The world of waterproof digital cameras now includes a new member: the Pentax Optio X80. 

With 12 million pixel and a 5x periscopic zoom, the W80 is not just shock-resistant from heights of up to a metre, it's also resistant to low temperatures and waterproof up to five metres below the surface (that's one metre more than the W60).  It features a 720p HD video mode.

Handling

Pentax has built a reassuringly solid body.  Like the rest of the manufacturer's waterproof range, the Optio W80 has a long, blocky look that isn't too attractive, but it's a question of taste.  The easy-to-use interface is still controlled by a series of black buttons that are a little small.

The back of the camera has a 2.5'' screen with a 230 000 pixel resolution.  The display is fluid, but suffers from a little electronic noise and isn't as bright as it could be.

What poses the biggest problems is how fast the camera is--or rather how slow it is.  It's extremely slow, in fact; so much so that using it becomes a chore, and even irritating in some cases.  To start with, the pause that ensues when saving two consecutive photos is too long, reaching almost seven seconds.

Focusing is nothing exceptional either: just over a second for autofocus in bright sunlight and almost 1.6 s when you use the zoom.


Image Quality

The electronic noise management is still very limited.  Blurriness is clearly visible from 100 ISO.  AT 400 ISO, the details are completely obscured.  Above 3200 ISO, the resolution falls from 12 to 5 Megapixels.



Indoors, the W80 produces photos which are generally acceptable.  Despite everything, there is a lack of detail, but this remains even across the whole frame from the centre to the edges.  White balancing is less effective under artificial light: in our test scene, it is largely dominated by warm shades (reds).


Outside, photos are correctly exposed with accurate colours.  Unfortunately, the electronic noise management is nothing to write home about.  The photos we took in Auto mode needed low sensitivities, but the arrival of noise at 100 ISO impacted on the general quality.  We also notice purple fringing in coloured areas with a lot of contrast.


Video offers good quality with a HD resolution (720p) and a framerate of 30 fps.  Sound is available, but you can't use the zoom while filming which is a shame.  The macro mode is also useable when photo isn't taken without a support of some kind.  We found the macro shot of a computer chip, where we used a support, a lot sharper than the still life.  This finding questions the power of the electronic image stabilisation.