Pentax Optio WG-3 Pro Reviews

The WG-3 is the 15th generation of Pentax's ruggedized camera range, and it certainly shows. This is a solid product in more ways than one, both in terms of its build quality, ability to withstand most things that you could subject it to, and all-round handling and feature-set. The loud styling might not be to everyone's tastes, but the Pentax WG-3 certainly fits the bill as a nigh-on indestructible camera fit for both family life and more extreme pastimes. As with most action cameras, though, image quality isn't the WG-3's strong point, and you'll also have to pay a substantial premium for the extra on-board protection and peace of mind that the WG-3 offers. While the overall image quality isn't bad, there are much better "ordinary" cameras available at this price-point, so you really need to make sure that you'll use the WG-3 to the full to warrant the extra outlay.

The Pentax WG-3 GPS offers a curvy, rugged design that can handle tough conditions with aplomb. Its lens is faster than most of its peers at its wide end, which allows for better low light photos. It also features a unique macro ring lamp, front-mounted LED clock/altimeter, and wireless battery charging support. Image quality is typical for a compact camera, meaning good, not great. Low light focusing is quite sluggish, and the flash is weak and slow to recharge. Battery life is below average.

A lot of thought has gone into the design of the WG-3, it looks like an outdoors camera and it certainly acts like one. You can drop it, freeze it and even go down to 14m underwater, this is as deep as any other waterproof cameras will go. Unfortunately image quality isn't as good as we hoped, detail isn't great and we found the images suffered with noise from ISO 200 upwards, although the bright lens will mean you can stay away from the higher ISO settings, unless you're in really dark conditions. In that case you can use the LED macro lights to add further light to your scene. If you tend to shoot images to share on the web, then images quality will be good enough, particularly as colour reproduction is decent.

The compact Pentax WG-3 GPS is rugged, waterproof, and packs a fast lens. Its design is striking, but its images show quite a bit of noise at higher ISO settings.