List Price: $349.95
Sale Price: $235.00
Today's Bonus: 33% Off
I purchased the Pentax Optio WG-3 GPS (Purple) here at Amazon and this is a first impression review.
1) Decision: Prior to purchase I had to decide between the new Olympus TG-2 (tough camera) and this new Pentax model. The specs are for the most part are comparable (we'll let the hard-core techies split hairs in their reviews), but i was leaning toward the Olympus because it had nice styling and I have had positive experiences with other Olympus camera models. But I decided on the Pentax because I liked that they added the LED ring of lights to assist the microscope mode. Also, the camera comes with a snap on MACRO mount for use in the microscope mode.
2) Look and Feel: The camera is well-built feels heavy (but in a solid kind of way). The body is a hard plastic that almost feels like a rubber texture. The LED display is a 16x9 style that is vibrant when reviewing photos and video. You have to add your own SD card. I had a 2GB SanDisk Extreme III available and inserted in the battery compartment, then formatted using the menu system (Note: It formatted blazingly fast..in less than a second!). I decided not to attach the strap with carabiner that came in the box. Since I have a travel pouch for the camera, I preferred to attached a wrist strap I had lying around instead. The unit comes with a thick manual and a USB cable and associated plug-in charger. What is not included with the camera is a Micro/Mini HDMI cable for A/V-out.
3) Start-up and Menu: When you first start-up, the camera has you perform the standard date, time, time-zone type of set-up. Then you are ready to go (Note: I charged the battery for about an hour prior to using the camera, but I think it was pretty-much factory shipped fully charged. The menu system seems like all the other digital cameras on the market a little awkward; but keep in mind this is my first day with the camera and with experience I'll adapt to the particulars of this camera's menu system.
4) Photos: I took a walk with the camera just before sunset where there were a lot of light contrasts; then just after the sun went down, I photographed in twilight. First look at the photos with the fast F2.0 lens were impressive! Colors really popped in some flowers even in twilight. Nice contrast between colors in cityscape murals. Dialed up to 16-megapixels and zoomed 4x to try to see an architectural rendering on a sign I could barely make out in a building from the road. After taking the picture I was able to zoom in and not only see the architectural rendering but even read words on this sign that I couldn't see from the ground.
When I got home I tried the microscope mode which was an important reason why I purchased the camera in the first place. I attached the marco stand and took a photo of a nickel. The camera took a second to focus and the picture came out crisp. The LED lights illuminated the coin and due to the reflection, the edges around the coin were somewhat overexposed. I will have to experiment more, but the microscope mode worked as advertised seeing all sorts of micro-scratches on the coin face.
There are so many features I have not tried yet like the GPS; and I'll update my review as time goes on. Overall, the pictures were really good. The reason I'm giving it 5-stars at this point, is because the features that I purchased the camera for worked as advertised. And again the photo quality is to my satisfaction. I also do a lot of outdoor work where I need a camera to document progress for myself and customers. I don't want to have to worry about dust, rain and dirty hands. Note there is a time-elapsed feature that I have yet to try.
I don't plan to use this camera for underwater activities, but like I said earlier, there will be testers and evaluation websites that will put this new camera through all sorts of tests in the weeks ahead. But if you're ready now, I say go for it. Unless you get one DOA, you probably won't be disappointed.
Note: There is another customer review here on Amazon of this camera on 4/1/2013 that gave it 2-stars. The person said they had the camera boxed for return within 5-minutes due to poor picture quality. I would not take this review too seriously. This person obviously took no time to ensure they had proper settings or conditions. This is Pentax's 15th generation of tough camera evolution and they have a good reputation for hardware quality. Keep all this in mind when making your decision to buy or not.
0 comments:
Post a Comment