Supplementary Test Report of the
Pentax Optio WG1 by Yusuf Hashim
I was
fooling around with the Pentax Optio WG1 and was quite impressed with the little bugger. I put it through the ultimate test last Sunday. As usual on a Sunday, a bunch of my 13 grandchildren were fooling around in our swimming pool in the garden, just before our usual weekend family barbecue evening. I gathered all of them around me and I showed them how to use the little Pentax.... basically, how to press the shutter button by composing off the live view screen. I set the camera to underwater mode, asked them all to stand outside the pool at the shallow end, and the game was, I would toss the camera into the pool at the deep end, and they were all to dive into the pool, retrieve the camera, and take a few shots of each other underwater. The best 5 pictures will win a slice of a Secret Recipe Cheese Cake, and the next 4 will get Mars Bars. So everybody gets a prize. Here’s an underwater picture shot by my 7 year old grand daughter, of her 3 years old cousin. All my grandchildren can swim before they can walk, because we teach everyone of them to swim from the time they are around 6 months old as a safety precaution, as our pool is right outside the living room. We wanted all of them to be able to save themselves if they should ever fall into the water or swim unattended. We had so much fun and I must have tossed the camera into the water at least a dozen times. And all the time it sank to the floor of the pool, which is about 10 feet at the deep end, before being retrieved, wrestled and fought for, like a rugby ball underwater. I also got them to shoot movies underwater and they are great. My grand kids have asked me to buy one for them to play with, and I might just do that. The Pentax Optio WG1 is a tough and cute little bugger, ideal for the kids to fool around with at the beach, in the garden, at the playground and in the pool. It can take a lot of bashing and dropping, and when all muddied if its taken to the beach, you just immerse it in a pail of water to clean it. In fact I think I will get the WG2 with the GPS function when it becomes available. To be absolutely honest however, picture quality isn’t the best I’ve seen from a P&S, and that’s probably because of the lens protector, but its the ruggedness, the underwater shooting capability, and the fact that my grand kids simply love it that will make me buy the Pentax Optio, not for me, but for them to shoot pictures with.. Plus I could use it too, for some unusual shooting possibilities at the beach.
THE THIRD EYE
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