Water Resistant and Rugged - Pentax Optio 33WR
Written: Feb 09 '04
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Pros: Level 7 Water Resistant, Rugged Construction, Good Image Quality, Great Knock-Around Camera
Cons: Wish it had more megapixels
The Bottom Line: Between its water resistance and ruggedness, the Pentax 33WR is a great camera for users who are just a bit harder on their cameras than most others are.
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| jps246's Full Review: Pentax Optio 33WR Digital Camera |
Looking for a handy little digital camera that take survive the rigors of the outdoor world and all that it can throw at a camera? The Pentax Optio 33WR fits the bill and is a 3.2 megapixel digital camera that offers water resistance and some other nifty features.
A lot of the digital cameras out today aren’t designed for the rigors that come along with harder outdoor use and activities like backpacking, canoeing or skiing. The Pentax Optio though, is from the ground up, designed to be able to pass through these rigors and continue to take quality photographs.
Optio 33WR Details
Size and Weight
The Optio is compact and measures only 3 inches in height, 3.2 inches in width and about 1.2 inches in depth. The camera weight, with batteries and memory is about 0.46 pounds (7 ounces). As you can probably tell, the Optio is almost square in shape and weighs in around the same weight as most other digital cameras in its class.
Resolution
The 3.2 megapixel Optio offers 4 different resolutions, 2048x1536, 1600x1200, 1024x768 and 640x480. The 33WR uses a fairly simply nomenclature for photo resolutions, “good,” “better” and “best” for each of the resolution modes. Images can be saved in the jpeg, DCF, and DPOF formats. Depending upon your ultimate use of the pictures, the various resolutions may be useful for you. 640x480 is useful for only emailed pictures or websites, while the 2048x1536 resolution is mostly for prints that are going to be enlargements. Generally a 3.2-megapixel image is good for an 8x10 print or smaller, but nothing larger than that – otherwise the prints will probably start to degrade in quality.
The camera is also able to take movies with sound in the quick time movie format.
Memory
Images are stored on the Secure Digital (SD)/Multimedia Cards (MMC). These cards have storage capacities from 16 megabytes up to 512 megabytes. The amount of images you can store on an individual card is based on its capacity and the resolution that you are capturing images in. However, at only 3.2-megapixels, anyone with a larger size card (128mb) should have no problem with running out of space on the average size vacation even if they are shooting most pictures at the full resolution. For example a 16mb card can hold roughly 7 images at the highest resolution at the best quality but can hold about 50 images at the 640x480 best resolution.
Batteries
The Optio runs off of a single CR-V3 or two AA batteries. A single CR-V3 battery is rated for about 500 images and the two AA batteries would last less time than that, since they generally don’t last as long as the CR-V3’s. The batteries cannot be charged directly in the camera.
Transferring Images
The Optio directly connects to your computer through a USB connection or if you have a memory card reader that supports the SD/MMC cards, then you don’t need to connect the camera to the computer to download the images, just download them directly from the memory cards. Software is included with the camera should you want to use the USB connection.
Lens, Zoom and Focusing
With a built in 2.8x optical zoom, the Optio is close to many of the other digital cameras with a 3x zoom lens. The Optio’ lens is equivalent to a 37-104mm and provides enough zoom to generally get the job done, though at times you may find yourself having to move closer to get the image that you want. There is also a 4x digital zoom, but like all digital zooms, it’s better left unused because of the degradation of image quality that results from its use.
The zoom lens is built-in the camera and when zooming, does not reach outside of the camera body. This is one way that Pentax was able to completely encase the camera in the water resistant housing.
Focus on the Optio is completely automatic and in normal picture taking mode, the camera can focus on objects from about a foot away to infinity. In macro mode, the camera can focus on as close as 4 inches away and up to about a foot and a half away.
LCD Panel
There is a 1.6 inch LCD view screen on the back of the camera that can be used to in place of the viewfinder to compose pictures and to review options and view/manage pictures that have already been taken. The panel can display a histogram for each photo taken. You can also trim and resize images directly on the panel.
Exposure, Shutter Speed, and Flash
With regards to exposure, the Optio is completely automatic, along with the built-in automatic flash. ISO sensitivity is either automatic or can be user programmed between 50 and 400. There are several different pre-programmed exposure modes that are included with the Optio that include: Landscape; Night Scene; Night Portrait; Portrait; Surf & Snow; Flower; and Sunset to name a few. The built-in flash also offers several different modes that include auto and red-eye reduction. The flash is good for about a foot away to about 16 feet away.
White balance can either be adjusted automatically, or manually through 6 different pre-set modes and one manual mode (these modes are for different kinds of standard lighting).
Controls
The Optio is a fairly simple and straightforward camera to use and almost any user should be able to take it out of the box and start taking pictures without too much trouble. The features aren’t hard to figure out, but with the amount available, a quick review of the manual will give you enough background to start exploring those options.
Water Resistance
The Optio is rated to Class 7 water resistance, which means that it can be completely submerged in water for up to 30 minutes with no damage to the inside of the camera. This doesn’t mean you can take the camera swimming with you, but splashing it, dropping it in a puddle or other water, or otherwise exposing it to the elements shouldn’t have any adverse effects on the camera itself.
Cost and Included Accessories
The Optio comes with a CR-V3 battery, an AV cable, a USB cable, a 16 megabyte SD memory card, a wrist strap and the software needed to be able to connect the camera to the computer along with some imaging software. Prices on the camera range from about $260 to about $350 dollars, depending upon the merchant.
Nifty Things
In addition to being water resistant and highly rugged, the Optio also has a handy “surf and snow” mode that makes the camera compensate for highly reflective subjects in images. No more washed out pictures of people skiing or standing near a lake.
The rubberized corners of the Optio are pretty cool – it gives the camera that much more ruggedness when it’s rolling around the inside of your pack or thrown in the back of your car during a trek.
The internal zoom lens is a nice feature even without the water resistance – you don’t have to worry about an extended lens hitting anything when it’s all encased inside the camera.
Final Thoughts
Image quality from the Optio 33WR is on par with other 3-megapixel cameras that I have seen. Prints from the Optio’s images are generally quite good and you can generally print an 8x10 print with no problems. Prints larger than 8x10 from the Optio or any other 3-megapixel camera generally start to show some degradation and this is evident from the Optio. However, most people never print anything larger than an 8x10 print.
Camera start-up is quick and the write-time for the pictures was comparable to other models (a second or so).
However the Option 33WR’s claim to fame is its water resistance and here it doesn’t fail. There are other water resistant cameras and waterproof housings that you can purchase separately, but for a reasonably priced, quality image-producing camera, you can’t go wrong with the 33WR. You can splash it, take pictures in the rain, accidentally drop it while paddling, and guess what? It will still work and that’s pretty amazing (and a godsend for those clumsy ones amongst us).
Between the simplicity of point-and-shoot, its water resistance, its ruggedness, and the availability of several different pre-set modes for various functions, the Pentax 33WR is a great camera for users who are just a bit harder on their cameras than most others are.
Digital Camera Reviews
Olympus C-4000 Digital Camera / Olympus D-460 Zoom Digital Camera / Minolta Maxxum 300si (35mm SLR) / Polaroid PDC 640 Digital Camera / Kodak EasyShare CX4300 Digital Camera / Canon Elph LT APS Camera / Olympus Stylus Infinity Zoom 35mm Camera / Casio Exilim Ex-Z4U Digital Camera / Fuji FinePix F700 Digital Camera
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 300
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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