Pentax Optio WPi - Setting Up and Features
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Setting Up and Features
Setting up the camera is simple enough. Charge up the battery, unlock the flap, slot it in and use the button sneakily labeled "On/Off." You will be greeted by a nice start up jingle and the LCD will display the water-droplet image used on the box background. Both the jingle and the image can either be customized or disabled completely if you want.
The default mode for the camera is "P" (Programmable). This will always remain the default unless you use a option in the settings to tell the camera to remember your last used settings and configurations. This bugs me a little; yes the option is there, but not everyone looks through the settings intently and some people may miss it. In a perfect world the camera would remember your settings automatically.
Navigating the camera's menus is done using the round dial-like button at the bottom right of the camera. It isn't actually a dial, just 4 directional buttons underneath a pad with an OK button in the middle. But having said that, this mini d-pad style button is easy to use and doesn't make anything too difficult. The pad is also used to bring up the modes menu, and to select the flash, focus and drive modes for taking pictures.
Zooming in while in shooting modes is simple enough. The two ends of the bar are decorated with one and three trees respectively to indicate zooming in and out. When you zoom in, a little bar appears at the bottom of the screen and indicates how far in you zoom. It starts off by running through the optical zoom, and stops once that has reached its 3x limit. To then progress onto the digital zoom you must let go of the button and press zoom in again. I like this feature, as it prevents you from unwittingly using the digital zoom and degrading your image. On that note there's also an option (my favorite one) to disable the digital zoom altogether.
Next to the zoom bar is a multi-function "Green Button." Normally this button is used to activate a literal "green" mode, which has everything configured to automatically adjust itself to the conditions, and prevents you from altering any setting yourself. This mode may be useful for children or the casual photographer, but it really does restrict you to point and shoot. It's not entirely useless though, as the button can also be configured with up to 4 options from the settings menu, allowing you to quickly change them if need be without going through the entire menu system to find them. I personally set the ISO Sensitivity, Resolution, Picture Quality and EV Compensation as these are the ones I most often adjust.
Of the total 22 predetermined shooting modes, 15 are initially available from a menu of icons accessed by pressing downward on the pad (usefully labeled "Mode"). You can then adjust the settings for these modes, and these should be retained when you switch to another mode or turn off the camera. The further 7 modes can be used to replace any of the others on the menu and you can even have several versions of the same mode, each configured for different types of shots (note: to my knowledge modes not on the main menu lose any customized settings).
The menu basically acts as a set of quick options, allowing you to move between one configuration and another without having to adjust all the individual settings. I like to think of them as mini user profiles for the camera.
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