Camera Review: Pentax Optio WPi

Pentax Optio WPi at a glance

Key features:

6MP compact camera
Underwater rated to five feet
3x zoom lens
2-inch LCD screen
SD memory card
Can be used on land, too

Best suited for:

Snorkelling
A day at the beach
Water sports
General snapshots

Do not use for:

Dives below five feet
Immersion in salt water for more than 30 minutes
Macro photography

The poolside waiter looked amazed as I dropped the Pentax Optio WPi into the glass of water, no ice, that I’d ordered along with a chilled Red Stripe at our Jamaican resort.”You crazy, mon!” he said. “What are you doing to your camera!”I laughed and explained that I’d been testing the underwater abilities of this compact Digicam and had to rinse the saltwater off.

Doesn’t look waterproof

The Optio WPi doesn’t look like a waterproof camera. It isn’t yellow and black rubber and all sorts of grommet-like things with high-impact plastic and bulky buttons. It looks like most other Pentax compact cameras. Except this one can swim. This sleek little 6.0mp 3X optical zoom compact digicam fits neatly into a swimsuit pocket, or a shirt pocket on dry land. There are seven button/button arrays including a four-way control key that controls various camera functions and menu control items. For the most part, the menu design seems intuitive enough on the nicely sized 2.0 inch LCD, and is easy enough to navigate through, once you learn the basics of this camera. One thing that is noticeably absent from this camera, however, is an optical viewfinder (more on this later…)

The camera is virtually instant-on, with only a .2 second start up time. It makes a bright chirpy noise to let you know it is ready for action.I gave a quick review to the Quick Start guide, and went out early one morning at the resort to get comfortable with the camera on dry land before jumping into the water.

See and sea: With the camera on P (Program) mode, I shot a couple of frames of the resort, which was was still in early morning shadows. As you can see (above left), the sky and water look OK, but the land and structures are very dark. I recomposed, locking focus on the hut to the far left of the frame for a better exposure of the land and huts, but now the sky is washed out (above right). Exposures: left photo: 1/125 sec at f/6.6. ISO 100; flash fired. Right photo: 1/125 sec at f/3.3. ISO 80; flash did not fire.

The camera does a good job of locking onto an exposure setting if the shutter button is held down. Aim at the part of a scene you want correctly exposed, press the shutter halfway down, then recompose. Without a Graduated Neutral Density filter, this is a situation where you must choose your exposure based upon what you think is most important part of the picture.

The camera features a lot of different ‘creative assist’ shooting modes, such as Underwater, Museum, Pet, Snow/Sand, Fireworks, Flower, among others, that set the camera to predetermined settings that claim to optimize performance for the shooting situation. If you press the ‘Green Button’ when any of these creative assist modes are highlighted, a little screen pops up explaining, for example, that REPORT captures images at 1280X960 pixels, and that Underwater emphasizes “the blues of the deep sea”.

Time to snorkel

I set the camera to the Underwater setting, my ISO to 200, and everything else to Program and turned the camera off and checked and double-checked that the SD card/battery cover was both CLOSED and LOCKED, (which are two separate actions, but should not be, I think), and put it in my swimsuit pocket and jumped in the warm, crystal clear Caribbean waters.

I’d set my dive timer to 25 minutes, because the camera has a submerged time limit of 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, you must remove the camera from the water and, if, in our case, it is salt water, rinse the camera in tap water for a few minutes, and then allow the camera to dry completely before going swimming again. Once I got used to the snorkeling gear and the currents, I pulled the camera from my pocket, turned it on, and began shooting away at fish, brain coral, various urchins, and all the other sea life around me.

It was fun–a lot of fun–to be snorkeling around with a pocket-sized camera.

Well, nobody’s perfect, and I learned a thing or two from the mistakes I made the first time I tried the WPi underwater. Exposure: 1/60 sec at f/3.3. ISO 80, auto mode; flash did not fire.

As to the quality of my photos…let’s just call this first outing a learning experience.

