The camera is well known for its overall durability, good image quality in its class, and excellent handling, especially underwater.
The Pentax Optio WG-II, a go-anywhere point-and-shoot is waterproof up to 12 meters, dustproof, shock-resistant from a 1.5-meter drop, freeze-proof down to -10°C, and crush-proof under a weight pressure of up to 100 kg.
The camera, introduced in 2012 alongside its GPS sibling, the Optio WG-II GPS, features a 16 megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor, Full HD movie recording capability, a 5x optical zoom lens equivalent to a 28-140mm lens on a full frame camera, and a 460,000 pixel 3 inch high-resolution LCD monitor.
The model, available in an all-black or with a red faceplate, features a front with a showcases display of stylistic details, including sloping and serrated edges, and industrial-style faceplate screws, added-on with the camera flash, microphone, speaker, Remote Control receiver, Self-Timer/Focus Assist LED, and a ring of six bulbs around the lens for the 'Digital Microscope' mode.
Exposure selection includes 16 scene modes covering underwater photography, landscape, portrait, fireworks, and sports. Face detection supports up to 32 faces with smile capture and blink detection functions. A unique 'Handheld Night Snap' mode combines four exposures to improve low-light results, while the 'Digital Microscope' mode allows for extreme close-focusing at just 1 centimeter.
Despite its wealth of functionalities, the camera is admittedly easy and fun to use, with access to most functions available from the Joystick Pad. The camera, with its carabiner strap attached, is also very portable. In support, the camera has 88.2MB (approx.) of built-in memory, images are stored on SD/SDHC cards, and it runs on a Lithium-Ion battery with a CIPA-rated battery life of 260 shots (said to be higher in real life).
On its own, at lower ISOs, the camera produces good color reproduction and skin tones, with landscapes showing well-defined blues and greens. With the 28mm equivalent wide-angle lens as a starting point, the camera adapts well to the likes of hiking, diving, and other outdoor adventure activities, while its zoom, video, and macro capabilities add to the overall versatility of its use for other genres of photography. As tested, the images posted were shot in Program Mode with EV Compensation set to -1/3 (negative 1/3). Tweaks, highlights, and crops were done or added later on the desktop image editor.
