I was looking for a camera with a swivel LCD display. I have always liked taking my own pictures when I'm out on vacations with my wife. The Optio X caught my attention immediately. The camera is 5 megapixels strong and the LCD display is very big (2 in). The design of course, is incredibly beautiful. I had my doubts about the picture quality and colors. But once I started taking my first pictures I was pretty much convinced.

Pros:
Small and cool design.

Swivel LCD (2 inches).

Everything is customizable. If you don't like the colors, exposition, lighting or anything else, you can adjust it in a snap. It even has a feature that takes 3 pictures at once with 3 different expositions so you can decide later which picture you like better. With this mode you can vary the exposure, white balance, sharpness, saturation and contrast.

15 shooting modes, including one called "Self Portrait". This mode takes into account that the shooting distance is your arm length...
Macro mode is also very cool.

On timer mode, big countdown numbers appear on the screen so everybody can see when the picture will be taken.

Cons:
The flash is located at a very awkward position. Is very easy to put a finger on it when you are taking a picture. Also, when the display is swiveled, the flash ends up in the lower corner of the camera. This can be a problem when you place the camera on a table when you are taking pictures with the timer. Chances are that the table will block the flash path. If this happens, a strange shadow may appear on the picture.

No optical view finder.

Joystick control is a little too small.

You have to use 4 fingers to grab the camera. If you use your whole hand, you may end up placing a finger on the flash or on the lens.

Tripod socket is located on one side. This means that you will only be able to take vertically oriented pictures when using a tripod (unless you buy a small swiveling tripod).

I hope this helps...

The Pentax Optio-X is an excellent camera. I am a novice photographer. After taking just a few photos with this camera people have commented on just how beautiful the photos I have taken with it are mostly they are amazed at the excellent color quality of the pictures.

There are so many features in the camera that I have yet to explore them all.

The pentax optio x, it?s a great camera for some many reasons, but the most important for me, is that i can get great pictures from me an my couple, without asking help to any other person to hold the camera......

This camera is great and worth the money spent on it. It is compact and fits in any bag/pocket.....the manual is very daunting and I cannot see that anyone would actually read it...once you start playing with the camera the features are easy to figure out. The only feature it lacks is image stabilization which I need as I am very shaky

All seemed fine when I first got my optio x 2 years ago. It took great pictures, although in the "no flash" mode, the pictures are blurred. Overall, I was satisfied. On a trip, the camera was dropped in the snow but it works fine, it has endured blazing heat, and everything seemed to be going fine and I never had a problem with it until yesterday when it froze up completely. It hadn't gotten wet and nothing out of the ordinary had occured, i just turned it on and went into "play mode" and red lines came across the screen and none of the buttons worked, not even the power. There is no "reset" button I'm pretty sure, so my only option was to put it to charge. Luckily when i put it in the charger it turned off by itself. After fully charging it up again, i tested it at home. Everything seemed to be in working condition. But when I took it out again the same thing happend. My warranty expired, and the only thing i can think of is that fall in the snow it took a while back, but it seems strange that the effects would come 6 months after the accident. I am looking into buying an Optio WP because of that.
If you are a careful person, the camera is probably right for you. In my case, I'll go for the waterproof one.

The Optio X has two halves: One side containing the lens, Flash< Processor, 14mb of memory, The other half has all the controls, two inch LCD, Battery and SD Slot. Both sides are constructed from stylish black and silver metal panels and are extremely thin. they are linked by a central spine that enables them to rotate through 270 degrees. So when it comes to the cool factor i say it really looks great, especially when rotated to 180 degrees.

The Optio X is anything but fast, The burst shooting mode is extremely slow and when switched to movie mode it flickers at an irritating 15fps. The good part is that it does its work as a camera, you can take decent pictures with this. So if you are looking for a useful and unusual camera this Pentax X is for you.