This camera has a very slow shutter speed, by the time your piture actually appears it is blurry or grainy. Sometimes your subject is not even in it, that's how slow it is. I am very disappointed, because I have used pentax before and loved it, but this model was a waste of my money. Also the directions for use of the camera are on cd, so you have to use the computer to see how to do something, not very explanatory either. :(

If I could rate this camera lower than a 1 star I would. I have never been more disapointed in a camera than I have been with this one. I own one of the first Epson 500 digital cameras that where made and it takes better photos than this does. This shutter speed is so SLOW, the person you are taken the photo of won't stay around for a second photo!
I have had this for a month now and I am in the market to buy something else. Please DO NOT waste your money on this Model!!
Pentax should be embarassed for making this one.

It's a total waste of money. I bought this one 'cause the canon A530 I was going to buy was sold out... after playing with this one for a little bit, I returned to the store to get my money back! Awful quality, my cel phone takes better pictures FOR REAL! And yeah, too slow, if you want a steady image, you would have to photograph a statue and use a tripod. IT SUCKS

I've had this camera for several months and have taken really great pictures with it, from sunrises and sunsets, birds in flight, vacation photos and a wedding. It's my first digital camera and I found it really easy to use, easy to understand the functions. Use the special modes for action shots and night shots and use rechargeable batteries. It's credit card size and easy to take along. I'm very happy with it and the quality of the pictures is outstanding!

I don't know what these other people are saying...The Pentax Optio E10 is not a bad model. My parents got me this for my birthday so I wouldn't complain anyways. My only gripes about it is the shutter speed(which I will agree with them is pretty slow), and the fact that you have to upload videos on the computer to hear the sound you just recorded, but for less than $150.00 you can't go wrong! The picture quality is pretty good and there are plenty of options on the camera itself to keep you busy. Yeah the advanced directions are on a disk and you have to go on the computer to read them, but I'm pretty sure if you have a digital camera, you have a computer. Otherwise how are you gonna look at the pictures and print them anyways? Not everyone has or wants a portable camera printer. I like it though, I'm deployed to Afghanistan right now and I've got to say this camera does everything I need it to and is pretty easy to keep clean. If you have the money yeah go ahead and buy your $600.00 Cannon that will probably get stolen from you, but if your on a budget like me and my parents are, then this is perfect for you or your child(who will eventually lose it, all kid's lose things)! That's my review, if it doesn't help you, a punch in the mouth will!

This should be a good camera for those of us who are starting out. The shutter speed is a little slow, but most of us arent taking pictures of a running ostrich. It delivers what it promises, & that's about it. Very basic, but nice at what it does. The size is a plus, & it's easy to use.

As a basic point-and-shoot photographer interested in cataloging my vacations and work travels, I spent a significant amount of time doing research on cameras. When I was in the store, on impulse, I bought this camera not knowing anything about it. I was overly optimistic that Pentax's reliability would continue in their low end digital.

There are 9 levels of photo quality: 6MP, 3MP, 1.2MP, each with good, better, best qualities. Anything other than 6MP/best turned out significantly grainy images in moderate indoor lighting. The highest setting produces decent images, but not great images. The images are not as good as my Canon S-20 3.3MP from several years ago.

The camera shutter and image saving is slow. I figured that with today's technology, it would not be necessary to hold the camera for several seconds for each image. I was wrong.

This camera absolutely eats batteries. I wanted a camera that worked off AA batteries because of the expense I had with my old Canon S-20. This one requires the user to replace batteries after 20-30 pictures, if using the flash.

The macro feature with this camera does turn out nice photos, provided you can keep the camera stable.

There are better cameras out there for this price. Do you research and don't be tempted by the low price and brand name.

I bought this camera hoping to have a small, very compact camera for those few moments when you want to capure a family event or, just a to take memory snapshots.

I went with Pentax E-10 knowing it's company's reputation was strong and in the camera industry for decades.

This camera needs a lot of light to operate. The flash is only effective about 6 ft. away. The pixel images are blurry at best. The colors that follow are not even close to being vivid, or natural. Out of 200 shots I might have gotten 4 that are usable.

This is truly one of the worst cameras on the market. It is so bad I will not even sell it on E-Bay.

Please if your looking for a comapct camera that will save great memories.. Keep looking there are plenty of great cameras out there. This Is Not The One For You.

The shudder speed is terrible with this camera. Don't expect to take pictures of any events or activities. The only pictures that come out are "static" shots where nothing moves.

