Pentax Optio A20 Review
Simon Joinson, March 2007

Review based on a production Pentax Optio A20

As is the nature of this business the Option A20 replaced the A10 only seven months after that model had been announced (and is itself about to be replaced by the further upgraded A30). The |A10 was one of the disappointments of last year, offering typical Pentax high quality output and wealth of features but with serious performance issues that made using it frustrating to say the least. The A20 has a new ASIC (processor), two million more pixels (10.0 MP 1/1.8-inch sensor) and a handful of new features. We decided to find out if Pentax has solved the problems that stopped the A10 from being a really great camera, starting as ever with the headline features:

• 10.0 effective megapixels
• High-performance smc PENTAX 3x zoom lens
• New ASIC
• SR (Shake Reduction)
• Face Recognition AF & AE
• Auto-tracking AF continuously focuses on a moving subject
• High-quality movies with an anti-shake function
• Auto Picture mode automatically determines the best settings for the shooting conditions
• ISO 64-800
• Shutter Priority, Manual and numerous scene modes
• SDHC support
• Post-shot red-eye removal

Pentax Optio A20 Key specifications

* Supplied accessories may differ in each country or area

If you're new to digital photography you may wish to read the Digital Photography Glossary before diving into this article (it may help you understand some of the terms used).

Conclusion / Recommendation / Ratings are based on the opinion of the reviewer, you should read the ENTIRE review before coming to your own conclusions. Images which can be viewed at a larger size have a small magnifying glass icon in the bottom right corner of the image, clicking on the image will display a larger (typically VGA) image in a new window. To navigate the review simply use the next / previous page buttons, to jump to a particular section either pick the section from the drop down or select it from the navigation bar at the top. DPReview calibrate their monitors using Color Vision OptiCal at the (fairly well accepted) PC normal gamma 2.2, this means that on our monitors we can make out the difference between all of the (computer generated) grayscale blocks below. We recommend to make the most of this review you should be able to see the difference (at least) between X,Y and Z and ideally A,B and C.

This article is Copyright 2007 and may NOT in part or in whole be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission from the author.