Pentax Optio S50 5MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

Bought this camera about 6mo ago. After ~2GB of pictures:

1. Decent quality you gotta understand that it is not SLR so for a compact it is OK. Viewing 100% size shows no visible defects.

2. Really small important since what good is your camera if it stays at home most of the time. That one fits in the pocket, but you'll feel it there.

3. Takes AA batteries good thing just in case

4. Has multiple modes and settings not too useful, but it doesn't hurt either.

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Now for what could be better:

1. Slow as you would not believe shooting @5MP and best resolution. When this red light is blinking (writing to card) you can't do anything and it lasts forever.

2. Slow in general takes too long between you push the button and the picture being actually taken. Pple turn around, move out of frame and so on.

3. Buttons are tiny well, the camera is tiny too, but still...

If you plan to use gloves or just have large hands forget about it.

4. Battery usage I use rechargable 2400mAh ones and they don't last too long. Indoor shots almost always use a flash so battery indicator goes yellow after about 20-30 shots no matter how you recharge your batteries (there are different ways to do it)

Conclusion: It is worth the price if you need really small camera to take anywhere and want to stick with the combination of SD storage and regular AA batteries

I bought this camera after looking at several other cameras. I liked the size of the camera, Pentax name and claimed battery life. I think the color reproduction is ok, but not great, and the picture clarity is ok, but not great. Using 2400 mAh recharageble batteries made this camera almost useless. Since almost every shot requires a flash, I only would get 30 or so pictures before needing to switch batteries. And since NiMH batteries loose charge when not in use, I would find the batteried dead if I left the camera a few day. I have since purchased some 1400 mAh, Li-ion CRV3 rechargeble batteries. These are a must for anyone with this camera. I can't tell you how many pictures it gets per charge, because after 2 weeks it is still on the first charge, and has not even dropped from the full charge indicator! This is several hundred pictures, viewing and deleting pictures on the camera and transfering the picutes to a computer. As a bonus, since the CRV3 battery supplies a full 3V, the flash charges about twice as fast. (NiNM AA batteries are only 1.3 V each)

The main problem with the camera is how incredibly slow it is. This camera is mostly used to take pictures of our kids, and kids do not sit still enough for this camera. Every aspect of shooting a picture is very slow. The other draw back is that this camera needs a lot of light, and the flash doesn't help for anything more than a few feet (about 10 or so) away. Outside shots are usually fine if the sun is at least partially out.

I am currenly looking for a faster digital camera, with a bigger lens to help in low light situations.

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I bought this camera as my first digital camera. its simplistic design and 5mp are what turned me on to this product. when i got it home and started to play with is i realized it had an abundance of features that i didn't notice at the store. it can take point and shoot pictures easily, it has a manual focus override, and you are able to take black and white or my personal favorite black, white and red! these are just a few of the features on this relatively inexpensive camera. to top it all off it takes really really good high resolution pictures that you'll think were taken by a professional.

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I bought the Pentax S50 last December. I already own a Nikon 5700 but I was looking for a camera that I could:

a) take anywhere, and

b) take scuba diving

With its compact size and available underwater housing (and even supported "marine" modes) the Pentax seemed to fit the bill. I was actually undecided between the S50 and the Casio Exilim, so I actually ran a side-by-side comparison of the two. The S50 lost out in almost every discipline, the most important being picture quality (even though I was comparing to a 3MP Z30!), which I actually found to be quite poor on the S50. Apart from this, I was disappointed by the LCD screen, which was smaller and far less sharp than the Casio's, the larger size (although not by much) and the general build quality the buttons, flaps and doors just felt cheap compared to other cameras.

On the positive side, I did like the idea of being able to use standard AA's, but when you consider the amazing battery life of today's ultracompacts, it's really not an advantage. I was also impressed by the incredible array of features and options that the S50 packs in unfortunately, these don't make up for the poor picture quality. My advice would be to choose a Casio Exilim. If price is an issue, get the Z30 or Z40 you will still get better pictures.

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this is a great little camera. i bought it because of its size. it has some great features like being able to reduce the file size photos stored on it. panoramic assist is good and its very easy to use. it has some drawbacks too. red eye reduction always has to be used. the pictures are quite dark in low light settings and my biggest problem, low battery life. it uses 2 AA batteries. the rechargable batteries that came with it were charged for 12 hrs as recommended. i only got about 90 pictures out of them (16 were with

flash). it also takes a while to write the images to the disk( even with the enhanced SD II card)

but i still think its a great camera.

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