Pentax Optio W80 Waterproof 12.1MP Digital Camera with 5x Wide Angle Triple Shake Reduction Optical Zoom and 2.5 inch LCD (Cardinal Red)

Posted by Pentax on

September 9, 2009

Pentax Optio W80 Waterproof 12.1MP Digital Camera with 5x Wide Angle Triple Shake Reduction Optical Zoom and 2.5 inch LCD (Cardinal Red)

Customer Rating: Rating 3.5 out of 5

List Price: ~~$249.95~~
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Product information Brand: Pentax
Publisher: Pentax
Category: Photography
Optical zoom: 5
Model: W80 Cardinal Red

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Features

12.1-megapixel resolution image sensor captures enough detail for photo-quality 13 x 19-inch prints
Coldproof design endures sub-freezing temperatures of 14 degrees Fahrenheit
Widescreen, HD movie capture that records resolutions up to 1280 x 720 pixels at full-speed 30fps
2.5-inch LCD monitor; Pixel Track Shake Reduction (SR) ensures sharp images in any lighting condition
Capture images to SD/SDHC memory cards (not included)

Accessories

Editorial Review

Product Description: The Pentax Optio W80's waterproof design withstands depths of up to 16 feet (5 meters) to protect from rain and spills, as well as allowing full underwater photos and video for up to two hours. On dry land, the rugged, shockproof design protects against drops of up to 3.3 feet to protect the camera from hard use and occasional spills. Also featuring 12.1 megapixels, a 5x internal optical zoom (equivalent to 28-140mm), a slim one-inch body, and a wide angle 28mm lens, the Optio W80 offers an expanded perspective that is ideal for landscape, group and more confined shots. With a Pentax-developed imaging engine and a high-performance Pentax zoom lens, the Optio W80 delivers brilliant, high-quality images with well-defined details. A Super Protect (SP) coating applied to the mineral crystal cover of the internal zoom lens helps repel water, grime and finger marks.

Customer Reviews

Don't hate it - but don't like it

by D. Escutialopez 2009-08-26, 116 people found this review helpful

The best digital camera my husband and I ever owned was a Pentax W10 - it lasted for years and took great photos.. very resilient. We figured that if a W10 is this great that a W80 would be even better but we were sadly mistaken after receiving our W80 and taking a few photos. At first, when all the photos we took turned out grainy I figured it was the settings that needed to be changed.

As a military photojournalist, I shoot daily with a Nikon D3, I know how to change settings and reduce the ISO to make the photo less grainy - and even after I exhausted all changes to the settings, the photos were still unimpressive. We went outside thinking that more lighting would mean better focus and better photos - but even they were a little soft and not that great.

I might recommend this for the outdoorsy type but for someone like my husband and I who are looking for a point-and-shoot camera that takes impressive photos (without fumbling through settings all the time) it was not for us. We are in the process of returning it.

Good Camera for Activities

by billiam 2009-08-25, 42 people found this review helpful

I pre-ordered this camera to replacing an aging Canon. My main criteria was to have a camera that can be brought on ski trips; on the boat; canoe trips; and hiking. Used at the Grand Canyon and was very pleased with the quality of the pictures. (I am a casual user not a photographer). If you purchase this camera be sure to buy an additional battery! Would recommend spending about 15-20 minutes getting used to the camera before using in activities. Based on the reviews, the Canon is a better unit, but this one is slim and fits into ski jackets and life preservers.

Great and rugged little camera!

by Dealhunter 2009-10-01, 14 people found this review helpful

I would have given it 5 stars, but I have to agree that there is some noise in average, everyday shots on this camera when taken with the automatic default settings.

The camera feels small and tough, and I haven't had the short battery life that others have commented on (seems like I get about 15 hours or so of off and on use per charge). It can take AMAZING shots if you take a little time to learn the settings. Manual macro shots of up-close items look terrific, and the panorama feature on this camera stitches separate pictures together better than my old Kodak 1063 did.

The underwater shots look pretty good, especially if taken on days with sufficient sunlight, and I'm not seeing any signs of the camera leaking.

Overall I'm really pleased with this little camera. It has a lot of neat features if you just take the time to learn about them. Originally I was deciding between this camera and an Olympus 1050sw, but my friend with the Olympus can't take shots that look nearly as good as what I've been able to take with my camera, so I'm very happy overall.

don't buy this camera if you take regular pictures with it

by AJK 2009-08-22, 33 people found this review helpful

Just bought this camera given anticipated buzz.

Admittedly, I have not tried it underwater, or tested its ruggedness. But I am sending it back because it won't even take normal pictures accurately without graininess, blurriness and movement. Also, the delay is far too long, and image stabilization does not work accurately. Additionally, if subjects are moving, it's quite difficult to get a reasonable picture in low-ish light. To be fair, I tried a variety of mode settings including auto and a variety of manual settings, and frankly my iPhone took better pictures (without a flash!). In fact, the best pictures I took were in "green mode", and these were not really comparable to a generic 3-5 year old digital camera.

