Pentax Optio S4 Digital Camera

Pros: A perfect stocking stuffer, 4 megapixels,11 MB’s of internal memory
Cons: Soft images, higher than average noise levels, and short battery life,

Pentax is probably best known for the K1000 (one of the most popular 35mm SLR’s ever), the Pentax 110 (the smallest SLR camera ever made), and for the durability and usability of its’ work-horse medium format Pentax 67 camera. But Pentax never ...

Pros: Tiny, Design, Build, Metal, Fast, Manual features, Overal image quality, Macro, Builtin memory, ACDSee
Cons: Proprietary battery, Underexposure, No Fast Action mode, Bulky charger, Flimsy doors, Power button location

First a short preamble that may help understand my perspective on Optio S4 for those who are looking for the similar usage of the digicam. As I already said in my M inolta Dimage X20 review I was looking for small, ...

Pros: Truly ultra-small, good menu system, durable
Cons: Pics noisy & poor image quality control pad, flash

The Pentax Optio S4 is supposedly the smallest 4MP digital camera in the word. In the research I did before buying it, that seems to be the correct. The nearest competitors are the Casio Z4/Z40 (close but bigger) and the Canon S400 series (not even close ...

Pros: A great value, small, light weight, +4 megapixels, easy to use, short video capability.
Cons: separate battery charger, need to purchase extra battery and memory chip.

Being new parents, it was time to get up to speed with current technology, and purchase a digital camera. We didn't even know what a megapixel was at first. With the help of my father, who is into all sorts of technology, he helped research digital ...

Pros: Small, Lightweight, Attractive, 4mp, Ease of Use.
Cons: Shutter speed

First off I basically love this camera. I had been researching different types of small digital cameras before I settled on this one. The other main camera that I was considering was the Digital Elph. I'm glad now that I didn't purchase that camera ...

Pros: Small, tough, cool-looking.
Cons: Blurriness, not that easy to use.

The Pentax Optio S4 is a tough little camera. The aluminium body has resisted all of my (accidental) attempts to destroy it, from dropping it from a great height to smashing it against a table. There isn't even a scratch on the body! The connection ...

Pros: The multiple video settings, good with indoor pictures
Cons: battery life, the included memory card, sensitivity to hand movement, upclose pictures

I've had this camera for about 6 months now (since may). I bought this product because I wanted a tiny camera that had a lot of punch. I also was interested in the video feature, and I knew I wanted it with sound. I kind of went out on a limb, this being ...

Pros: Tiny size, great pictures, great "WOW" factor, intuitive menu
Cons: Short battery life, easy to drop

I did a lot of research on digital cameras before I bought the Pentax Optio S4 and it paid off because I now own a great camera. The S4 is great for anyone that requires a camera that is small but still needs good picture quality. I have shot a ton of ...

Pros: Size, Great pictures, 3X Optical Zoom, good price. Love It!
Cons: Battery Door is cheap, optical viewfinder is small

You can probably tell by my title that I really like this camera. Having owned a Kodak DC-3400 for many years (a 2MP monstrosity), I was VERY pleased with the Optio S4. There are a few reasons for this: Speed: Fast turn on and ready to take a picture ...

Pros: zoom is excellent, photo quality is excellent, Worth every penny
Cons: don't let it go through the dryer its breaks very easy in that atmosphere

My experience with this camera is I take it every where and take pictures of just about anything, its wonderful because it fits right in ur pocket because its so compact and easy to carry around. My mother bought me this camera because she knew it was a reliable company and she thought right, im a college student and it can withhold plenty. I definitly love this camera its makes life so much easier with me be able to take great quality pictures of my friends and family. Its just a wonderful camera

Pros: Small size, many interesting features and good quality pictures.
Cons: Poor reliability.

