Pentax Optio P80 12.1MP Digital Camera with 4x Wide Angle Optical Zoom with Shake Reduction and 2.7

Pentax's P80 is a joy to own and use.

I've tested it thoroughly for 2 weeks. Its photos are technically pleasing 95% of the time. I never knew a camera could be this nice.

I love how the self timer works. It stays in effect until turned off, so I can do a long session of tripod mounted macros without having to use buttons and menus. There's even an option to have it remember the self timer setting when the camera is turned off and on. This will save huge amounts of time for night photography.

The interface was very easy to figure out. I was operating it with ease right away.

Video quality is excellent. 30 fps 1280x720 clips look incredible on an HDTV. The camera allows white balance and EV adjustments in video mode. The live histogram is accurate and useful to help capture the ideal image. Audio sounds clean and great too. The self timer function is available in video mode, so camera shake at the beginning of clips can be eliminated. Unlike QuickTime, the camera's AVI file format easily imports into Windows Movie Maker and Virtual Dub.

I use D-Range to control shadows and highlights. It works! I took a picture of new, bright white sneakers with black accents in noon sunlight and it turned out perfectly, even with contrast set to high. That kind of subject has far too much dynamic range for other cameras I've used.

I wish it had a black and white mode so I could simply get BW photos directly. There's an in-camera conversion option, but in the opinion of this reviewer it's a waste of battery life and storage space. Picasa does very good BW conversions of P80 photos. Other cameras have problems with challenging BW subjects like white and chrome cars on sunny days, but Pentax has it figured out. I'm always amazed to see wide, perfectly contained histograms in test photos I was sure would be failures. It's hard to make it clip shadows and highlights.

I didn't expect such useful results from a small, high resolution sensor. To my delight, the sensor delivers 12 good megapixels. Detail is excellent. The camera doesn't aggressively reduce noise and smear colors together.

It does lens correction. 28mm shots with strong barrel distortion are beautifully converted to scenes with straight lines and edges. It happens fast too.

I'm a very negative, fault finding person. It says a lot that this product exceeds my modest expectations.

After experimenting with its huge amounts of adjustment settings, I will use it in Auto ISO, high contrast, high sharpness, medium saturation, daylight white balance, D-Range shadows and highlights, and 7 megapixels. EV adjustments are rarely necessary thanks to D-Range processing. Leaving it at -0.3 appears to work well most of the time.

If I'm in a photographically ideal situation, I'll turn off D-Range and go to ISO 64 at 12 megapixels. (The lower limit with D-Range on is ISO 125.)

The tripod mount is centered, so the camera won't easily tip over with mini-tripods. I use a mini-tripod as a camera grip for more stability. It compensates for the P80's small size and light weight.

The camera has some purple fringing issues, so I can't give it 5 stars. They're easy to take care of in editing. I bought the thing mainly for black and white, so purple fringing doesn't matter much to me.

I tried its highest saturation setting and would not recommend it for normal, colorful scenery. None of the color channels blew out, but maximized blue skies and sunlit green plants looked too weird for my taste. High saturation would work better with drab subjects to bring out more color than the eye sees.

I have used this camera for a couple of weeks and have found it to be a great buy. I wanted a very compact camera to carry basically anywhere and this fit the bill. It has a wide range of options that I am still trying to master. One negative I have found so far, and it may be user error, is the pictures blur very easily as the magnification is increased.

Buy Pentax Optio P80 12.1MP Digital Camera with 4x Wide Angle Optical Zoom with Shake Reduction and 2.7 Now

I am a novice, and I use it for family pictures and videos. It does the job perfectly! The Pentax brand stands up well to the beating delivered by a family with several toddlers and young children. I like all of the settings, helping me to be a better photographer than I actually am. My only difficulty with the camera is that one of the settings delivers two flashes, so my family would forget and moves as soon as the first flash occured. With several reminders, though, my family has gotten used to it, so now our pictures turn out beautifully! Plus, if I just use a different setting, it's not a problem! One thing I really like: my old Pentax wouldn't take pictures of my son playing b-ball in a gym very well. This model does a great job of taking indoor photos of moving objects with the proper amount of flash!

Read Best Reviews of Pentax Optio P80 12.1MP Digital Camera with 4x Wide Angle Optical Zoom with Shake Reduction and 2.7 Here

I have owned this camera for a year, and I have never been disappointed. The picture quality is amazing; I get comments all the time on how clear and high quality my photos are. I have taken pictures with this camera in Utah, Washington, Nevada, DC, Virginia, New York, Alabama, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic... waterfalls, deserts, people, animals, snow, sun, beach, forest, ocean, overcast, indoor... you name it, I've tried it. And almost always I am pleased with the outcome. I have owned 8 compact digital cameras as well as 2 digital SLRs, and this is by far my favorite. It's so sleek and small, I take it everywhere and use it daily. I've dropped it a few times and it doesn't have a scratch. The color is classic and even a bit glamorous. The picture modes are maybe a little overkill, but they're also fun to use in different situations. My father (photographer) and sister (not a photographer) now own this as well, and are just as pleased with the ease and quality. I HIGHLY suggest buying this camera!!!

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Easy to use, high quality photos, easy to upload to computer (I have a Mac). Slim model, easy to carry in purse. Love this camera!