Pentax Optio S7 Review

The Optio S7 features a Pentax 6.2-18.6mm 3x optical zoom with a 35mm equivalent focal length of 37.5-112.5mm, the maximum aperture is f2.7 - f5.2. The lens is all glass and consists of 6 elements in 5 groups with 2 dual-sided aspherical elements. When the camera is powered down the lens is retracted inside of the body and a built in shutter closes to protect the lens.

It has a 5-point AF system with user-selectable AF point location, Spot AF, infinity landscape, panfocus and manual focus with an AF-assist lamp. The focusing range in Normal mode is 1.31 ft (0.4m) to Infinity; Macro mode: 5.9 inches (0.15 m) to 1.64 ft (0.5m); Manual Focus from 5.9 inches (0.15m) to Infinity at 6.2mm

You review and frame your pictures with the 2.5" color LCD with 232,000 pixels, there is no optical finder. The LCD has approx. 100% coverage and histogram display.

The built in flash offers Auto, Flash-off, Flash-on, Auto + Red-eye reduction, Flash-on + Red-eye reduction and Soft Flash. Flash range is approx. 0.49 -17ft (0.15 - 5.1m) (Wide at ISO Auto), approx. 1.31 - 8.9ft (0.4 - 2.7m) (Tele at ISO Auto).

On the top is the built-in speaker, On/Off power button, and the shutter release.

In the upper right hand corner is the zoom control which also functions as the index/magnify control in playback mode. The Play button (blue arrow) allows you to quickly switch to playback mode.

The 4-way controller lets you navigate menus and select images during playback. In record mode you press "Up" to enable remote or self timer mode, "Left" for flash mode, "Right" for focus mode and "Down" calls up the virtual mode dial which we'll detail on the next page.

Pressing the MENU button calls up and dismisses the onscreen menu system. The Quick "green" button switches the camera to Green mode (fully automatic), serves as image Delete in playback.

The I/O ports:

The DC IN jack is for the optional AC power adapter or an external battery pack.





The PC/AV port handles both the USB connection for download and the audio-video output for TV display. The Optio S7 is PictBridge compatible for direct printing.

The Optio S7 is equipped with 23MB of internal memory and equipped with a card slot that supports use of SD cards up to 2GB or SDHC cards up to 4GB. Data recorded on the internal memory can be copied to SD card.

The Optio S7 is powered by a proprietary D-LI8 3.7V 710mAh rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack. Pentax claims the battery life is good for approx. 180 shots, continuous playback time is approx. 130 minutes (using CIPA Standards.)