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 Just about everybody now knows it as the “Altoids Camera,” because of Pentax’s flavorful marketing gimmick, showing its tiny Optio S digital compact in a chomming liddle Briddish mint tin.
It seems almost beside the point to ask if the thing actually works, but....
It works very well, thank you. The S, in fact, set the current Pop Photo record for the highest tested color accuracy, outpacing the previous best (the Canon EOS 10D!!) with an average Delta E of 6.1. Image quality was about midpack for the 3.2MP cameras we’ve tested—pretty good in this class. And, for people who insist on being serious, it has surprising capabilities, such as histogram display, exposure compensation, multiple meter patterns....
But really, we love the camera because it’s tiny and pretty and really does fit inside an Altoids tin. And it holds a ton of fun for a 4-ounce camera: There’s the usual stuff like 30-second AVI video with sound, 30-second audio clip, and voice recording (up to one hour on a 16MB card). Then there’s cooler stuff, including time-lapse movies, digital filters, and picture modes like “autumn colors” and “surf and snow.” Then really, really cool stuff, like panorama stitching (with included software), and a “slimming filter” (you can fatten with it, too).
But coolest of all is the 3-D mode. This lets you combine two shots of the same scene into a stereo pair that you can print as a 4x6 and look at with the cute little viewer Pentax includes in the box. If you’ve learned to view stereos without aid, you can see them directly on the computer screen.
What’s not to like? Well, the finder’s a little squinty, and like many small cameras, the various rear controls are so tiny and cramped you may find yourself shooting on self-timer with a purple filter and two stops overexposure. Just consider it part of the madcap adventure.
Oh, one other thing: You can set the camera to meow if you want. We’re not making this up.
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