Pentax Optio T10

Reviewed May 2006

Image Quality

The Pentax Optio T10 has photographic characteristics that are commonly found on many other compact cameras. Its 6-megapixel resolution and 3X are almost a norm nowadays.

The distinguishing features of the T10 however are its high-resolution touch display monitor, useable with fingertips or with the stylus enclosed with the camera; and an interface that is both intuitive and easy to learn.

Optically, the T10’s 3X zoom lens offers a focal length range that covers the equivalent of a 37.5 to 112.5 mm on a 35mm camera. The lens is effectively free of distortion throughout its range, and it is only when the macro mode is used, a mode that locks the lens at the widest angle, that some barrel distortion becomes visible. At the telephoto end however, no pincushion is noticeable, and whatever the focal length in use, the T10’s lens shows no trace of any chromatic aberration, from wide angle through to telephoto, even when imaging a subject that contains strong contrasts.

The default metering of the T10, a multi-pattern system, appears to favour shadows to capture details in these areas, occasionally resulting in a slight overexposure of brighter image sections.

Still, the T10 offers alternative metering and, for more complex lighting situations such as backlit scenes, the centre-weighted metering can be used to evaluate an average zone, and in turn obtain a more balanced exposure.

At the telephoto end, the lens has a maximum aperture of f5.2 and, unless there is plenty of light, this small aperture tends to force a low shutter speed, introducing the possibility of camera shake. Increasing the sensitivity can counteract that effect, and allow a much higher shutter speed; a real advantage since it makes it possible to capture a sharp subject without any loss in the overall image quality.

The T10 is one of an increasingly smaller number of compact point-and-shoot cameras that provide the user with a choice of compression. This allows the use of any of its image sizes, and still benefit from the least compression —which is in order of 5:1 at the Best setting — and therefore obtain the highest image quality possible whatever the image size, something that many other compact digital cameras no longer offer.

Still, even at the highest image quality, the T10 tends to produce images that exhibit a slight soft focus, possibly a consequence of the in-camera processing. Worth noting, the T10 offers a number of tools to edit the image directly in the camera, including one for sharpness which can be useful when printing directly to a PictBridge printer.

To date, the Pentax Optio T10 is only the second camera we have tested to offer a touch-screen monitor. Yet, the touch-screen offers a clear advantage over other cameras that feature a small size and a large screen but which still try to fit the usual controls in a smaller space. With the touch-screen, all necessary controls are available, fitted comfortably on the monitor, making the camera much easier to use. And this, combined with a generally very good image quality, should place the T10 at the foreground.