Maybe this camera has a niche use for underwater/etc only, but I had planned on taking "normal" pictures of reasonable quality with it as well, and I just couldn't find a way for this to work, so this is a non-starter for me.

I should have waited for the reviews to come out before taking the plunge:

see http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/Q209waterproofgroup/ for comparisons to D10 and TS1. Of note, even the W60 performed better in this review!!!

Pentax Optio W80 less than expected

by Roger Drosd 2009-08-16, 20 people found this review helpful

I preordered this directly from Pentax, and I've had it for less than a week. I know someone with a W30 who is very happy with his, so I figured this would be much better. So far, I'm very disappointed. I'm comparing it to my Canon SD850 by shooting macro, interior and exterior scenes. I have left the settings in auto mode and set it to record highest quality. The W80 produces very noisy images. Flash results seem to be a bit erratic. Very poor image quality in low-light. Side-by-side photo comparisons on-screen show better images with my Canon.

I also figured that since there is no moving lens, the W80 would have excellent battery life. Canon battery is 1120-mAh and W80 is only 680-mAh. The actual battery life is commensurately poor. I can get by on a weekend trip with lots of photos with only a single battery in my Canon, but I'm sure I would need to take two or three with the Pentax.

I really wanted this camera to work out, but I'm about to send it back. Anybody else have some feedback on this camera??

I really like this camera

by motie2 2009-08-27, 13 people found this review helpful

On a recent trip to the Mediterranean, my trusty old Nikon L11 died (the LCD screen cracked).
So, when I got home, I wanted to look for something a bit more rugged, and [...]

I figured I'd wait until Labor Day sales, but when I found this advertised in an Amazon email, and after reading the review at [...]I went for it.

The Pentax was [...] over my budget. So I bought it in gray. It's totally worth it.
It's easy to learn, fairly straightforward, and takes nice pictures.
I even got to use the old Nikon's measly 1 gig SD card.

I said it takes nice pictures. If you want great pictures, save your money for an SLR.

I am very satisfied with my purchase, which, by the way, got here in two days.

My new camera

by Jim C. 2009-09-15, 12 people found this review helpful

I purchased this camera to replace my Canon SD 450. I recently took it on a trip to San Francisco and to Monterey and I am very pleased with all of my pictures taken with it. The zoom is very nice and I especially liked the 28mm wide angle. The battery does run down, but I carried a spare and had no problems. The digital zoom is very good. I haven't tried it under water yet, but am looking forward to using to see my 4 yr old grandson swim underwater. The movies I did take were very good also. Overall a much better camera than some of the reviews have talked about.

If you want a versatile small camera

by Nancy Demarkis 2009-11-21, 8 people found this review helpful

I have a Pentax digital SLR and also a Panasonic Lumix. I bought this for water resistance and toughness and use around water as a previous trip blew out the main board on my digital SLR due to dampness.

I just returned from the Galapagos and used this daily when on Zodiac boats and hiking and photographing birds and sea lions etc. In some cases, I also used the Lumix which is also 12mp.

The results were so close in all details that I had to recall which camera I had that day while I looked at the pictures. The Optio colors were slightly more saturated but all pictures are good. Some were taken in showers and on the beach and light correction for brightness on the equator was accurate.

My only issue with these point and shoot cameras is the small size. I cannot take as good a shot holding this as I can with a larger SLR body. I recently learned of a way to cradle my wrists to steady these and it seems to work well.

Pentax Optio W-series is falling

by Tim 2009-10-06, 7 people found this review helpful

I have been using this Pentax series of camera since the very beginning with the Optio43WR and sometimes i think that is still the best one to use.

Pentax is trying to cram too many options into one instead of focusing on a quick start and quick focus to shutter ratio. I find that the camera often is trying to think for me instead of just taking the picture.

The quality above 200ISO on this camera is not good and if you take on at night, make sure your lens glass is clean, otherwise the dust specs show up as little white freckles all over the place.

While i still prefer this waterproof camera over the Olympus and Samsung models, I am excited to see Canon in the portable waterproof game (still waiting for them to slim it down some though Canon PowerShot D10 12.1 MP Waterproof Digital Camera with 3x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.5-inch LCD) and I hope that Nikon gets in the game real soon too.

Net-net, if you want a camera that is good for drinking with and getting random shots, this is a good one, just make sure your battery is charged or you have an extra because the battery life sucks on this camera.

I hope that this helps some.

Tim
[...]

Fuzzy pics

by Honest 2009-09-08, 9 people found this review helpful

Being that the camera is supposed to be 12.1MP very dissapointed I'm sending it back with all the stuff that came along with it. The pics were fuzzy on the LCD screen then they were fuzzy when they came out. I cannot get a crystal clear picture on this thing. The only good thing about the camera was the accessories. If there is a way to get a clear picture let me know. Too much money for this product.

tags: (Cardinal, (Red), 12.1MP, 2.5, 5x, and, Angle, Camera, Digital, inch, LCD, Optical, Optio, pentax, Reduction, Shake, Triple, W80, Waterproof, Wide, with, Zoom

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