Hey Gang, A few weeks ago, my brother called me up asking for a recommendation on a digital camera to use for snapshots and for shooting stuff to sell on ebay. He insisted that it be extremely small. How small? He felt his Canon A40 was too big. So naturally, I turned him onto the Optio S4 and he excitedly bought it. He agreed to lend it to me for a couple of weeks. I used it today while going on a 10K AVA walk in downtown San Antonio. Here are some of the photos. Nothing to swoon over, I have to shoot quick or I'll be left behind.
http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=401012 Some impressions: 1) There isn't much control one can exact over this camera in terms of exposure - just Program AE with some exposure compensation. Man did I miss having aperture priority. Oddly enough, it gives you the exposure data. Why? I dunno. Sure there's exposure compensation but quite frankly, I think Pentax was out to taunt the users of this camera <g>. 2) Autofocus is pretty quick but can be hit or miss. I had several shots that were discarded because they were soft. 3) I was not very pleased with the lens. There's quite a bit of distortion at the wide end. Flare control seems pretty poor and there was noticeable purple fringing from time to time. In macro mode, the corner can be really soft. It was really noticeable in this photo: http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2397442&size=lg The corners seem to have...distortion and blur at the same time. Not too pleasing, especially when I printed it. 4) It's extremely difficult to get shallow depth of field. 5) Shot to shot time is pretty respectable and it turns on and off pretty quick. 6) The LCD monitor was not very easy to read in daylight. 7) The On/Off button is way too close to the shutter release. Every now and then, I found myself turning it off instead of shooting. 8) The four way control button is not very easy to use. 9) Overall, exposure was pretty good. 10) Women love this camera. They ooh and ahh at the very sight of it <g>. I short, it's a neat little camera to use for vacation snaps. It's incredibly portable. Battery life is decent. It operates quickly and quietly. For more serious photographic ventures, this one's best left at home. Mark
