Herb for my whine
Published December 24, 2008 | 
Dont worry about a thing,
cause every little thing gonna be all right.
Singin: dont worry about a thing,
cause every little thing gonna be all right!
- bob marley
God bless you merry gentle men and creators of the Optio. I figured I’d get that out of the way before I once again went on a short rant about the quality of the Pentax Optio. This time, the W60.
All paddlers know the problem. We want a waterproof, easy to manage, pocket sized camera that takes great pictures. The Pentax Optio (which I am informally renaming the “Mirage”) has always been almost exactly what we are looking for until you get up close. Great images, great features, and so forth. The problem has always been quality. Antidotally paddlers everywhere have found the Optio to be the world’s most expensive disposable camera, and yet we are suckered in because we don’t want to miss those on water shots. Just like a mirage in the desert the Optio always looks so real. In fact it is. It’s everything you want if only it would last long enough to justify the cost.
This time my new WP60 held up for almost a month before the shutter button went haywire. Only about 30% of the time will it actually take a shot when you press it. Most of the time it just focuses and nothing else, allowing you to see the shot you could have taken if the camera worked properly. Tease!!
That brings us right back to where we’ve been with Pentax over and over again. Their customer support in my experience and that of others I’ve talked to is typically corporate and typically of the “devil may care” variety. Now you’d think after 3 Optios and with all the the evidence from other paddlers I’d have given up on the Pentax Mirage by now, but those great photos (when it works) always draws you back in. Stupid me. Good thing I have plenty of booze.
Don’t worry you poor soul on the Pentax customer support phone bank. I won’t yell, I won’t curse. I really feel bad you have to take my call. I’ll tell you what. I’ll send you a little bottle of Jameson and we can catch a little buzz and listen to Bob Marley on the speaker phone and figure out how to convince those guys in the polo shirts that it “Tis the season” to do the right thing. . . (again.)
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14 Responses to Herb for my whine
Phew… Was close to buying one just after Christmas… Now I fully see why they are so discounted here (C$250 if you look, or about US$210 these days). Still expensive for a disposable though… But, as you say, what are the options?… The waterproof Olympus tends to show an over-processed image, waterproof cases end up bulky and very expensive, and so on and so forth… Maybe it is too small a market for the manufacturers to really care!
Merry Christmas nevertheless, Derrick…
My new optio w30 lasted 2 months before it stopped working, and as for customer support, totally non existant, The warranty covers everything except water damage Waterproof?? my eye! On the other hand my olympus has somehow resussitated itself and is now working again, but for how long?
Happy Christmas and have a great new year.
Maybe they need to go back to the last good model and relearn a few things? I’m still using my now old Optio 33WR which is supposed to be only water resistant. I’ve even taken a couple shots underwater (big no-no for WR according to the manual, seals are not rated for the pressure) and can’t seem to kill it. I guess I’ll have to look hard if and when this thing dies, but so far no worries…ugly but tough.
Small ‘consumer’ level (as opposed to the ‘pro’ level varieties) are really eye candy for the camera manufacturers. It’s like they are designed as weekend projects for junior employees. They get produced for a few weeks, are sold out in a few months and then discontinued in favour of the next one. They really are disposable! The fact that they work at all is the true miracle! If you have a working 33WR (I have a 43WR still running) means you probably have a museum piece worth thousands!
In the end, we need to get waterproof cases for our SLR’s…which of course would cost a small fortune.
I must have an exception to the rule .. my Pentax Optio 20 is still clicking away, Many under water shots, and movies. I’ve even just tied it under a bungee on the deck so I’d have it for “that shot”. Most of the time it rides around in my coat pocket, or lying on the back seat of the Jeep. I rarely go anywhere without it. Of course, now that I’ve made this comment I may have jinxed the thing.
My Optio W10 is 2-3 years old, has survived many surf and rolling sessions, and is still working perfectly. The old ones must have had better waterproofing.
I’m waiting for my Olympus being repaired or receiving a new one?It lasted half a year so also disposal
Karel I heard much the same reports about the Olympus as well. In the end the only one I know that lasts is the Sea Life Ecoshot. I just wish they could improve the quality of the images.
Hi Derrick, I have an Optio drawer. In it I keep all those useles gadgets that have never quite been fit for purpose. It is overflowing as gadgets come and go but will forever be the Optio drawer.
I wonder if the Go Hero cameras, which are less expensive to begin with than the Pentax, and I think are in the third incarnation now with more megapixels, are worth a “go”? Sorry for your Optio expeience, Derrick, but thanks for posting fo all of us. CD1
My Optio WP is still working. I have never dunked it. I couldn’t work up the courage to do it when I first got it, and now after reading about all of the failures that everyone else has had, I will not be dunking it. Kinda defeats the purpose of having a “waterproof” camera.
Every Kitchen has an “Optio” drawer!!
I have a Pentax optio W30 for about 9 months and it’s been great just to capture water photos, but I rarely get it underwater. No matter how much it insists that it’s waterproof, I’m treating it like it’s splash proof, I have no desire to test the seals, but I know it can sit in a puddle of water on my deck for hours. However, image quality is definitely poor. I’ve found a lot of it is due to an overall soft image and lots of noise even at low ISO values. Sharpening in photoshop, around the 1.8px/40% in smart or unsharp mask sometimes helps bring out the details, but point and shoot cameras are not designed for what we have in mind. If you want to take kayak photos professionally, it’s time to move away from pocket cameras and bite the bullet on seeing your camera as a constant liability on the water. For me, it’s not worth the stress quite yet, so I’ll probably continue throwing down a couple hundred bucks every year or so. My last camera was a nikon P1, which was a high end point and shoot at the time, in a housing, but the housing blew a gasket in Hawaii and it was over. I never did get to the bottom of what happened, but luckily the housing was insured and that’s how I ended up with a W30.