Camera Has Video Smarts
Pentax Optio MX nicely captures both stills and video.
Pentax's Optio MX is an eccentric in a field of look-alike point-and-shoot digital cameras. Though its features are strongly rooted in still photography, its shape is reminiscent of a video camera; it captures both stills and video nicely.
A versatile camera with numerous exposure controls, the $400 Optio MX features a 1.8-inch LCD that can flip up and rotate. The images I took with a shipping unit wouldn't satisfy fine-art standards, but they were more than adequate for a family photo album.
While stills reproduced colors well, I found their exposure accuracy somewhat erratic, especially in high-contrast outdoor shots. The sharpness of my photos was average for a 3.2-megapixel camera. You won't want to crop and enlarge the MX's images; but on long-distance shots, the camera's 10X zoom does compensate for its lower resolution.
My biggest gripe: The four-way selector is so diminutive (the size of a small shirt button) that adjusting settings was difficult. Working with the selector was hardest when I attempted to alter the unit's aperture-priority, shutter-priority, and manual exposure settings.
If you like to shoot video clips occasionally, you'll enjoy using the MX. It supports the MPEG-4 video format, which lets you pack in more minutes of video than does the typical Motion JPEG format that most still cameras use.
The MX's grip has two buttons: the usual trigger button, and a second one dedicated to recording movies. This setup makes switching between video and stills instantaneous. The autofocus seemed a bit slow in the videos I took, but the clip played back smoothly with no dropped frames.
Once you get beyond the control issues, the Optio MX is a solid still camera with a dash of video smarts that will appeal to auteurs who want a little of both worlds.
Tracey Capen
