I had been using the W10 originally bought for my son. Being quite impressed with this carry-everywhere, rain-proof, pool-proof camera, it was a natural choice to get the W60. A ton of features have been added or extended, mostly for good. As a camera that can live in my pocket everywhere I go 24/7, its passable. As with the W10, the macro on the W60 is impressive and they've added a 1cm mode for extreme close-ups.
My first impression has been, after some pixel peeping, that the image quality is not quite as good as the W10 was. And the more I looked, the less I liked. Even in clear, good lighting, the images are VERY noisy.
I find I'm not using the new default auto-pick mode, but leave it in the more familiar P mode, switching to specific modes as needed. For the beginner, leaving it on auto-pick let's the camera do 99% of the photography - face recognition, auto-flash, auto-iso, etc. For the more advanced, a lot of the hand-holding (like text descriptions for each mode) can be turned off.
One of the neat features of both the W10 and now the W60 is pressing (OK) when the camera is off to get a clock, and the ability to set a home timezone and a traveling timezone.
Problems:
Price. $600+ here in NZ. A bit of a bite when the being phased out Canon G9 is being sold down for $750. The high price is offset a little by the Pentax W60's weatherproofing and tiny size.
A lot of the new modes that push the camera forward are needlessly hamstrung by dropping 10mpx down to 5mpx or even 3mpx - ensuring I will never use them. Examples are the in-camera stitching modes (2 and 3 image), and the SR mode (which supports ISO6400).
Picture 'frames' also toss resolution to the wind, and its a mode that only my elementary school kids find attractive on the rare occasion.
No shot bracketing (where all 3 images are KEPT) - enabling HDR processing later. The W60 can take 3 shots and then let you pick one to keep.
Image quality really sucks, even against its great grandfather, the W10. If I had been able to thoroughly test this beforehand, I would not buy this camera.
My first impression has been, after some pixel peeping, that the image quality is not quite as good as the W10 was. And the more I looked, the less I liked. Even in clear, good lighting, the images are VERY noisy.
I find I'm not using the new default auto-pick mode, but leave it in the more familiar P mode, switching to specific modes as needed. For the beginner, leaving it on auto-pick let's the camera do 99% of the photography - face recognition, auto-flash, auto-iso, etc. For the more advanced, a lot of the hand-holding (like text descriptions for each mode) can be turned off.
One of the neat features of both the W10 and now the W60 is pressing (OK) when the camera is off to get a clock, and the ability to set a home timezone and a traveling timezone.
Problems:
Price. $600+ here in NZ. A bit of a bite when the being phased out Canon G9 is being sold down for $750. The high price is offset a little by the Pentax W60's weatherproofing and tiny size.
A lot of the new modes that push the camera forward are needlessly hamstrung by dropping 10mpx down to 5mpx or even 3mpx - ensuring I will never use them. Examples are the in-camera stitching modes (2 and 3 image), and the SR mode (which supports ISO6400).
Picture 'frames' also toss resolution to the wind, and its a mode that only my elementary school kids find attractive on the rare occasion.
No shot bracketing (where all 3 images are KEPT) - enabling HDR processing later. The W60 can take 3 shots and then let you pick one to keep.
Image quality really sucks, even against its great grandfather, the W10. If I had been able to thoroughly test this beforehand, I would not buy this camera.
