Pentax Optio P80 12.1MP 4X Digital Camera
With a selling price of under $200 the Pentax Optio P80 is a feature packed camera for only a fraction of the cost of what you might expect. Its exterior is constructed of high grade aluminum alloy and is gorgeous to behold. The camera’s controls are inherently minimalistic but easy to figure out if you’ve ever used a digital camera before. The Pentax P80 offers a variety of shooting modes and options that make it easy to capture anything life throws at you, and with the addition of an HD video capture mode you can add crisp digital audio and video to the mix.
The first thing you’ll notice about the Pentax Optio P80 are its sleek good looks. It is a gorgeous camera featuring a slightly opalescent finish (available in black, white and mint) and a large 2.7 inch LCD screen. The menu buttons are simple but amazingly intuitive and offer a myriad of shooting modes and options. There are a lot of typical modes here but a lot of interesting new ones as well, such as a kids mode, food mode, and pet mode that allows you to capture moving pets and change settings according to your pets coat color. Other modes are for very specific lighting or environmental situations such as a sports mode, party mode, candlelight and natural skin modes. Although, I can’t imagine that I’d ever find myself using all these modes, it’s good to know they’re available should the need arise.
This is truly a versatile little camera for the average everyday user; with an incredible 12.1 Megapixel photo resolution that delivers crisp clear pictures. As if the stunning photo resolution weren’t enough, the P80 builds upon its reputation with many built-in features that allow you to go even further in capturing stunning images. A histogram on the display screen allows you to make certain that your photos are properly exposed and not too dark or too bright. The camera also has a useful self timer feature that allows you the ability to change between 10 and 2 second options, as well as a continuous and burst shooting mode that take pictures at different set intervals for as long as the shoot button is held down. Rounding out the cameras capabilities are an incredible 4x Wide Angle Optical Zoom covering focal lengths from 4.9mm to 19.6mm (equivalent in the 35mm format to approximately 27.5mm wide angle to 110mm telephoto). This means that you can zoom in really close, even when your subject is far away.
One of my favorite features was the ability to include audio notations with your photos that you could play back, because even though a picture is worth a thousand words sometimes you need just a few more to explain your outfit. Another cool feature on the Pentax Optio P80 is the ability to edit your photo on the camera itself; there are options for resizing, cropping, red eye removal, video options such as extracting a still image from a video, and the option to recover photos you recently deleted.
I can honestly say that there isn’t a better camera for the money right now; I must admit that I was pretty blown away by this cameras capability considering its compact size. The high quality this camera delivers is consistent throughout every aspect in my opinion, if you want a very versatile camera that won’t break the bank then the Pentax Optio P80 is the way to go.
The Pentax Optio P80 12.1MP 4X Digital Camera is available at our sponsor’s website at http://www.digitalfotoclub.com/product-features.asp?id=964804837
