 Great Improvement |
| Review Date: March 24, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Steve Baker, slc |
| I bought the W20 early this year for a month we spent in Hawaii. It was a great camera. Long story short, I lost it in the ocean. I just picked up a W30 while on business in Hong Kong. It is much faster than the w20. I haven't taken it underwater yet but the image stabilization works well and did I mention it powers up amazingly fast. Great product. |
Leaky Camera, Aggravating Customer Support
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| Review Date: August 6, 2007 |
| Reviewer: C. Gray, San Francisco, CA United States |
UPDATE: (I wanted to make this one-star, but the edit function won't allow me to change the rating...)
My experience with this camera took a 180 degree turn when it leaked (while submerged about 2 feet for 20 minutes) in saltwater and failed. Bummer, since it was on day 2 of my vacation, but Pentax would surely make good on it with a new unit (it was only 4 months old at the time).
My real reason for the one-star was Pentax's HORRIBLE customer service. Six weeks of waiting and a number of calls to relatively useless support people about when to expect the camera would be returned, and I finally got the camera back in its box from Pentax. Great. Put the battery in and nothing. So I called back to support, and when I did, they simply said "Oh, we found water damage in the camera so we didn't repair it. It would have cost more to repair than the camera was worth". They insisted that I had 'misused' the camera (on my word, it was 2 feet of water for 20 minutes...) an effectively told me to piss off.
My beef with Pentax is threefold: (1) the camera didn't live up to its specs (not even close!), (2) they advertise aggressively for action sport usage (see full page ads with famous surfer Kelly Slater holding his W30), and (3) a total lack of any sense of customer service. They didn't even have the courtesy to include a note in the return box explaining that it wasn't fixed and why.
I replaced it with an Olympus, and will never buy another Pentax product in my lifetime!
INITIAL REVIEW:
After reading the reviews of the W30 and the Olympus SW770, I decided to go Pentax for the better picture quality, taking somewhat of a chance that the waterproofing would work reasonably well.
So far, so good! I use the camera mainly for surfing (tuck it inside of my wetsuit) and was worried about the waterproof-ness given the sometimes rough crashing waves and dunkings that mother ocean gives. I've taken it out 3 times now, and no problems yet. The LCD screen is hard to see when it gets wet (and nearly impossible underwater) but the pics are always much clearer in real life than they seem on the LCD.
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Great durability
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| Review Date: August 6, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Errin Evans, Rifle, CO, USA |
| This is a great camera. Originally I had the early version with the 6.0 megapixels. I lost it, so I bought this one. I use it for kayaking and climbing. It gets really beat up and abused and I haven't had any problems with it. |
pentax waterproof camera
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| Review Date: August 29, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Wiley Turnipseed, birmingham al |
| Great purchase! I really enjoy this camera for taking pictures in the rain or underwater. Very durable and good looking. I wish i could increase shutter speed to take pictures faster, but other than that this is a top notch camera for everday and outdoor use. Ive taken some really good pictures in swimming pools (completely submurged) and in the ocean. you wont regret buying one of these cameras. I would recommend buying a second battery. The battery life is amazing, but once the indicator goes below 3 bars it doesnt last very long, so a second battery is usefull since it doesnt take standard AA. The leather case is useful because it holds the second battery or extra SD cards in the little front pouch. A++++++ overall. |
Pentax Optio @30
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| Review Date: October 4, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Buddy Drake, Bozeman, MT USA |
| I am very happy with the camera. It arrived on time and in excellent condition. My only complaint was that a discount was offered on a SD card, and when I tried to apply the discount, Amazon would not accepted it. I emailed the store, and they replied promptly saying that the discount only applied to other stores. I went back to their webpage and could not find anything that indicated that. Therefore, I felt tricked. |
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