Pentax OptioWP

Take a disposable camera to the beach and you're unlikely to worry about covering it in sand or getting it a little wet. Do the same with your expensive digital camera and you'll soon run into problems.

Pentax has come to the rescue with the OptioWP. Despite its stylish looks and compact design, it's totally waterproof to a depth of 1.5m. It's even fully functional while underwater.

A 5megapixel CCD allows for images up to 2,560 x 1,960 and Pentax has managed to include a 3x optical zoom. To keep it waterproof, the lens doesn't protrude from the case but instead uses a horizontal sliding mechanism to zoom in and out.

With so much time being spent on making the OptioWP waterproof, we weren't expecting great performance. But, after extensive testing, we were pleasantly surprised. Image quality isn't perfect - noise is quite apparent when shooting in low light and purple fringing crops up a little too often - but the OptioWP is more than adequate for holiday snaps.

In terms of manual controls, white balance, exposure compensation and ISO settings are all on offer, while the 20-scene shooting modes help those who simply want to point and shoot.

Sadly, Pentax has only included a paltry amount of internal memory and no bundled SD card, so you'll have to factor this in to the cost. You can pick up a 256MB card for around £20.

The OptioWP is unlike any other waterproof camera we've seen. It doesn't require a separate casing nor is it bulky and unwieldy, in fact it's quite the opposite. In short, it's the perfect camera to take on holiday and will withstand the elements while producing good quality photos.

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