For several months this camera worked very well and its portability made it so easy to carry I took it everywhere. Then it died on me. I would switch it on and the lens came out as it should but it retracted itself immediately. I sent it back for warranty repair and it seemed OK again after repair but that lasted only a month or so before the auto focus system died. Pentax told me to send it in for warranty repair again. I asked for a replacement as I feel I have a lemon here. Their response "Because Pentax is not a dealer or a store, we do not offer a program for refunds, exchanges or replacements." I certainly don't think a dealer or store would do anything other than to tell me to send it to Pentax. Bottom line here is that I like the design concept and hate the product reliability, feeling that the factory is not too interested in having a satisfied customer.

Pros: Fits in an altoids can; 3x zoom, battery life
Cons: The mini-USB connector looks fragile - but almost all digital cameras use it.

Serious - I carry my camera in an Altoid can and in my jeans front pocket. I spent a lot of time researching digital cameras and it was tough - too many choices. I chose the Optio 4 Si (Optical 3x, 1.8 LCD) as it had the best from factor. The pictures are quite good too. There are several settings and you need to get used to it a little - but the pix quality is very good. For that family vacation digital camera this is a great camera. The built in flash is quite good too, the LCD is the perfect size. The movie works too. The battery life while taking pictures is quite good. You can take over 300 pictures on one charge (w/o flash). I would say 200 with flash. I have a 256MB SD flash card and I can take over 350 pictures - depends on the resolution though.

Pros: Very small size, nice-looking body (wow factor), quick response
Cons: Picture quality is okay but not great (Canon's are definitely better), terrible low light

I've had this camera for about 6 months, and I think the best camera for my purpose. I already have a very nice SLR camera, so I just needed something small for quick and casual pictures. This camera is very small, and the startup time/shutter lag is almost non-existent. I can go a whole day on just one battery as long as I don't go crazy with the pictures (easily enough to fill up my 512MB SD card). The screen is a bit small, but what can you say for such a small camera. On the downside, the pictures are not all that great. They're soft and have some noise to them. Definitely not what you want as a primary camera, especially if you want to archive your prints. Also, in low light, the pictures are terrible and the flash doesn't help, not even at 4 feet. But if you need a great camera just for fun, then this one hits the spot.

Pros: Wonderfully tiny, take-it-anywhere camera
Cons: Somewhat out-of-focus images, especially at the edges.

I love this camera. I wanted something I could carry around all the time, and this certainly fits the bill. Feature-wise, it's great considering it's size. I would recommend the camera; however, I took mine back:

I thought the overall image quality was great for such a small camera, but I was annoyed by the difficulty getting good focus. Unless I kept the camera very very still, I was disappointed with the result. And pics were consistently out of focus on the edges of the photos (something verified by the digital camera review sites). Seems the tiny lens has some disadvantages.

I thought battery life was darn good for such a small camera. I could get just about a whole day of photos out of it. The charger is annoyingly bulky with the power cord. If they just put the plug prongs right in the charger like a lot of chargers do, it'd be great.

The upcoming S4i adds PictBridge and a larger display. I might consider repurchasing at that time. In the meantime, I purchased the larger Nikon Coolpix 3700 that has provided excellent image quality.

Pros: Compact, pretty good picture quality.
Cons: Poor autofocus, annoyingly long shutter lag, unreliable.

I bought this camera to replace my trusty Digital Elph with the primary goal of keeping portability with a higher resolution.
2 months after purchasing, I had the "lens extend - buzz - lens retract - turn off" problem mentioned in another review. Unfortunately this happened on vacation. Came back from warranty repair working fine for a while.... Next vacation (out of warranty), it happened again.
I tossed it in the garbage and bought a camera from a different manufacturer. I can handle almost all deficiencies except reliability.
Sounds to me more like a design defect than a manufacturing defect. Whatever.
While it was working, the picture quality was as good as could be expected from that format and price range.
Negatives would be the extremely slow autofocus and shutter lag. When I'd hand it to some stranger to take our photo, I'd have to tell them to just push the shutter and count to 5.
Movie mode was pretty bad, if that matters to you. The resolution is poor and the autofocus would constantly hunt.