I've used an Optio A10 for quite a while. It's a great camera to use in my basic photography classes. I can send the AV output to the classroom projector and the students can see what I'm doing on a six foot screen. The layout of the Optio menus is so simple compared to most other cameras that they can understand what I'm doing and apply it to their own camera with little confusion. (The K10d and K20d are great teaching cameras for the same reason.)
Unfortunately, the A10 bit the dust a few weeks ago. I replaced it with an A40 and was pleasantly surprised by a few additions and changes. Pentax has added Tv and Manual modes. These are certainly nice-to-haves on a pocket camera. They will probably be seldom used, but it's nice to know they are there. You might ask why no Av? Well, It looks like there are only two f-stops. I'm not sure Av would add much utility. This is a pocket camera, after all. Another nice change is the ISO selection. You have an option to specify ranges in addition to selecting individual sensitivities. There is a small thumb grip which makes this tiny little camera much easier to hold. Somewhere between the A10 and A40 they added face detection. I'm still not sure about this feature. It's fun to play with, but I'm not sure it's really all that useful. One change that's disappointing. The A10 had contacts on the bottom so you could drop it into a charging cradle. The A40 doesn't have the contacts so that battery must be removed and place in a charger. On the plus side it takes the same battery as the A10 and Optio S, so I have a couple of spares. The jury is still out on any change in image quality brought on by going from 8 to 12 megapixels. I haven't taken enough photos to make a judgement. The old A10 produced some very nice photos. It was a very nice combination of size, utility and picture quality. We'll see if the A40 can live up to its ancestor. GS <http://georgesphotos.net> -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
