Pentax Adds Optio W60 to Waterproof Lineup

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May 22, 2008* - Pentax today announced the Optio W60, a new addition to its line of waterproof point-and-shoots. Made for the outdoor enthusiast, the W60 can delve to depths of 13 feet for up to two hours and survive temperatures as low as 14 degrees Fahrenheit. It features 10-megapixel resolution, an internal 5x optical zoom lens, a number of Scene modes and high definition video capture. It will retail for $329.99 when it is released in July.

The W60 is an update to the Optio W30 (announced in February 2007), boosting the megapixel count from 7.1 to 10 megapixels and the zoom from 3x to 5x. Underwater depths also improve, from 10 feet for the Optio W30 to 13 feet for the W60. The W60 has a 2.5-inch, 230,000-pixel LCD with anti-reflective coating and a 170-degree viewing angle.

The W60's 5x optical zoom lens covers focal lengths from 5mm to 25mm (approximately eqivalent to 28mm to 140mm on a 35mm format camera).  A Digital Wide function allows two images to be stitched together in-camera for a panoramic shot. The new camera offers digital image stabilization, boosting the ISO to help reduce blur -- useful, but not as effective as optical image stabilization, which moves the actual lens element to counteract vibration.  Image stabilization is available in Movie mode, though, which is unusual.

The W60 Movie mode has been updated, allowing for both land-based and underwater shooting in HD resolutions of up to 1280 x 720 pixels (comparable to a 720p HDTV image). The W60 also features some of the trendier features found today: face detection, smile capture, and blink detection, as well as a high-sensitivity mode which automatically adjusts up to ISO 6400 for low-light shooting. Pentax claims its face detection can detect 32 faces in 0.03 seconds - if you can fit that many people into one shot.

While there isn't a plethora of Scene modes, as found on some Casio and Kodak models, the W60 more than covers the basics. In addition, the Auto mode detects certain shooting situations and automatically applies the appropriate scene mode, such as Flower, Sport, Night Scene Portrait, Landscape, Portrait, and Night Scene.

The W60 is PictBridge compatible for direct printing, and users can select from over 80 decorative frames in the Playback mode to print directly on their photos. It features 36.4 MB of internal memory and is compatible with SD/SDHC memory cards. The W60 runs on a rechargeable lithium-ion battery and comes in two colors: Ocean Blue and Silver. It will retail for $329.99 when it is released in July.