Pentax Optio V20 compact camera

When it comes to features, the Optio V20’s offerings are not bad for a model at this price point. There’s an eight-megapixel 1/2.35in CCD, 6.3-31.5mm lens equivalent to 36-180mm on a 35mm camera, 5x optical zoom, shutter speed range from 1/2000-1/4 sec, ISO 80-6400 range, 51MB of internal memory, which is sufficient for storing up to 13 images at the highest resolution (3264 x 2448), video recording in both VGA and QVGA mode plus the usual crop of presets – there are 17 including, night, landscape, skin tone and panorama. You also get a fair sprinkling of in-camera editing features including, cropping, re-sizing and red eye removal.

It takes the Optio V20 around five seconds to power up and get set-up for the first shot so it’s not the fastest camera around. That said, the auto focus system soon locks onto the subject. Shutter lag is minimal and it takes around two seconds to write an image to the memory card when shooting at the highest resolution.

The back features the 3in LCD screen and the Face Priority mode switch

We liked the LCD screen a lot – it was big and bright, and when we took the Optio V20 out of a very sunny day, it was still fairly easy to view. The menu button lets you toggle between three set-up pages for adjusting parameters such as compression level and ISO setting, and is easy to navigate.

The mode button takes you through the various program settings, which are displayed as icons with short text description. Selecting the mode you want is a doddle and few people would be confused by the system. The Face Priority/Smile Capture button means users don’t have to navigate menus to use this function and that’s a good thing.