Pentax Optio W60 Review

This is the "green" point-n-shoot mode. Here the camera controls all aspects of the exposure process. The Record and Mode menus are locked, you may only change the flash mode (Auto or Off), enable the Self-timer, or change between 9-point AF or Macro focus mode while in point-n-shoot.

Auto Picture mode is also fully automatic, however now the user has access to various menu options, like resolution, quality, ISO, etc.

Depress the 4-way controller "Down" to bring up this graphical menu of recording modes to choose from: Auto Picture, Program, Night Scene, Movie, Underwater, Underwater Movie, Landscape, Flower, Portrait, Digital Wide, Surf & Snow, Digital SR, Kids, Pet, Half-Length Portrait, Sport,Fireworks, Voice Recording, Night Scene Portrait, Text, Food, Digital Panorama, Frame Composite and Report.

Program AE mode with the real time histogram display enabled. You will also get icons for image size, quality, white balance, and ISO speed. See the menu below for all available settings. Pressing the "OK" button changes the amount of on-screen information that you see.

With the shutter half-pressed the autofocus locks, the active AF point bracket will shrink, turn green, now you are ready to shoot.

Next to the "Menu" button on the back of the camera is a "Face Priority" button. This allows you to turn on or off the face priority as well as turning on the smile shutter feature, that allows the camera to capture images when the subject smiles without you pressing the shutter release.

Record menu options:

Recorded Pixels - 10M, 7.5M, 7M, 5M, 3M, 1024x768 or 640x480
Quality Level - Three (Best), Two (Better) or One (Good) "stars"
White Balance - Auto, Daylight, Shade, Tungsten, Fluorescent or Manual
AF Setting - Focusing Area (9 point AF, Spot AF, Tracking AF), Focus Limiter (On/Off)
AE Metering - Multi, Center-weighted, Spot
Sensitivity - Auto or fixed at 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600
EV Compensation - Override metering ±2.0EV in 1/3 steps
Movie - Enters the Movie mode menu (shown below)
Interval Shoot - Choose interval, number of shots, and start time
Blink Detection - On or Off
Digital Zoom - On or Off
Instant Review - Off, 0.5, 1, 2, 3 or 5 seconds
Memory - Memorize settings between power on and off
Green Button - Choose the function of the Green Button
Sharpness - Settings for minus, normal, plus
Saturation - Settings for minus, normal, plus
Contrast - Settings for minus, normal, plus
Date Imprint - Off, Date, Date & Time, Time

Pressing left allows you to access the flash options, up gives you the drive and self timer options and right for manual and focus options.

You can record 640x480 or 320x240 motion video at 15 or 30 fps with audio. Movie clips are stored as QuickTime MOV format video files. Pentax has also added the ability to record in 1280x720 HD (equivalent to 720p) at 15 fps. The optical zoom may be used while recording your movie (when enabled via the menu), and the Shake Reduction setting will help you capture steady handheld clips. The length of these movies is limited only by available memory.

Movie Menu:

Record Pixels - 1280 (15fps), 640 (15, 30fps), 320 (15, 30fps)
Color Mode - Full Color, Black and White, Sepia
Movie SR - On or Off
Interval Shoot - Select Interval, Total Time and Start Delay
AF with Recording - On or Off
Optical Zoom - On or Off

Memory Options:
- Allows you to tell the camera to save these settings.