Back on dry land, I reviewed the shots with the Information/Histogram option turned on, and was surprised to see that the ISO was set to 80, 160 and elsewhere, when I’d set it to 200 before jumping in. I reviewed the manual and discovered a quirk (in my opinion) with this camera. The camera will remain in the creative mode that you choose (Underwater, Snow and Sand, Kids, etc.) but it will revert to default settings when powered off for ISO sensitivity, Autofocus Mode, and Flash Mode unless you scroll down the Function menu and check a box on each one to keep the setting you set for each! I’d prefer the default to be All or Nothing. When I turned the camera back and saw the Underwater Icon, I presumed all my settings were saved. The next time out, I set the camera to my chosen settings and kept it on to keep my settings. I set it to Pan Focus, as the manual suggests as a focus mode for tracking moving subjects, to try to focus on some of the moving fish, and let the camera decide the ISO and shutter speed. We managed to get some keepers and near-keepers.

Second try: much better! Once my fiancee and I mastered a mode-setting quirk, we got some nice shots! Exposure: 1/125 sec at f/3.3. ISO 80; auto exposure; flash did not fire. Levels and curves adjustments made to minimize blue casting on coral. Photo © Corey Kaczmarek

For our next aquatic adventure, we decided to swim and snorkel 300 yards across a stretch of water to explore one of the bigger sea caves, which was rumored to have a dry sand beach inside it. The water was crystal clear and there were coral structures and fish and urchins on the bottom, but it was deeper water, between 10-20 feet across most of our route.

Not built for dives

I wanted to dive down after one particularly colorful fish, but the Optio WPi is strictly a surface camera. It is only rated waterproof to five feet. Later that day, while Corey was using the camera, she pointed down towards something, and I knew what she was thinking…Some quick, frantic snorkel sign language by me and she got point. Even though we both knew beforehand it was surface only, it is really tempting to want to chase that trophy fish down to the bottom!We made it into the cave, and I pulled the camera out of my pocket to make some interesting shots framed by the entrance to the cave. I was quite happy with the live histogram and preview showing perfect exposure on the sea and sky, and very shadowy cave silhouette and fired my shot. But it was another learning experience: Be sure to wipe the front protective lens element for above-water shots when you are in the sea with the camera! I didn’t–and you can clearly see the water spot on the left of this seascape:

I wanted to get a photo of Corey in this cave, but after this first shot, we startled the resident bats, and it was decided that we would leave quite quickly. I tried to get a few shots of the bats, but they were flying around so fast, the camera had a hard time tracking them.We decided that we’d go back to the cave the next afternoon and try to get some portraits and silhouettes again. It was late in the day, and it was challenging light, as the sun was low in the horizon directly across from the cave entrance, but I’d give it a go–see what we could do.We again swam to the cave, being careful to not disturb the bats. The bats left us alone, for whatever reason, and I was ready to try to make a photo of Corey inside the bat cave of Negril.I wiped the front lens protector on my swim trunks and framed a shot with the sun just out of the left of the viewfinder and just as I was firing my shot a wave broke right onto me!

Great adventure: It’s not going to win any major awards, but this is a great shot to go with a great story for our personal photo album. There aren’t many other compact digital cameras that could have made this shot and survived! Exposure: 1/500 sec at f/6.6. ISO 80, no flash. Curves adjustments, minor water-spot touchup in Photoshop CS.

It is important to note that the Underwater Mode appears to be more of a bluish filtering effect than a Camera function (ISO, Strobe, Focus Mode) mode. When you select Underwater Mode from the Creative Mode screen and press the Green Button, you get a pop-up screen explaining that this mode “captures the blues of the deep sea.” At times this effect can add to the underwater photos, however, I suggest experimenting with both Program and Underwater modes to get the effect that you want. The inset photo, below, shows the “blues of the deep dea” as captured by the camera, and the larger version has been color corrected in PhotoShop CS to make a more accurate representation of what the viewing conditions were in this particularly shallow section of the water under the midday sun.

Watch your color settings: If you are swimming with the camera, and want to get a shot of your friend’s head above water, make sure you are not in Underwater mode, or your shots will look blue like this!

It was challenging and fun to use the Optio WPi in the water. It did take some getting used to, though. At times, the shutter lag for focusing seems long, especially in the water. I highly recommend using the Pan Focus AF mode if you want to capture moving fish. I would also set the Sensitivity to a dedicated higher ISO to get a faster shutter speed next trip out. I also strongly recommend checking the boxes to keep your ISO, Flash and Focus settings set when you turn off the camera. Trying to manipulate the buttons and scroll through the menus to fix your settings while floating in the water is a bit of a challenge!

