Pentax Optio A20 Pictures

MrsSicily · Oct 18, 2006

My Canon SD300 broke and so I bought the Pentax A20. I couldn't find many reviews or pictures before buying so took a bit of a gamble. the only useful site was this one. So I have posted some pictures on my website. The pictures are just a few random things I took yesterday, I will post more soon. I am happy with the camera although the shutter lag(if this is the right term) seems to be slower than the canon.

The pictures can be seen on my site about Sicily. I look forward to going there next and taking more shots.

http://www.thesicilysite.com/pentax_optio_a20_pictures.htm

webjunk · Oct 18, 2006

Thanks for the info. Im looking at replacing my Canon Ixus aka powershot 400 with the A20.

I'd happily shell out the cash for an IXUS 850, but unfortunately its missing 1 key function that I keep telling myself I cant live with out.

arnelie · Oct 19, 2006

You made me curious, what key function?

arne 8-]

webjunk said:
I'd happily shell out the cash for an IXUS 850, but unfortunately
its missing 1 key function that I keep telling myself I cant live
with out.

webjunk · Oct 19, 2006

While I am certain there are 100 features that the IXUS 850 (or what ever its called) over the pentax. The one feature the Pentax A20 has over the IXUS is a remote control.

How useful it will be is very debatable, but as I do (will be doing) a lot of solo travelling, I would like to be in one or two of the shots.

Paul Iu · Oct 19, 2006

webjunk said:
While I am certain there are 100 features that the IXUS 850 (or
what ever its called) over the pentax. The one feature the Pentax
A20 has over the IXUS is a remote control.

How useful it will be is very debatable, but as I do (will be
doing) a lot of solo travelling, I would like to be in one or two
of the shots.

For me, there is a function that I cannot live without it and it also over the IXUS. It is Mpeg4/Divx movie encoding. I can record more 1.5hrs for a 2GB SD in highest quality setting. IXUS can only record around 8 mins for each 1GB....

lipscani · Oct 20, 2006

Thank you mrSicily for your sample images.

Could you upload also a (brief) sample movie? It's IMPOSSIBLE to find on the entire net, and many people want to know if Pentax implemented the old (bad) trick of the A10's upsampled 20fps or not.
Would be very useful

Thanks

arnelie · Oct 20, 2006

Pentax have managed to make a 25fps-> 30fps conversion by copying each 5th frame. This is just unbelievable. Why don't they settle with steady 25fps if the capturing/encoding engine cannot provide more? Why transform a smooth 25fps movie into a jirky 30fps? I just dont get it... For what I know, the Optio S6 is the only Pentax DivX camera that has true native 30fps.

arne

lipscani said:
Thank you mrSicily for your sample images.
Could you upload also a (brief) sample movie? It's IMPOSSIBLE to
find on the entire net, and many people want to know if Pentax
implemented the old (bad) trick of the A10's upsampled 20fps or not.
Would be very useful

Thanks

webjunk · Oct 20, 2006

arnelie said:
Why don't they settle
with steady 25fps

Simple. It makes the box scanners (ie people who sell the cameras) more likely to recommend Pentax.

"Yes, both these cameras are 10MP have 1600 ISO and 640x480 movies but the pentax has 30fps where as only has 25fps"

I mean, how many P&S ppl really need more than 3x zoom. But on paper a camera with 10x zoom has got to be better.

(this from a guy who is buying a 10MP camera with no optical view finder, when 5mp and a view finder is all that is really needed)

asr4096 · Oct 22, 2006

This is frustrating, esp. with Pentax.

I was planning to buy the A10 esp. for it's VGA-Movie Mode, but when i discovered the crappy framerate-problem i decided to wait.

Well, then the A20 fails too... I don't get it, to me this is criminal, specs say 30fps, but in reality you get a jirky upsampled rubbish. I mailed to pentax (germany) several times, no response.

And btw, 25fps would be great for me, esp. if you're planning to use the material in PAL-based Videos, since PAL uses 25fps. So, when are cam manufacturers will offer user-configurable framerates like 30/25fps (maybe 20, 15,10 too for experimental stuff) ... I also would welcome a 50fps or 60fps mode for super-slowmo.

What do you think about it?

greetings, andi

garyydpreview · Oct 22, 2006

webjunk said:
While I am certain there are 100 features that the IXUS 850 (or
what ever its called) over the pentax. The one feature the Pentax
A20 has over the IXUS is a remote control.

How useful it will be is very debatable, but as I do (will be
doing) a lot of solo travelling, I would like to be in one or two
of the shots.

You are right.

A remote is a very handy tool for a variety of reasons. Mfrs should not have left them out.

Many people thought the self timer would suffice but it wouldn't. Alll your solo shots will be out of focus becos the camera will always focus on your background.

arnelie · Oct 23, 2006

Canon already offer 60fps in QVGA mode. Back to the 25/30fps stuff, what is strange, is that how could Optio S6 have enough processing power to output true 30fps, when A20 with the new high-power cpu can't? I am sorry to say this, but if steady video mode is important for you guys, & DivX/MPEG4 compression, new Pentax p&s is not the right choice. For what I know, the only other DivX choice is Casio.

arne

asr4096 said:
This is frustrating, esp. with Pentax.
I was planning to buy the A10 esp. for it's VGA-Movie Mode, but
when i discovered the crappy framerate-problem i decided to wait.
Well, then the A20 fails too... I don't get it, to me this is
criminal, specs say 30fps, but in reality you get a jirky upsampled
rubbish. I mailed to pentax (germany) several times, no response.

And btw, 25fps would be great for me, esp. if you're planning to
use the material in PAL-based Videos, since PAL uses 25fps. So,
when are cam manufacturers will offer user-configurable framerates
like 30/25fps (maybe 20, 15,10 too for experimental stuff) ... I
also would welcome a 50fps or 60fps mode for super-slowmo.

What do you think about it?

greetings, andi

webjunk · Oct 23, 2006

arnelie said:
I am sorry to say this, but if steady video mode is
important for you guys, & DivX/MPEG4 compression, new Pentax p&s is
not the right choice. For what I know, the only other DivX choice
is Casio.

Hmm. If you are saying that every fifth frame is repeated causing the video to be choppy, then it should not be too hard to fix that and remove every 5th frame with virtualdub or similar.

Not that I have looked into it too closely.

arnelie · Oct 23, 2006

I actually tried to do that in virtualdub, but I did not find a way to do it (only spent a few minutes). And, perhaps more important, is if you can edit this way, will the remaining frames have uniform time spacing? If not, you will still have some "choppyness", but I think it should have been improved.

I guess with Adobe Premiere or something more professional than virtualdub, this should be easy to do. Perhaps this remedy is what is needed for A20 owners not quite movie-happy?

arne

webjunk said:
webjunk said:

I am sorry to say this, but if steady video mode is
important for you guys, & DivX/MPEG4 compression, new Pentax p&s is
not the right choice. For what I know, the only other DivX choice
is Casio.

Click to expand...

Hmm. If you are saying that every fifth frame is repeated causing
the video to be choppy, then it should not be too hard to fix that
and remove every 5th frame with virtualdub or similar.

Not that I have looked into it too closely.

webjunk · Oct 23, 2006

Again, Im not too sure if this will work, but on paper it looks good

http://neuron2.net/fdecimate/fdecimate.html

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