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A nice digital upgrade.
This is my first digital camera. Before that I had a film camera that was also by Pentax. Here is my review of that camera: This is not a sophisticated camera but it is very…
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great little camera at a great price
I bought the Pentax Optio WPi 6MP specifically for shooting while kayaking and boating – and I was willing to accept any shortcomings for the piece of mind of knowing that a…
3.0 out of 5 stars
Poor Customer Service/no durability
I bought this compact little camera because of its dustproof ability.
I was on my way to the desert, (Iraq) for a year and it seamed like a good defense against the…
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice Camera
This is a nice camera. It functions as it is advertised. I just wish it had a view finder. Even with the LCD brightness all the was up, I find it hard to use in bright sunlight.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Care free photography on/in the water
I spend a lot of time canoeing and kayaking and enjoy taking photos. Now I don’t have to carry my camera in a waterproof box and risk missing “at the moment” photo opportunities…
5.0 out of 5 stars
Out of stock.
Two days after I ordered the camera, the store called me and told me that the camera was out of stock.