You get what you pay for! Keep shopping! Don't buy!

I got this because I really wanted a small camera so I would be able to carry it with me everywhere in small belt pouch. I found that my large sony was always home and too cumbersome to carry all the time. Having had Pentax film camera for years, I relied on this to be a quality camera. I cant say I have had much time to use all the features. I have taken 6 pictures and gone through 6 AA batteries. on the average a set of 2 batteries lasts for 5 minutes, tops. Yes, I have used rechargeable (2500 mAh)and alkaline also.
The camera may be small enough to carry around but I cant carry that many batteries.

I know a bunch of you are out there trying to buy a digital camera as a gift for someone. If the person you are shopping for is into photography or uses their camera a lot, just stop. Right now. Stop. Don't do it.

As someone who has taken photos for a local newspaper and the Army over the years, I know that a photographer's choice of a camera is a very personal thing. Features that may be an absolute necessity for one photographer, might be optional for another. An aspect of a camera that one photographer may love can be like nails on a chalkboard for someone else.

If you buy a camera for someone else, make darn sure you know the EXACT model they want, or buy them a gift certificate to Amazon or a store where they can choose what they want. Otherwise, your loved one may find themselves with a camera they hate almost as much as I hate my Pentax E10.

My wife-to-be bought this for my birthday several months ago, and I took an instant disliking to it. No viewfinder? Why the hell would you make a camera without a viewfinder? What self-respecting photographer would want to be seen in public doing the silly "LCD Aiming Pose"--elbows sticking out, squinting at an LCD screen a foot away from their face looking like a farsighted tourist who doesn't know which end takes the picture? It's embarrassing!

But my beloved bought the E10 on QVC, so there was no returning the little lemon. I tried to work with the camera and find its good points, which are: it's cute, it's sleek, it's portable, it's aerodynamic enough that I could throw it at someone twenty feet away and have a much better expectation of hitting them in the forehead with it than I would of getting a decent picture of them.

The E10's bad points? It eats batteries like Jared Fogel used to eat Moonpies. Put a new pair of batteries in an E10, turn it off, and those batteries will be dead in a few days. And it shoots so slow that a good portion of the photos we took turned out blurry.

My biggest complaint with the E10 is the incredibly long shutter lag. Hit the exposure button, and it takes nearly two seconds for the E10 to take a photo. By then, your subject has either fallen asleep or gone off to do something more interesting. It's incredibly frustrating to see a great shot, hit the trigger, and then watch as the opportunity disappears before the camera can take the shot.

A couple weeks ago, my wife gave me the assignment of taking a headshot of her three-year-old nephew for one of those personalized kids videos. I chased the little hellion around for 30 minutes at Thanksgiving Dinner trying to get him to hold still long enough for the E10 (could the E stand for eternity?) to get a decent photo. It was nearly impossible, but I eventually got one underexposed, slightly blurry image that might be good enough.

This incident made me finally admit to my wife that I appreciated the camera she had given me, but I absolutely loathed it. Fine catch that she is, she told me to sell it and buy myself a new camera for Christmas. Man, I love that girl!

I have to agree with many reviewers about this camera.

I won the camera as a door prize at our company Christmas party. I've tried hard to like it, and to learn the camera so it will give me decent shots. But it's just too darn slow and the focus is iffy on all 3 settings. Landscapes turn out ok using the infinite focus setting, but closeups and mid range are frequently blurry using the standard and macro settings.

Battery life is also a problem. Used my standard rechargables (1800 mAh) and it ran for about 3 minutes before dying. I put 2650 mAh rechargeables in and they seem to work pretty good.

Think hard before buying this cute little package of frustration.

What all the others are saying is true. Don't bother.

This camera is the one that will destroy any potential enthusiasm for photography, and is thus even potential poison as a gift for a kid.

Other user reviews have mentioned this camera's battery life - 20 pics if you're lucky with alkaline AA's.

It cannot focus in ordinary daylight in a room with indoor lighting - and tries for as much as half a second before resetting its focus to some out-of focus setting. It has no focus assistance light or flash for these conditions. Even after focussing it remains slow to actually take a picture.

I previously owned an Optio 330 (bought 2001, and a similar disappointment) and hoped Pentax would have fixed some of the problems - well they've made them worse.

This camera can be controlled from your computer - and may work as a webcam - but one needs to by a 3V mains adapter with a special little plug and then is pretty expensive.

