I admit to being a little confused as to why more people don't like Pentax's p&s digitals. Pentax has always excelled at putting out small, well-featured, well-built products. They're rarely the first on the market, but they're usually worth the wait.
Not that I can see for the digital market so far. Pentax have some reasonable digital cameras but they are exactly so unique to draw much attention from the competitions.
What do most people want in a p&s digital? Something small enough that they'll take it places, something reasonably well-built, and something with as much flexibility as you can fit into a small body. For this, the Optio 550 is *perfect*, and I don't say that about many cameras. It's small, about the same size as Olympus's C-50, and definitely one of the smallest 5MP cameras out there. It has a metal body, so it not only looks cool but it's pretty tough. How many people know that dpreview.com found the Optio 500 to have the best battery life of any prosumer camera they tested? Yup, the Optio 550 outlasts the Canon G3/G5 with its big honkin BP-511 and the Sony F707/F717 with its large InfoLITHIUM FM50. Plus you get shutter and aperture priority, full manual mode, and manual focus, although (like with any p&s) these are a PITA to use sometimes. So far it's a lot like the Olympus C-50, except for the excellent battery life, but the *really* cool part is the zoom. Not the standard 3x optical, but a 5x lens, 38-188mm equivalent. Good luck finding that in another compact 5MP camera. Sure, image quality isn't as good as a DSLR, but it's fine for most purposes.
Perhaps I have a different way to approach the digital products. The 1st thing I check is the picture quality. If they aren't good, I don't care. Why bother to produce a 5MP model when the images are that good anyway? I might just stay with a cheap 2MP for snaps and 4x6" prints only.
Most people are probably familiar with the Optio S, which might still be the smallest 3MP digital with a 3x optical zoom. Definitely in a class by itself.
Everywhere I checked, the Casio is better than the Optio S. It's selling point is compact size, and only imho.
The Optio 33L is nothing much to write home about, but Pentax still managed to put in a cool flip-out LCD in a camera that's priced comparably to many 2MP digitals. And the 33WR, with its Class 7 water-resistance, is unique.
These 2 are more interesting consider their price and specification.
As much as I dislike Pentax's slowness to bring products to market, I have to admire the originality of the stuff they bring out. It's true that they're not mindlessly popping out Canon/Nikon/Sony/Olympus clones, but I respect them for this. There are a few more cameras I wouldn't mind seeing in their lineup, but I have no complaints about the models they have out now. It's tempting to lay the blame on their marketing department (I swear that Canon's working on a way to broadcast ads to me while I sleep), but some of the blame has to lie on the retail salesmonkeys who would rather push a big brand name than a unique and well thought out product.
Marketing aside, I think Pentax need a new way to design their digital products. They look too much like the traditional P&S. Sony, for example, have good designs imho, and that alone made themselves to the hands of many teenagers.
Alan Chan http://www.pbase.com/wlachan
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