Pentax Optio WP

Most of us have been in
situations where we’ve
feared for the safety of
our beloved camera. Whether it’s
trying to snap surfers on a Cornish
beach, or attempting to capture
the excitement of a tropical
monsoon, it’s a terrible moment
when you wonder whether the
potential image is worth the
possible damage.
Pentax is taking on the current
rash of ‘splash-proof’ cameras with
the latest addition to its burgeoning
Optio range. The Optio WP is
immune to the elements, straight
out of the box.

Deeper and down

Pentax claims that it can be
submerged underwater for up to
30 minutes to a depth of 1.5 metres
(fi ve feet). While this means that
it’s great for messing around in the
water and other damp places such
as ski slopes, it’s only really good for
hanging around near the surface.
Still, the WP’s underwater ability’s
handy if you’re on holiday and
don’t want to leave your camera on
the beach while you have a quick
dip in the sea.
The waterproof nature of the
WP gives it a distinctive look. It’s
fi nished in a mixture of silver and
grey, with rounded edges and
very little in the way of exposed
parts. One element of the camera
that gives us immediate cause for
concern is the 3x optical zoom lens:
we’d certainly prefer to have some
kind of sliding cover to protect it,
instead of a clear glass face.

The inside story

The WP’s 5-megapixel sensor
is backed up with an impressive
array of features and functionality,
including the ability to set the white
balance according to your shooting
conditions – outside or inside,
depending on the type of light.
It’s strange that there’s no
underwater white balance setting
on the WP, just a palatte of
shooting modes, accessed via the
Mode Select edge of the fi ve-way
navipad. Of particular note are
the dedicated Underwater Scene
program and, rather intriguingly, a
group of Pet modes with a choice
of cat or dog, dark or light fur
options. The Pet mode activates an
autofocus tracking function, where
the subject is monitored and kept
in focus.
The WP has a handy Green
mode which is, unsurprisingly,
activated by pressing a green
button. This takes the camera into
basic point-and-click operation,
and it’s perhaps best used when
passing the camera to uninitiated
members of your family at
Christmas. The Green button can
also be set to provide easy access
to any of the other settings on the
camera – a welcome feature.
In use, the Optio WP benefi ts
from a rapid start-up time, and
it’s quick off the mark when it
comes to shooting in general. Sadly,
it’s certainly not perfect in terms
of handling. The WP’s a pretty
small camera, and while all the
controls are easily accessed when
shooting landscape shots, once
you turn it through 90 degrees and
try to shoot portraits the zoom
control becomes more diffi cult
to access. More annoyingly, in
this position the shutter release
disappears from under your fi nger
– we managed to turned the
camera off a couple of times while
we were shooting!
With so many features and
functions on offer, we were half
expecting image quality to be
below par as a consequence.
However, while the WP doesn’t
quite manage to reproduce the
image quality of several of its
5-megapixel compact rivals, it still
performs remarkably well.

Blurred vision

The WP’s exposure is accurate
enough in most conditions,
and image defi nition is pretty
impressive. Look a bit deeper into
the image, however, and textual
details appear blurred. Chromatic
aberration is kept to a respectable
minimum when shooting highcontrast
subjects, and while there’s
a certain amount of darkening
around the far edges of the image,
this isn’t as pronounced as it can
appear with lenses that are capable
of more zoom.
The WP captures colours
particularly well, with skin tones
and more extravagant hues coming
across impressively – especially
if you’ve got to shoot in bright
sunlight. On overcast days,
however, the white balance fi nds
the job a bit trickier, underlining
the fact that this camera is a real
holiday snapper.

What’s the verdict?

The WP is certainly a neat, compact
camera, and if you’re the sporty
type, then its rugged good looks
and waterproof casing could prove
tempting. However, we can’t help
feeling that these positive points
have been added at the cost of a
couple of negatives – most notably,
the camera lacks the out and out
image quality of some of its more
fragile competition…