Pentax Optio MX

I picked up the 3.2Mb version of the Optio MX at a very good price from eBuyer, I suspect it was an end of line special as the version shown on the Pentax website had gone up to 4Mb. It's an unusual camera with a swivel grip on the side that has the shutter and movie button on as well as acting as the battery housing. When rotated into position the grip is somewhat reminiscent of the pistol grip on an old movie 8 camera. The zoom action of the lens all takes place within the body of the camera and it has a 37mm thread so it's possible to fit filters or lens hoods, though if you stack them the mounting ring will begin to intrude on the corners of some shots. Recording media is a standard SD flash memory card. The flash is housed within the camera until required when you extend it by pressing a button on the side, displacement from the camera lens is reasonable, so red eye isn't much of a problem.

Most people will end up using it on the auto settings, but serious photographers will find quite enough to fiddle with on the manual settings to keep them happy for a while. You really do need to read the manual to get the best from this camera. There are quite a few features, including the facility to create consecutive shots to stitch into a panorama and a super macro with a theoretical zero focal length for those extreme close-ups.

Battery life isn't bad, but I quickly found that a new battery was going to be useful, particularly if you intend to take long movie shots. Pentax branded are horribly expensive, but fortunately 7dayshop do a compatible ref D-Li7 that costs a fraction of the price and works just as well.

I've taken a lot of good pictures with the camera and am generally very happy with it, the only gripes I have is shutter lag, I frequently find that by the time the pictures taken the bird or bug I was aiming at has moved. Also on movies the microphone picks up the lens motor as it hunts to keep things in focus. I'm also sufficiently old fashioned to want an optical viewfinder, but there isn't one.

An odd camera and not perfect, but plenty good enough for the idle snapper, with enough features to interest the enthusiast, it'll never outperform a decent digital SLR, but will always be nice to have around.

The Pentax Optio MX is one of the best digital cameras I have ever used. With a 10x optical zoom combined with a 10x digital, I was able to take a shot of the Moon and the detail of the Moon's landscape impressed me, something I was never able to do without spending a lot of money. I then used the Microzoom built into the aamera and took a shot of a flower, again the detail of the petal and the pollen were unbelievable. I do recommend it to anyone and if you are going to do lots of close ups invest in a tripod.