Based on my experience with Pentax digital- this and the earlier camera - I have now moved to Canon -- Try the Canon Ixus 850 IS (in my view the best pocket compact digital available, but pricey)- and then decide which features you are willing to give up for a cheaper camera.... You should never end up with this trash from Pentax.

I got this camera as a brithday gift. At first it was sufficient and actually lasted a while but the battery life was HORRIBLE. 2 AA batteries barely lasted one night out and I found myself constantly buying new batteries. The pictures it took were decent and I really had no complaints simply because I took ordinary shots of friends, etc. One day, the camera just stopped working all together.

I'm in the market for a new camera, and I'm looking into the Canon Elph because I've heard only good things and I realized that I NEED a rechargable battery.

I would never get this camera again.

This camera is absolutely horrible. I bought it without researching enough about it unfortunately, and am now going to have to basically throw it away because I probably wouldn't even dream of giving this thing away. The shutter speed is awful, don't even think of taking a picture unless it's in broad daylight, and the battery is the worst I have ever seen in any digital camera. The pictures that you do manage to take without the battery dying, the memory being full after a few pictures, or it being blurry because the camera isn't completely steady, are mediocre at best. DO NOT BUY THIS CAMERA!!!

Purchased 2 for gifts. Within 30 days both were not working. They had different problems, but neither you could take a picture with. Sent them to Pentex for what should have been warenty work. After over 3 weeks numerus phone calls, horrible customer service, Pentax informed me they would fix both cameras for $150.00 each. Which was more than I paid for them. I would NEVER buy anything made by Pentax. I would recomend checking out other companies that manufacture good quality cameras and that stand behind their proudcts!!! I would have liked to give this camera and company a negative star rating, but 1 was the lowest option.

Can we get a little positive in here?

Yes, you get what you pay for. If you go into this camera expecting to get the same thing you'd get from a professional camera, you'll be disappointed. However, if you go into this camera thinking that you'll be able to take some decent pictures and video for a reasonable price, you'll be delighted.

This camera is STURDY. I've had this camera for over eight months now. I've dropped it, I've gotten it wet, I've had it juggle around in a purse--and it still works great. I'd like to see how the more expensive models hold up.

This camera has decent battery life. I've seen and heard others complain about the battery life. Luckily, there are these things called "settings" which can adjust megapixel size and compression size, which in turn affect the battery life. It's all in the handy dandy user's manual, which I know is an optional read, but really well worth the trouble. I use Lithium batteries and in the 8 months I've had this camera, I've had to replace them twice.

This camera is user-friendly. When I used a Sony Cybershot camera I was so confused I accidentally set it on video without knowing. Such mistakes are not possible on this camera. It's really dummy proof.

This camera saves its vid as .avi, as opposed to .mov. My dad has a Sony Cybershot and gets about 2 minutes of video on his battery, no memory stick. My camera gets 30 minutes of video on its battery, no memory stick, because of the smaller file size, which ROCKS.

This camera has an awesome screen. Some may find it a little strange that the camera doesn't have a viewfinder, but it seems idiotic to compare the view through a tiny viewfinder (less than 1/2 inch) with the VERY LARGE LCD screen (more than 1 inch) and find the smaller peephole somehow better. I LOVE the fact that I don't have to squint through a tiny peep hole to get my shot.

In short, if you love a good value, you will love this camera. If you compare it to more expensive, more complicated models, it's really no surprise that so many would find it coming up short.

My "real" camera is a Nikon P3 which is a superb camera (see my review for that one). I bought this as a second "disposable" camera for family trips and for the kids to play with (when a little older) as I do not want to risk losing or dropping a $450 camera. I knew this $90 Pentax was not going to be comparable to my Nikon. But really, I did not expect it to be such a piece of junk! The shutter speed is horrible! It takes about 4-5 secs to snap a pic. That is an eternity when you have 2 little squirming kids. Even at that glacier speed, the autofocus still does not work well. More than 1/2 of the pics I take must be deleted because they are out-of-focus. When I compare the superb, crystal clear pics coming out of my Nikon every 1 sec or so, I kick myself for wasting even the $90 I spent on this Pentax. The only reason I gave this thing 2 stars instead of 1 is that there are some nice features on this camera. The menu is very easy to use right out of the box. The flash is pretty strong (maybe even a little better than my Nikon). The controls are fairly intuitive. The LCD screen is large and bright, though the resolution is pretty low. The camera does feel pretty durable and well-made. However let's be real. The only purpose for a camera is to take good pictures. All those other things I meantioned don't mean much if the pictures are lousy. On that score, this camera sucks big time. However at $90, I will probably not bother to return it as it would not be worth the shipping costs both ways.

