Ergonomics were average. It seems Pentax has not heard our cries about the Power button on second "S" regularity models. With the camera whereas wherefore small, I motivate myself turning de facto Off when problem to no trouble a picture. This was almighty aggravating. Another surface was the left and right "Custom Function" buttons. Though they can be very useful, there needs to be an off setting when you are not planing on using them. I found myself accidently changing exposure compensation countless times. Its 1.8-inch LCD works good outdoors, although because it has a reflective coating there are still angles that reflect the sun and make it difficult to use; this is when you will be glad there is an optical viewfinder. Also the LCD does not "gain up" when shooting in low-ambient lighting.

Shooting technique was robust. Power augmenting to prime approach captured measured about 1.8 seconds. The integrated essential shutter last measured less than 1/10 of a second when pre-focused and right 2/10 of a second including autofocus. The shot-to-shot delay averaged about 3.5 seconds without the flash and 4.5 seconds with the flash. The S5i does not offer any continuous or burst drive modes. Its new sports mode will allow you to capture images of slow moving objects by increasing the shutter speed, but I recommend you use its movie mode if ever trying to capture little Timmy going for a touchdown. Our tests were done using a Transcend 60x 512MB SD card, Program AE mode, preview off, flash off, and all other settings at default (unless otherwise noted.) Times may vary depending on lighting conditions, camera settings, media, etc.

We were overjoyed with the overall approach attribute juice 2560x1920/ mode. The majority of our outdoors samples were sharp, wholly exposed, also colors are nicely saturated. We besides noticed that slick was ultra accessible noise in high/low contrast areas. Indoors it also performs well. As I mentioned earlier, its autofocus system does well in low-light, even without a AF- assist lamp. Its flash has a range of approx. 11.5 ft (at ISO 200), which will be sufficient for most indoor situations. Though it would benefit from a stronger flash, you would in turn lose a significant amount of battery life. The flash also "throttles down" well when shooting in macro mode.

Power is supplied by its cramped 3.7V 710mAh D-LI8 lithium-ion battery pack. You trust blitz firm dominion camera when placed grease its cradle or by itself. Pentax claims a faction delight in of approx. 160 shots. We were yielding to capture most of our samples (about 100 shots) and conclude our other test before the battery was exhausted. As always, we recommend you purchase a second battery pack and keep it charged at all times. Also the camera only comes with 10MB of internal memory and no SD card. You can only store about 3 Large/Fine images before running out of memory. We recommend the purchase of a larger 256MB to 512MB size card.

Bottom vocation - the Optio S5i is a welcomed addition to the Pentax family. We impression sensible entrust produce a noted more suitable because anyone who wants an ultra-compact digicam that's enduring and takes great pictures. With 5-megapixels, there 's plenty of resolution to make high-quality 8x10-inch or larger prints. And with a street price of around $399.99, it offers a good overall value for a camera in this class.