A camera that works as well as it looks
Written: Oct 26 '02 (Updated Oct 27 '02)
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Pros: looks great, good construction, sharp pictures
Cons: noisy
The Bottom Line: This camera hooked me on its sleek looks and earned my respect for its excellent picture quality.
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| AgnesVarda's Full Review: Pentax IQZoom 120MI Date 35mm Film Camera |
The first time I ever held this camera in my hands while browsing in a camera shop, I knew I had to own it. It's one of the few cameras that looks and feels better in person than it does in pictures. While many point-and-shoot cameras these days have the ever popular aluminum front panel, the IQ Zoom 120mi has an aluminum front AND BACK panel. Believe me, this makes quite a difference in the feel of the unit. It feels sleek and solid through and through.
The look of the camera is modern, yet has a straighforward "blocky" design that is reminiscent of the posh point-and-shoots from Leica and Contax. Quite masculine looking, if I may say so. In fact, I think it's the best looking compact camera Pentax has ever made, next to the old UC-1. Pentax's usual offerings in the point-and-shoot category are quite horsey looking.
The length and width of this camera is absolutely TINY at 4" x 2.5", but due to the zoom, it's quite thick. If you can imagine a very small metal brick, that is what the shape of this camera is like. Very comparable to the dimensions of the Konica Lexio 70.
The layout of this camera seem to be very well thought out, with no spaces wasted. The battery compartment sits at the top behind the flash, and the hole for the camera strap doubles as the hinge for the film door. That battery, by the way, is a CR2 which does not last as long as a CR123 but I assume Pentax chose it for its small dimensions.
As far as ergonomics go, some aspects are great and some not so good. There is a nice rubber grip for your right hand, but simply not enough space for big hands to hold. There also are two very confusing controls on this camera. One is the on/off button, which is not a button at all but a spring-loaded switch that you must pull to the right to turn on or off. Quite unintuitive, because the on button should never require you to figure it out. I guess the only good thing is that it will never get confused with the shutter button, though in some occasions when I was in a hurry, I've gotten it mixed up with the zoom bar. The other strange choice is the switch to open the film door. Believe it or not, this is actually a round knob that you have to pull up and turn clockwise in order to open the film compartment. Again, it's completely confusing.
I do like the shutter button, which is a big round chrome button, perfect size. The different mode buttons are very well separated in logical categories -- you have your flash modes all in one button, red eye in another, self timer/remote in a third button, and focus modes in the fourth. The buttons are easy to see, though they are tiny and might require a fingernail to push. Diopter adjustment is a nice extra touch that works well, and the zoom bar is very straightforward.
One other complaint is the noise: the first time I turned on this camera, it responded with an odd 'bloop' noise, like the sound effect from an arcade game. When you press the shutter, it emits a funny jangly sound. The reason I don't like this is because the audio doesn't at all match with the physical look of this camera. It should sound mechanical, but instead sounds like a cricket chirping. Go figure.
I find that this camera does have some very smart features. It can sense when you're in a low light situation, and will light up the LCD screen in a blue glow for a few seconds (just like the Konica Lexio 70) so that you can see what you're doing - it stays on for just enough time to be visible but unobstrusive. Also, if you have chosen a particular mode, the camera will stay on that mode as long as it's on, unlike many other cameras that will default every single time you push the shutter. And you don't have to toggle through a whole bunch of modes in order to turn it back off to the default. Say you've been shooting in Flash Off mode. If you want to go back to the normal Auto Flash mode, you just press the mode button once and it defaults back to normal. It's hard to explain how exactly this works, but it's very agreeable in operation, and I haven't seen this feature in other point-and-shoots I've used.
All this talk about the camera's design would be moot if it didn't take good pictures. I'm happy to say that the IQ Zoom 120mi takes excellent pictures. The first roll I shot was at a wedding, and almost all the prints came back sharp and beautiful. The only blurry shots were when I had the zoom extended all the way, but this shortcoming is inherent in ALL long zooms, so if you use some sort of support or tripod, that blurriness can be eliminated also. Metering and exposuring were very accurate and consistent. Even with the zoom out and no flash, I got back shots that were properly lit. This camera has a slow sync flash mode and bulb flash, which are good for ambient lighting, where it will greatly vary the shutter speed to allow for enough light. These features worked very well for me.
I'm guessing that the zoom length of this camera, 38mm-120mm, is what keeps many photo enthusiasts from choosing it, because at the short end it is not very wide. That means that you could get good closeups while zooming in, but when you want to zoom out for faraway shots of a wide landscape or a big group of people, it will be slightly harder to fit into the frame. 38mm is a very standard rating though, and normal consumers will be happy with it. I believe Pentax has since updated their line with a 28mm-120mm zoom camera, but it's not as nice looking as the 120mi and reviews have been mixed.
A desirable feature of the zoom is that it stops anywhere you want within the zoom range, rather than limiting you to preset 'stops'. Undesirable features? I guess the zoom is rather noisy and slow compared to some other cameras, but when put to actual use it has never been inhibiting.
In conclusion, I have been through MANY point-and-shoot cameras, some great and some disappointing, and I couldn't help but be impressed by the Pentax IQ Zoom 120mi.
(Please keep in mind that for my ratings, I am comparing the Pentax IQ Zoom 120mi to other point-and-shoot cameras, but NOT to SLRs.)
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 169
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Epinions.com ID:
AgnesVarda
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Reviews written: 24
Trusted by: 5 members
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