Pentax currently has a slew of 5-megapixel cameras on the shelves. Among them is the Pentax Optio S55, an ultracompact model with a 3X zoom, tailored slightly more toward the novice than the company’s S5z. Though remarkably similar to that model, the Pentax Optio S55 is a smidge larger and touts a help function to better explain its various modes and buttons without sending you to the operating manual.
The ultracompact Pentax Optio S55 is a handsome, solidly built, stylized rectangle with an aluminum exterior and a molded metallic grip. With two AA batteries installed, it weighs 6.3 ounces, a bit more than its lithium-rechargeable-using sibling, the Optio S5z. Due in part to its reliance on AA (or CRV3) batteries, the S55 has slightly larger dimensions, but even with the added thickness, it’s still easily pocketable.
The Pentax Optio S55 is no speed demon. After disabling the start-up screen, we clocked the camera’s start-up time at 4.41 seconds; shutter lag isn’t usually an issue, though it can be noticeable depending on what you’re shooting. It came in at 0.55 second in our tests. Shot-to-shot times are worse: 4.5 seconds without flash, 6.74 seconds with flash. Continuous shooting is remarkably slow and, on this camera, more about endurance than speed: you can keep shooting until your card fills up but at the less-than-blistering pace of 0.5fps and 0.67fps. This is no action cam.