Aiptek Pentax Optio 50 Review

Overall Rating

None that I could find. Sorry! Oh wait, it did take a picture close up pretty clear, but again, it was dark!

Pictures turned out horribly dark, even in conditions I would not consider to be low light, just average indoor light with no sunlight coming in a window. Pictures were mostly so dark that you could not make out what they were, the focus was usually quite off as well, and this is WITH the flash.

I returned my Pentax Optio 50 digital camera today. I told them at the camera shop that I did not get ONE SINGLE good picture out of this camera. Of course, I didn't take it outside in broad daylight, but THEN it's likely to be OK. They were not surprised by what I said, and they had nothing good to say about the camera. I guess when I bought it they were more interested in commission then getting me a good camera. I have always liked Canon, and the A520 is ultimately what I got. This camera sucked in every way possible; from its flimsy body and thin plastic, to its complete lack of proper focus and useless flash. I took a picture of my 1 year old while he sat on my lap. I just held the camera out in front of us and took the picture, our faces were clear so close up, and it worked ok, however, our faces were slightly dark and not bad, but it was completely black behind us, and my son's blond hair looked dark red.

In conclusion, the camera sucks, and I wouldn't recommend it! Unless of course you plan to use it outside during the daylight only. That is the one condition I didn't test because I rarely use it outdoors! Factory settings have it set so that after you take a picture it disappears off the screen. Took me quite a while to find out how to get it to stay on, as you have to turn the dial to the little wrench icon and select it from there, and then it's even just on or off, can't select say 3, 5, 10 seconds, etc. It stays on maybe 2-3 seconds, and that's your only choice, on or off. There are multiple shooting modes, and I tried several, even the low light setting didn't help with my dreadful pictures.

Members' Comments onadamsueshawca's Review

• patita on 15th Dec 2005

  I agree with Adam. I also bought an Optio 50 and af first sight I liked the size of it. It was very compact and I was told that it took very good pictures and since it had 5.0 megapixels I thought why not...
  It was the worst choice I made!!! I took pictures indoor with plenty of sun light and the result was a black image. The pictures I took outside were acceptable but only if the sun was right on our faces otherwise the faces will always appear as a black stain.
  The colors of the outside pictures also had a yellow coloured look...
  I returned the camera 2 days after I bought it and replaced it by the Sony DSC-S60 which was a very good choice!!!!

• adamsueshawca on 16th Dec 2005

  Actually this is Sue, not Adam, but close enough! I at first replaced this with the Canon A520, but since have also bought the Sony S60! The A520 has great stills, quite happy, but the movie mode is a little lacking and there is a 10 second lag between being able to take pictures. So if I miss a shot then I have to wait 7-10 seconds before I can try again. Very frustrating while my daughter was on Santa's lap! The Sony has some decent stills, movie mode is definitely better, but I got some blurry shots with it yesterday, which happened to be shots of my friend picking up her first brand new car at the dealership and driving it out of the showroom, so shots I can never replace! No idea why they were blurry. But with this Pentax, I wouldnt get ANY useable shots, I didn't get any useable shots from it! Not one! I didn't try it outside at all, I thought maybe that was one place it just might pull off a few useable pics. Guess not! When I returned it the guy at the camera store said, yeah it's mainly for outdoor bright sunlight pictures. (and to stick to Canon). I hope Pentax sees these reviews and just pulls this camera off the market.

• Isobel Ashton on 12th Jun 2006

  Your review seems spot on! My problem is getting PC World to acknowledge that they have sold me something that is not fit for the job. Any ideas?

• adamsueshawca on 11th Jul 2006

  If your within in your return period, just insist on a refund, or an exchange at least. Bring in some of the pics. The person at the camera store told me these cameras are like this, that it is ONLY good for sunny, outdoor pictures. Makes it a little useless! I since got the canon A610, with the flip out lcd screen, i LOVE that camera. Pentax I don't recommend, although my neighbor bought a Pentax SLR that he seems to love. I bought my pentax at a camera store, not Walmart or Best Buy or the like, an actual camera store, and the girl gave me no warnings. But when I went back, I delt with a guy, and he said yeah, these are only good for outdoor shots, was not the least bit surprised that I said all pics were dark!