Pentax Optio S5z review

The direction buttons provide easy access to flash, self-timer and focus settings. You get several options in each category and you might need to venture into the manual to decipher some of the icons. Focus options include manual, which we found almost impossibly difficult, and the more useful focusing area, which lets you move the 'must be in focus point' to one of 49 possible areas spread equally around the frame. White balance, metering mode and exposure compensation are set via the menu, although you can customise the camera so you can access them by pressing the Quick button, followed by a direction button.

If you need assistance with your photography, press the Mode button to bring up a palette of scene modes. These include Landscape, Flower, Portrait, Self-Portrait, Sunset, Food, Pet, Text, Sports and Surf & Snow. There's also a Movie mode, a Panorama Assist mode that helps you take sequences of images that you can stitch together on your computer, and a Special Effects mode. The last gives you a choice of three effects -- Posterisation, Soft and Slim -- or the new Comment Space option, which lets you leave a blank strip along the bottom of the image. The strip can be either one quarter or one eighth of the height of the image, and can be applied in landscape or portrait mode. The theory is that when you print the image, you can write notes or comments in the blank area. We can't think why you'd want to sacrifice one quarter of your image merely so you can scribble something at the bottom at a later date, but maybe this feature will appeal to obsessive annotators.

The Movie mode records 640x480-pixel video at 30fps, with mono sound, to the capacity of your memory card. The S5z also offers basic editing functions, enabling you to cut a movie into two separate files, or stitch two movies together.

Performance
Snapshots were generally bright and sharp, although sometimes the camera had difficulty choosing the correct focus point. Using the default setting, the autofocus has three focus points to choose among, and it should select the one which is closest to the camera. On occasion it struggled to make a choice or selected the wrong point. It also had a slight tendency to overexpose -- a trait we didn't notice in the S5n. On the plus side, the S5z made a valiant effort to retain shadow detail in strongly backlit scenes.

The Optio S5z had a slight tendency to overexpose

Like the S5n, the S5z struggled to hold detail in intense reds, and skin tones were very slightly pink -- although not unflatteringly so. Otherwise colours were bright, clean and accurate. The Super-macro mode works well for close-ups of flowers and other small objects.

Colours were bright, well saturated and accurate

The built-in flash has a range of 3.5m with the lens at its widest setting and 2m at the telephoto end. While it won't light up a ballroom, it's more powerful than the flashes on most ultracompacts. It's certainly adequate for snapping your friends in restaurants or at parties.

Movies were impressive, with smooth motion and good detail and colour. The S5z is no substitute for a camcorder, but you can have fun shooting short clips.

Overall, we doubt you'll find much to complain about, although setting the exposure compensation to dial down the exposure slightly may improve your photographs.

Additional editing by Nick Hide