Pentax Optio E60 Review

Here you can the camera in "Green" mode. It selects all of the exposure settings, you just simply point-n-shoot, perfect for beginners.

Auto Picture mode is very close to "Green" mode, it is automatic but it does allow you to choose Image size and quality, ISO, EV Compensation, and movie controls.

Program AE mode is geared more toward the novice user, and offers a wealth of camera settings, like ISO, White Balance, Sharpness, Saturation, Contrast, Exposure Compensation, etc.

When the shutter is half-pressed and the autofocus locks, the active AF point bracket will shrink and turn green. If the flash in going to fire, the lighting bolt appears. You can also see the aperture and shutter speed values the camera has chosen.

Press the 4-way controller "MODE" button to change the exposure mode. A brief explanation of a modes intended use is shown below. Choices are: Auto Picture, Program, Night Scene, Night Scene Portrait, Half-length Portrait, Movie, Voice Recording, Landscape, Flower, Portrait, Surf & Snow, Sport, Digital SR, Kids, Pet, Food, Digital Panorama, Frame Composite, and Voice Recording.

Record Menu options:

Recorded Pixels - 10M, 7M, 5M, 3M, 16:9, 1024, 640
Quality Level - Best (***), Better (**) or Good (*)
Focusing Area - Choose focus mode (Multi, Spot, Tracking)
Sensitivity - Auto, or User select ISO 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400
EV Compensation - ±2.0 in 1/3EV steps
Movie - Adjust movie mode settings (shown below)
Digital Zoom - On or Off
Memory - Saves shooting function settings when camera is turned off
Date Imprint - On or Off

Pressing the 4-Way controller left gives you the flash options. Up is the drive mode and timer, and Right is the focus mode including macro focus mode. Macro covers macro: 0.49-1.64 ft.

Macro mode lets you focus on subjects as close as 3.96 inches from the lens at wide angle.

You can record 640x480 or 320x320 motion video at 15 or 30 fps with audio. Movie clips are stored as .AVI (Motion JPEG) format video files. While the optical zoom may Not be used during recording, you can preset the desired focal length. The length of these movies is limited only by available memory (max. 2GB clip size). The E60 also features Movie SR (Shake reduction), which helps eliminate blur or shake in you handheld movie clips.