Pentax Optio M900

Pentax’s Optio M900 camera is fairly cheap which means its feature set is basic compared to most.

That said, it includes a 12-megapixel resolution, wide-angle 5x optical zoom lens (equivalent to 28-140mm on an old film camera), plus adequate visibility on the rear 2.7in screen that’s used for composing and reviewing pictures (there is no viewfinder, unfortunately). The camera is available in an all-black or Burgundy red body.

When you pick up the M900 it is almost enveloped by your palm and its aluminium frame is wrapped in a thin rubber coating. This makes the camera more tactile and prevents it easily slipping from the user’s fingers. It’s a sensible feature as the small dimensions mean that there’s otherwise no handgrip.

Almost inevitably, camera shake is a problem, resulting in occasional blurred images. We noted that the M900’s flash fired automatically in conditions that more expensive cameras wouldn’t find a problem, such as on a dull, cloudy day.

More worrying was the fact that the camera’s automatic white balance was unreliable, which meant that colour could vary from shot to shot. Blue skies appeared purple on occasion and red berries became orange thanks to the intensity of the flash.

The camera powered up in just over a second, which is surprisingly fast for its class. With no wheel for selecting shooting modes, the settings are chosen by pressing the Scene button.

This results in 20 cartoon icons filling the screen, offering settings for shooting video and photographing various common situations, including fireworks, snow or the beach.

Unlike on many new cameras the video it shoots isn’t in high definition, and because the lens motor is noisy the zoom can’t be used when recording. The camera’s auto panorama was very successful. This option takes three images in succession and stitches them together, and was easier than rival ones we have used.

Ultimately the Pentax Optio M900 is cheap and easy to use, but it’s not without the shortfalls we’ve described, so our recommendation would be to spend a little more and get a model without those flaws.