Pentax Optio M50 Review

Here you can see the fully automatic "Green" picture mode. The camera selects all of the exposure settings, you just simply point-n-shoot, perfect for beginners.

Auto Picture mode is also fully automatic, however now the user has limited access to camera settings, like resolution, quality, ISO, etc.

Program AE mode is geared more toward the novice user, and offers several 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, and the selected shutter speed and aperture values will be displayed in the bottom left of the frame.

Pressing the OK button toggles the amount of overlay information displayed on the LCD. Here you can see extended exposure information with the live histogram.

Press the 4-way controller's "Down" or MODE button to change the exposure mode. Choices are: Auto Picture, Program, Night Scene, Movie, Voice Recording, Landscape, Flower, Natural Skin Tone, Surf & Snow, Sport, Digital SR, Kids, Pet, Food, and Frame Composite. When you sit on an item for a second or more, a brief description of the mode's intended use is displayed.

Pressing the Face Recognition button on the back of the camera cycles thorough these options, including Smile Capture mode. When enabled, the camera will fire automatically whenever it senses a smiling face within the frame.

Record Menu options:

Recorded Pixels - 8M, 5M, 4M, 3M, 2M, 1024, 640
Quality Level - Best (***), Better (**) or Good (*)
White Balance - Auto, Daylight, Shade, Tungsten, Fluorescent or Manual
Focusing Area - Choose Multi, Spot, or Tracking AF modes
AE Metering - Multi-segment, Center-weighted or Spot modes
Sensitivity - Auto, or User select ISO 64, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200
EV Compensation - ±2.0 in 1/3EV steps
Movie - Adjust movie mode settings (shown below)
Digital Wide - On/Off
Digital Zoom - On/Off
Instant Review - 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 secs. and Off
Memory - Saves shooting function settings when camera is turned off
Green Button - Set the function of the Green Button (Green mode, Image size/quality, ISO, etc.)
Sharpness - Hard, Normal or Soft
Saturation - Hard, Normal or Soft
Contrast - Hard, Normal or Soft
Date Imprint - On or Off

The Optio M50 lets you get up close and personal with its Macro focus mode. Macro covers from 0.33 - 1.64 feet at wide angle or 1.97 - 3.3 feet at telephoto.

To focus manually -- Press the Focus mode button and select "MF". Then press the OK button and adjust the focus distance by using the Up and Down positions of the 4-way controller. While you are actively changing the focus, the center portion of the LCD display is magnified and a distance scale is shown on the left.

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 before recording starts. The M50 also features Shake Reduction in movie mode, which helps you record more steady handheld video clips. The length of these movies is limited only by available memory (2GB Max. clip size).

Movie options found under the Rec. Menu.

Record Pixels - 640x480 or 320x320
Quality Level - Best (***), Better (**) or Good (*)
Frame Rate - 15fps - 30fps
Color Mode - Full Color, B&W, Sepia
Movie SR - On or Off