Ever worry that your expensive yet essential digital camera might get wet? well that's just what the Pentax Optio Weatherproof Digital Camera is designed to do, this model the 33WR is class 7 water resistant now that's does not mean you can go swimming with it but being splashed while at the beach or drenched in a downpour won't faze it.

Its also pretty compact at about 3inches square by and inch and a half thick, this doesn't compromise either the quality of the 3 mega pixel images or the function that Pentax have crammed in. In fact with a movie mode for capturing short MPEG's and a voice memo function all controlled through a good contrast 1.6 LCD monitor it gives some of the rivals a good run for their money without playing its weatherproof card.

But hey gizmos are great but you want a camera, so what's it like for its primary function? While it has a full auto setting and a wide range of shooting modes from portrait to night scene it also allows a good amount of manual control important for any serious photographer, there is full white balance control and three built in settings for quick selection of Tungsten, fluorescent or daylight as well as manual indication of exposure and manual control.

The 3.2 mega pixel CCP allows for resolutions up to 2048 x 1536 and the 2.8x optical zoom (37-104mm) has a 4x digital zoom and a macro mode allowing focusing as close as 3.93", sensitivity can be adjusted to 50, 100, 200 or 400 ISO  and a plethora of digital filters can be applied to create effects from black and white to sepia. The Optio uses SD memory and is supplied with a 16mb SD card but can also use Multi Media cards, however we strongly recommend getting a further SD card with higher capacity if you really want to take advantage of this camera. Power is supplied from either two AA batteries or an optional Lithium Ion batter pack (and ac adaptor) again take the option its well worth it although having the ability to plug in AA's is useful.

The camera comes equipped to connect via USB to your PC and the supplied ADCSee software which is ok if you have nothing else but we are spoilt with Photoshop. Other niceties include the ability to connect the Pentax directly to your TV through video cable and a world time feature with 62 cities, but as a camera this really does the job but throw in its weatherproof capabilities and its widens its appeal to anyone who regularly works in outdoor situations or enjoys and adventurous lifestyle but doesn't want to worry about keeping the camera dry.

In our view this is a great entry level 3 mega pixel camera from Pentax which would hold its own without the waterproof feature but with it becomes a good companion for the more adventurous photographer.

Pentax Optio 33WR Weatherproof Digital...