Review There are some things you should never mix with water, such as a fine malt or electricity. Another is your digital camera, unless you happen to be the proud owner of a Pentax Optio W80.

Waterproof and grit resistant: Pentax's Optio W80

This novel-looking camera is designed to be used underwater. It has a JIS waterproof grade eight spec, which means it can operate down to a depth of five metres for up to two hours. It can operate in temperatures as low as -10°C. No need for any fancy and expensive underwater housing accessories with this baby: just take the plunge and snap away, well, at least until the battery runs out.

And that’s not all. The Optio W80 also has a JIS dust proofing grade six rating, so it’s going to keep out tiny grains of sand and other minute particles that might gum up the works. It’s tough too, with Pentax claiming it can withstand a drop of one metre onto thick plywood. Despite this, we would strongly recommend treating the Optio W80 with a little care, not least because dropping the camera could damage the waterproof housing. So there you have it: a camera that is waterproof, dustproof, and has graduated from the school of hard knocks. But is it any good?

The general control layout is fairly typcal, but you can’t miss the protective rubberised edging. The Optio W80’s look reminds us of a miniature flight case and Pentax clearly aspires to create an impression of robustness. The camera has a 2.5in LCD screen composed of 230,000 dots and uses a lithium-ion battery and SD/SDHC cards. You even get 33.7MB of internal memory. Protection includes a tough metal and rubber camera body, toughened LCD screen and lens cover and, of course, a non-telescopic zoom.

The battery and card slot cover uses a small locking lever, which has to be pushed, before the cover slides open. The inside of the cover has a layer of rubber, which forms a watertight seal over battery and card when closed. And having used the Optio W80 underwater, we can attest that this arrangement works well.

Sealed shooter: no bulky waterproof cover required

The Optio W80 has a 1/2.3in CCD with 12.1 effective megapixels, a resolution range of 4000 x 3000 down to VGA and an electrically driven 5-25mm F/3.5-5.5 optical zoom – equivalent to 28-140mm on a 35mm camera. It has average shutter speed choices of 1/1500-1/4sec and extended to 4 seconds in Night Scene mode.

The 64-6400 ISO range drops the resolution to 5Mp for ISO 3200 and 6400 images. It also features a face detection system which detects for up to 32 faces, HD movie recording at 1280 x 720 resolution with 30fps and 15fps options, and VGA and QVGA video at 15fps. The camera comes with an instruction book on a CD-Rom, plus ACDsee photo management software.

Pity the zoom rocker isn't a bit bigger

Pentax claims that the Optio W80 is so compact that it’s like carrying a mobile phone in your pocket, but this is pushing things a bit. That said, it is on the small side, measuring 99.5 x 56 x 24.5mm and weighing 150 grams with battery and card. The front has a nice brushed metal finish and a small metal finger rest on the right hand side adds to the comfort.

From power on to the first shot takes a little over three seconds and switch off is very quick – about one second. You can operate the Optio W80 in auto mode or choose from another 23 options that include program, night scene, panorama, digital wide (which combines two frames), landscape and pet. And this being an underwater camera, there are special modes for shooting still and video images underwater.

Most settings are changed via the menu and mode buttons, which is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it means fewer buttons to worry about, but, it does mean you have to use various menus to change most parameters. Even so, the menu system isn’t bad. Press the menu button and you’re presented with a multi-page menu that is navigated using the multi-controller. One disappointment is that if you change a setting, and then return to the menu, you have to go all the way back to the start, whereas some menus return to the last parameter you changed.

The menu content depends on the mode you’re in, but even in auto mode, you get a fair selection of settings to tweak including, file size and compression level, auto-focus setting and even restrict the ISO range, which can be set between 64-100, 64-1600, and several more options in between. The mode button uses the familiar Pentax icon-based menu, which includes a short text description, so there’s little chance of getting confused.

The lens remains within the unit, rather than projects out from the body

Should you want to go into full auto mode quickly, just press the green mode button and the Optio W80 takes cares of business, leaving you to concentrate on the shot. Manual white balance and manual focus are also available for the more adventurous. The latter proved better than we had anticipated, with the zoom rocker providing pretty smooth focusing.

Sample Shots

ISO 64
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ISO 100
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ISO 200
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ISO 400
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ISO 800
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ISO 1600
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ISO 3200
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ISO 6400
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Sample Shots

Night shot mode
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Sample Shots

Macro 1cm mode
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Wide angle

Tele-photo
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Panorama
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Panorama
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Underwater
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Burst mode takes up to 8 shots at 2.9fps or at 5.9fps if set to ISO 3200 or 6400
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Continous mode has no limit on the number of pictures taken
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HD Video
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However, instead of the dedicated face detection/smile capture button on the back, we would have liked a dedicated underwater button, enabling users to quickly set-up the camera for shooting below the surface. There’s also a choice of two macro modes, which can be quickly accessed via the multi-controller. Normal macro is designed for shooting objects 10-60cm away from the camera, while 1cm macro mode is for objects 1-30cm away. All in all, the Optio W80 is fine to handle, although we wish the zoom rocker was slightly larger.

Rugged with colour options too

When it comes to performance, the Optio W80 is certainly rugged. When we first plunged the camera into the water, we were somewhat disconcerted by the sight of a bubble trail emerging from the beneath the body, but this turned out to be air trapped in the tripod bush. The Optio W80 is most definitely waterproof and neither camera or battery and memory card suffered any ill effects from their underwater experiences. We tried the Optio W80 in a sink and in our local river and it came up trumps. The underwater mode disables the flash, but even in our somewhat murky river, the Optio W80 coped with the less than ideal shooting conditions.

A shame then, that its terrestrial images were not so impressive. We have noticed a tendency for Pentax compacts to overexposure a little and also boost the ISO level, and in the process, increase noise. And noise was an issue, even at low ISO speeds. Use the ISO 64 and ISO 100 settings and there are no problems, but there is a significant increase in noise when you hit ISO 200. By ISO 800, things are looking pretty ropey, which begs the question as to why Pentax has bothered offering up to ISO 6400?

The panoramic system worked well, but the night landscape mode was marred by noise, as the ISO is boosted to around ISO 800. Video was a disappointment too – the resolution was coarse, colours were anaemic, and while motion was pretty smooth, moving objects would occasionally stutter.

Verdict

So there you have it: if you’re looking for a camera to use in the great outdoors and, in particular, underwater then the Optio W80 is a good choice when it comes to standing up against the elements. You can use this camera on a beach, up a mountain or below water, safe on the knowledge that the Optio W80 will come to no harm, provided you don’t do anything silly. A pity though, that the resulting images may not look so robust. ®

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