Review on Pentax Optio RZ-18: 16 MP Digital Camera with 18x Optical Zoom - Black | High-performance Photography Equipment by Joseph Meola

I "used to" learn 35mm photography with the Pentax K1000 and I still remember their classic ME Super camera and their excellent line of lenses. So when I was looking to upgrade my old 5 megapixel digital camera, this Pentax model caught my attention - and my thinking. found that 16-megapixel digital cameras take pictures that can be printed in 5 x 7 inches, as well as pictures on 35mm film of the same size. I have a lot of 5" x 7" 35mm nature photos and took the Optio to the same places and started shooting. to see that the Optio performed BETTER on all the photos I took in my comparison test! I printed my photos on a plain old HP All-in-One Deskjet MFP using regular matte photo paper. The colour, contrast and resolution in EVERY shot was better than my 35mm equivalents, although this may be due to the cinema lab I used. would be acceptable for public images of this size. But since 5x7 is my most common print format, Optio has effectively replaced film for most of my shots. The Optio's LCD screen is a weak point, completely blurry in bright light behind the photographer (where it should be, right?). Secondly, the image on this screen does not match the lens. I was happy that my photos showed more color and contrast on my computer screen when I prepared them for printing, and they also printed better than they might appear on the camera screen! The battery life of the Optio is way better than any other digital camera I've had (at least 8 or 10), I still don't understand how Pentax could achieve that. I've been putting the Optio on hold and looking at it for the past few months to write this review; The batteries are still 3/4 full, right where they were when I put them away. Thinking the battery life would be the same as other digital cameras I've had, I bought a car charger and a spare battery, but now I don't think I'll need them. My Optio gives a high-quality impression and the user controls are intuitive; I just skimmed the instructions. Beginners will appreciate the ease of use of this camera, while more experienced photographers will appreciate the advanced features the Optio has to offer. light weight makes it the best choice for general photography. Now if someone at Pentax could just build a viewfinder for the Optio, I could revise my rating to a full five stars for what is still an excellent camera! UPDATE 1/2/13: On this day I added an additional FlipBac viewfinder. on my Optio and first indoor tests of this device were positive; Images in FlipBac were better than on the camera screen, at least in some cases. See my FlipBac review for more information. Having used the camera outdoors in strong light I'll update this review but it's early winter now, maybe a little later!