Optio X: A Look at Pentax's Ultra Thin 5MP Digicam

General Image Quality

For these pictures, the camera was reset to its factory default setting. Then, it was set to its highest quality recording setting. The pictures were then taken in Program mode unless stated otherwise. Portrait-style images have been rotated using Irfanview's "lossless operations". Click on a thumbnail to view the full-size image. All images are in sRGB color space.

Click to enlarge.	Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.	Click to enlarge.

In the first two samples above, the Optio X proves capable of capturing an impressive amount of detail. However, these jaggies are visible along diagonals throughout several of the images that we took. We were a little surprised to see the level of detail that the Optio X can capture in these outdoor images. It certainly seems more capable than it did on our resolution chart. In the third image, we have cropped out a portion of the image that shows some shadow clipping. Also, just below where this crop was taken, there are some blown highlights. Given such a small sensor size and a high megapixel count, we aren't too shocked to see a smaller dynamic range in this camera. Finally, the last issue that we wanted to point out has to do with JPEG artifacts. Although they are not a huge problem with this camera, if you look closely in some of the pictures, you can see traces of it near edges. We were a little surprised to see JPEG artifacts at all considering we were shooting in "Best" mode and the file sizes are so large.

Overall, the Optio X performed better than what we expected in our outdoor samples. It produced well-exposed and nicely saturated images the majority of the time. In addition, we found that purple fringing did not pose a problem. Just like most ultra-compact cameras, don't expect much in terms of dynamic range from this camera. We also noted a bit of corner/edge blurring, but it did not appear to be too destructive to overall image quality. We were happy with the default level of saturation and contrast, but it is nice to know that you can adjust these to a level above and below the default. The major image quality issues that we found with the Optio X are the limited dynamic range and the visibility of jaggies.

Night Scene

(f/2.6, 2.5 sec., ISO 80) Click to enlarge.

In Night Scene mode, the Optio X can take exposures up to 4 seconds long. In this 2.5 sec. exposure, we were very impressed with the results. Detail is high and noise levels are low. Other than the subtle jaggies and mild blurring at the upper-left corner, the image quality is good and the exposure is right on.

Movie Mode

(320x240, 15 fps) Click to view.

Movie clips with the Optio X are just so-so. At a resolution of 320x240 at 15 fps, Pentax is a bit behind the times for such a recent camera. On the bright side, the Optio X can record for an unlimited duration as long as there is free space. We should also point out that we noticed a bit of audio lag when shooting video clips.