Pentax Optio M50

Zero in on affordability with a powerful 5X zoom. A compact digital camera with a powerful 5X zoom, the Optio M50 sports a stylish design, an affordable price and is offered in three fun, new colors: silver, pink and blue. You are assured high resolution images with its 8.0 megapixel CCD and review your images easily with a 2.5 inch wide view LCD. This all-around Optio also offers Smile Capture and Face Recognition to capture perfect portraits.

5X optical zoom lens

Inside a palm-sized compact body, the Optio M50 is newly equipped with a 5X optical zoom lens. With this lens, an angle of view equivalent to those of an approximately 36 to 180 mm lens in 35 mm format can be obtained, thus permitting the user to take zooming photographs for landscapes, memorial photographs, portraits etc. In addition, using this together with the digital zoom function ( approx. 1X to 5.1X ) makes photography with a maximum zoom equivalent to 25.5X possible.

”Face Recognition AF & AE” function that is convenient when photographing portraits

The Optio M50 is equipped with the ”Face Recognition AF&AE” function that automatically detects and focuses on faces, and sets the optimum exposure. In addition, ”Smile Capture” function that distinguishes smiles and automatically takes photographs, and other application functions are also available.

Evolved Auto Picture mode automatically determines the best settings for the shooting conditions

The Auto Picture mode, which is unique to PENTAX, lets the camera automatically determines the shooting conditions and chooses condition for Landscape, Portrait, Night Scene, Normal, and newly adopted Flower and Sports mode.

Digital SR ( Shake Reduction )

Digital SR ( Shake Reduction ) mode reduces camera shakes and blurring of the subjects when photographing still images. The sensitivity is adjusted automatically, to as high as the ultrahigh sensitivity of ISO 6400, to match the brightness of the subjects. This enables for photography with fast shutter speeds, and images with less blurs can be obtained.

Easily viewable 2.5-inch LCD monitor with a wide viewing angle

Even with a compact body, the Optio M50 features a large, 2.5-inch LCD monitor with an increased approximately 230,000 dots. Not only is it easy to check the screen during photography and playback, it is also easy to view the menu display. The monitor also enables users to operate the camera and make settings smoothly. Since the screen has a wide viewing angle of approximately 170 degrees from all directions, it is easy to confirm images even when looking at the screen diagonally.

High-quality images

Thanks to a high definition of approximately 8.0 effective megapixels and high-performance PENTAX lens, the Optio M50 realizes clear images with high quality. Even when images are enlarged, it is possible to print detailed areas clearly.

Other features

Movie recording function with shake reduction enabling high image quality rivaling camcorders
Mode palette provides quick access to 16 shooting conditions and 15 playback mode
Panorama mode for composing photographs into 1 panoramic picture
Auto-Macro allows for close-up photography as near as 10cm without changing the normal focusing mode
Auto-tracking AF continuously focusing on a moving subject
Date imprint function for easy image categorizing
Approximately 51.1MB of built-in memory
FotoNation's red-eye compensation function for flash shots
Includes the ACDSee for PENTAX 3.0 image viewer/image management software that supports Windows Vista™
Support PictBridge, DPOF functions, Exif Print, and PRINT Image Matching III

More external Pentax Optio M50 reviews!

Sensor • 1/2.35" Type CCD
• 8.0 million effective pixels

Image sizes • 3264 x 2448
• 2592 x 1944
• 2304 x 1728
• 2048 x 1536
• 2038 x 1536
• 1600 X 1200
• 640 x 480

Movie clips • 640 x 480
• 320 x 240

File formats • JPEG (EXIF 2.2)
• AVI (Motion JPEG Format)
• WAV (mono)

Lens • PENTAX smc zoom lens
• 6.3 mm – 31.5 mm
• Approx. 36 mm – 180mm (35mm equiv.)
• F3.5 -5.6

Image stabilization No

Conversion lenses No

Digital zoom Up to 5.1x

Focus TTL Contrast Detection AF

AF area modes • 9 Point AF
• Spot AF
• Manual focus

Focus distance • Normal: 0.4m to infinity (entire zoom range)
• Tele: 0.9 to infinity
• Macro: 10 to 50cm (wide-angle), 60cm to 1.0m (tele)
• Landscape: Infinity
• Pan focus (hyperfocal)
• Manual focus

Metering TTL multi-field metering

Metering areas • Multi-field
• Center weighted
• Spot

ISO sensitivity • Auto ISO
• ISO 64
• ISO 100
• ISO 200
• ISO 400
• ISO 800
• ISO 1600
• ISO 3200
• ISO 6400

Exposure compensation ± 2EV in 1/3 EV steps

Exposure bracketing No

Shutter speed Approx. 1/2000s to 4s

Aperture n/a

Modes • Green mode
• Full automatic
• Programmed automatic
• Video
• Sound
• Digital Shake Reduction (SR)
• Frame

Scene modes • Nightscene
• Landscape
• Flowers
• Portrait
• Sand + Snow
• Sport
• Kids
• Pets
• Food
• Speech recording
• Panorama Function
• Natural skin tones rendition
• On-image Date recording

White balance • Automatic
• Daylight
• Cloudy
• Tungsten
• Neon
• Manual selectable

White balance fine tune n/a

Self timer 2 or 10 sec

Continuous shooting Yes

Image parameters • Black & White
• Sepia
• Red
• Pink
• Purple
• Blue
• Green
• Yellow
• Soft

Flash • Auto
• Forced on
• Forced off
• Red Eye Reduction

Viewfinder No

LCD monitor • 2.5“ TFT LCD colour monitor
• Approx.232,000 pixels
• Approx. 100% coverage

Connectivity • USB 2.0 High Speed
• AV out (PAL/NTSC)
• DC input

Print compliance • Pictbridge
• DPOF
• Print Image Matching III

Storage SD/SDHC cards

Power • D-LI78 Lithium Ion battery
• AC adaptor (optional)

Weight (no batt) TBC

Dimensions 95 x 55 x 23.5 mm (3.7 x 2.2 x 0.9 in)