If you have Face Recognition enabled, the camera will also inform you if someone's eyes were closed in the Instant Review screen. Pentax also offers a smile detection feature that will automatically release the shutter when a person's smile is detected. For users with difficult children to photograph for the annual family photo, this feature would be particularly appealing. But I found that sometimes, even when all conditions for such shots had been met and the subject smiled for a full minute, the shutter still would not release. Other times, it worked instantly without a problem. Ultimately I turned the feature off and I just handled things manually.
The Pentax's battery life earned a Good rating in our lab tests (the unit took some 285 shots before the batteries expired). The camera's use of common AA batteries make it ideal for traveling, and users who want a more environmentally sensitive battery system can always purchase rechargeable AAs.
The maximum number of megapixels for the Pentax is 10, which is standard on many point-and-shoot models, though some now go as high as 12.1 megapixels. The maximum resolution for the Pentax is 3648 by 2736. Our jury of experts judged the E70's pictures overall to be of good quality, but also noted that the sharpness of the images was not on a par with competing cameras. In my own experiences with portrait mode, photos had a tendency to look airbrushed and to lack detail. Skin tones often appeared reddish, and faces looked sunburned, particularly in the viewfinder but less so when the photos were imported to the computer. The flash, color, and exposure tests all received Good ratings, as did overall image clarity.
The Pentax Optio E70 has the ability to take short movies (with audio). The optical zoom can be set before recording, but only the digital zoom can be used during recording. You can choose different pixel settings for your recordings, ranging from 640 by 480 at 30 frames per second (ideal for viewing on TV) to 320 by 240 at 15 frames per second (ideal for viewing on a Web site or in e-mail). Users can choose only between NTSC or PAL formats in video output.
The video capabilities of the Pentax Optio E70 won't put your camcorder out of a job, but for short videos (30 seconds or so), the camera is satisfactory. It was color accurate, and the sensitive mike picked up most of the audio I needed to capture the event I was recording.