I have had this camera for over a year and a half, and agree with the other negative comments posted on this page.

Unfortunately, I did not get to test this camera out before purchasing it, but had I done so would have been aware of these issues and would have definitely purchased a different camera instead.

My main complaints about the Pentax Optio E10:
1. Eats batteries like crazy
2. Very slow shutter speed - can take up to 3 seconds (with flash on) to take the photo after you press the button. You can forget about counting 1-2-3 with this camera, you should plan to count to 5 or 6.
3. Poor/blurry image quality in dim or dark environments
4. Sensitive to movement - no image stabilization feature. After using this camera you will definitely WANT this feature.

To be fair, I did get many great colorful, crisp shots from this camera - in environments with good lighting and no fast-moving objects. The 6MP image quality was fine. However, the majority of the time the image quality was only mediocre. Most of my shots required some exposure and color correction.

The software that accompanies the camera is great, but the camera itself is just average. I would NOT recommend this camera to anyone who cares about taking high quality images. For a beginner, this camera would be fine, but in my experience this camera caused more frustration than anything.

I bought this camera instead of the Sony to save a few bucks because it uses AA batteries and an SD memory card...what a mistake. The large display screen is nice, however it uses so much battery power that your batteries won't last long. The shutter delay is RIDICULOUS....rarely have I caught the actual image I was aiming for as it seems like forever between pushing the button and actually capturing the image. It is not user friendly. I also had a lot of problems with the flash and lighting. THIS CAMERA WAS A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT. Wish I had read reviews before purchasing it.

The camera is nice. It has 6 Mp and the battery life is very good. The display is ok, even using in the sunlight. The only thing that could be better is the speed between 1 picture and another. It also connects to TV set and allows me to show videos / pictures to all my family. I liked it very much.

My girlfriend and I have used this camera for over a year now and no matter how many setting adjustments we've made the picture never comes out right. Our problem is not with the shutter speed or the flash speed its the overall color quality of the photos. The people in our pictures are always way too dark or way too white. Only decent pictures are ones taken on sunny days. Don't bother using the camera inside or on overcast days because you'll just end up dissapointed. We're not proffessional photographers by any means but after messing around with this thing for over a year we've decided its the camera that stinks not the users. Don't waste your money.

I looked at the reviews for this camera before I bought it and, like and idiot, I went for it anyway. Satan create this camera to make you cry! Seriously, it takes forever to snap a picture, the battery dies in less than a half hour, and your pictures don't even come out that great. Buy a disposable camera before you buy this one! Buy an elephant before you buy this camera! Anything just don't buy it!!!

This was my very first digital camera. At first I was really excited but there were many problems with this product. My biggest problems were as follows:

1. The pictures were very blurry. (The pictures could only turn out decent if you had a steady hand and could not take pictures of moving objects whatsoever.)
2. Even with flash, the pictures were dark and noisy.
3. The battery life was horrible. This product runs on AA batteries and uses them up very quickly (especially with the flash).

Overall if you want a decent camera, this is not the product for you. You will save tons of money on batteries that fuel this camera which doesn't even take decent pictures. I do not recommend this product to anyone and your money is better spent elsewhere.

I was very excited when I purchased this camera as it was very small and could fit in your pocket or purse and looked like it took really good/clear pictures. WRONG!! Its the worst camera ever. You must be completely still in order to get decent pictures that aren't blurry and you will spend the cost of the camera plus in batteries. When using the flash it will only take about 30 pictures before you have to replace the batteries. Pentax normally makes great cameras, I don't know what happened with this one. Don't waste your money buying something you'll regret..

This was my first ever digital camera, and right from the beginning I was not overly pleased. It takes SO long for a picture to be taken, that it definitely did not suit my purposes of catching surprise moments. I would have to ask my friends to hold a pose for a good 5-10 seconds in order to get the picture I wanted.

It eats through AA batteries like crazy, especially when the flash is on.

It does take nice, clean and clear photos however. As long as nothing is moving, or you're not trying to catch a snapshot.

can take a really good pic for a inexpencive point and shoot. you have to be carful on the focusing bracket. playing with adjustments helped me take better pics with camera.