No optical finder

As I mentioned earlier, the Optio WPi does not feature an optical viewfinder of any sort. Most of the time, the large LCD does an good job, but as Corey explains: “I liked the large LCD screen on the Pentax; however, the absence of an optical viewfinder proved challenging in sunny conditions, both on land and in water. In bright sunlight it was extremely difficult to angle the screen so I could see my subject and ensure it was in view. In water, this was even more of a hindrance because I was floating, and therefore not stable enough to twist and turn the camera to visualize my shot well so I was left to blindly aim and hope for the best at times.

” We were in crystal clear waters, and when the viewing conditions on the reefs were the best with the overhead sun, it was quite tough to try to frame the shots in the LCD. A lot of the time I was looking over the camera and hoping that I’d make the right eye-lens parallax correction to frame my intended subject. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.

Barrels and Pincushions: Look at the horizons on these two shots. At the widest angle setting, there is noticeable barrel distortion. I framed this shot to make the balcony symmetrical, and the distortion is to be more pronounced towards the right side of the frame. But at full optical zoom, there is a very noticeable bowing (pincussion distortion).

Sadly, we had to leave Jamaica and return home to a snowy December in New Jersey. A perfect chance to try out the Snow and Sand Creative Mode! Just to really put the camera through its paces, I deliberately set the camera to ISO 400 (the highest user-selected ISO rating) to see how it would handle noise under these tough conditions. I wanted to get some shots of my German Shepherd Bailey stomping around in the snow, but again, with the extremely bright conditions, it was extremely difficult to track her movements on the LCD screen with the sun overhead and the glare from the snow. I had to settle for a quick backyard portrait.

The camera did a very good job of balancing the exposure between the bright sunlit snow, and the darker coloration of my main subject. Noise is somewhat noticeable when the photo is enlarged onscreen to “Actual Pixels,” but is acceptable and not excessive. There is a slight bit of purple/magenta noise in the shadow, lower left of frame, but overall, I was impressed with the quality of the image. A 4×6 print of this at a photo kiosk looked quite nice.

The bottom line? It’s a fun camera! It may have some quirks, and a bit of lens distortion, but this is a really fun little camera. It’s perfect for families with kids, spring breakers, and vacationers who are looking for a pocket-sized digicam that can handle a splash, a dip in the pool, some casual snorkeling, and some fun underwater and in-the-water photos of friends and family. There’s not a whole lot of cameras in the under $500 range that you can take into the surf for candid shots! Or to get from-the-pool shots of the big belly-flop contest!

It also would be fun for the kids around the water toys in the backyard and getting some fun shots of dog wash day without worrying about getting some splashes on the camera. For anyone who fits any of these descriptions, this camera is a winner.

For serious underwater shooting, there are better choices
If you are serious about underwater documentation, deep-dive photography, and extended underwater expeditions with an eye towards making strong publishable images, this is not the camera for you. There are affordable underwater housings ($100-200 range) rated to 100-plus feet for several other compact digital cameras such as the Canon S500 series. There are also dedicated underwater cameras, both digital and film-based, that are another option. At the extreme high end of things, there are expensive ($1,500 or more) waterproof housings available for many of the prosumer/professional DSLRs by the major manufacturers.

But if you are in the market for a small compact Point and shoot digital that you can take for a swim, this just might be the camera you’ll want to buy before your next trip to the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean, or before you take the cover off the backyard swimming pool!

Pentax Optio WPi: Key points

The camera features a high-speed continuous mode, and it fired off an impressive burst of shots. However, in this mode the image size is not 6 Megapixels, but rather 1280×960 pixels. An action photo shot in this mode might look OK at 4×6, but anything larger would be pushing it.
The 1280×960 image capture size is also set in certain Creative modes, such as Night, Fireworks, Report, and Candlelight. Again, trying to print larger than 4×6 might be tough to get a quality print.
“Flower” Creative Mode is not macro! Many other cameras use the Flower icon to indicate Macro focus. According to the Green button explanation, this mode makes soft edges on flowers and other things, so Flower is a filtering effect, not a close-focus setting. Macro Mode is set under the AF function menu.
Remember to check the boxes to save your ISO, AF function, and Flash mode if you want to use your previous settings when you turn the camera back on.
The WPi does not float! Be sure to keep the wrist strap fastened when in the water.
Resist that urge to chase a fish or a friend below the surface! The camera is only rated to a depth of five feet and has a continuous submersion limit of 30 minutes. Rinse the camera in fresh water for a few minutes afterwards when in salt water to keep the seals in good condition. Also: rinse the camera after immersion in a chlorine-filled pool.