Mark

Available in grey, wine red or slate blue Samsung’s Digimax U-CA5 sports a 5-megapixel CCD and Samsung-branded 3x optical zoom lens. Although designed for point-and-shoot photographers, like the V700 model it has lots of user-adjustable controls, including some innovative effects settings. However, its idiosyncratic menu system makes some of them hard to reach.

Shots from the test camera were slightly contrasty but colour accurate and sharp. Flash coverage was modest and the white balance performed best with the custom setting. Low light shots had a scattering of stuck pixels at all ISO settings. Capture lag averaged 0.25 seconds, extending to 0.6 seconds with subjects that were difficult to focus.

The smallest and lightest of the Optio ‘S’ series cameras Pentax has made thus far, the Optio S5z fits easily in a shirt pocket and its smart, brushed aluminium alloy body has a ‘quality’ look. A large 2.5-inch LCD monitor covers most of the rear panel, leaving no space for a viewfinder and five tiny rubber buttons provide a secure finger grip. The 3x optical zoom lens slides into the camera body leaving the front panel flat but pops out within a second or two when the camera is switched on.

Key controls on Pentax’s Optio S40 are accessed via the top-mounted mode dial, which has a central on/off switch and settings for full auto (‘Easy Mode’, which is identified by a green smiley face icon), program AE, Picture Mode (which accesses the scene settings), night-scene, landscape and portrait modes, movie capture, and voice clip recording. In the Easy Mode setting users have push-button access to a Help screen, which describes the functions controlled by each button. This works in both capture and playback modes.