Pentax WG-3 GPS Review

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Basic Specifications
Full model name:	Pentax WG-3 GPS
Resolution:	16.00 Megapixels
Sensor size:	1/2.3 inch (6.2mm x 4.6mm)
Lens:	4.00x zoom (25-100mm eq.)
Viewfinder:	No / LCD
Native ISO:	125 - 6400
Extended ISO:	125 - 6400
Shutter:	1/4000 - 4 sec
Max Aperture:	2.0
Dimensions:	4.9 x 2.5 x 1.3 in. (125 x 64 x 33 mm)
Weight:	8.4 oz (239 g) includes batteries
Availability:	03/2013
Manufacturer:	Pentax
Full specs:	Pentax WG-3 GPS specifications

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Pentax WG-3 GPS

16.00 Megapixels	4.00x zoom	1/2.3 inch size sensor

WG-3 GPS Summary

The Pentax WG-3 GPS packs in some ultra-cool features -- such as its Digital Microscope mode, front LCD gauge readout and inductive charging mode -- and a radical, rugged design. Unfortunately though, for us it just didn't pack in enough image quality, performance and usability. Though the camera took decent pictures underwater and on dry land, it struggled in low-light situations despite being equipped with an f/2 max aperture at wide angle. Moreover, we found the WG-3 GPS's menu system was difficult to learn. The WG-3 GPS still should hold appeal to adventurers who favor ruggedness and style over ultimate image quality.

Pros

Eye-catching, aggressive styling; Digital Microscope mode with 6 LED ring light; Improved ruggedness; Front-panel monochrome LCD readout; Can power up via inductive charging.

Cons

Struggles in low-light situations despite bright f/2 max lens aperture; So-so image and video quality; User interface has steep learning curve; Poor battery life.

Price and availability

Available since March 2013, the Pentax WG-3 GPS is priced at around US$350 and is available in purple and green, and the WG-3 is available for about $50 less at US$300 in black and orange.

For our review of the Pentax WG-3 GPS, see our
2013 Best Waterproof Cameras Shootout,
where we compare the WG-3 GPS against five top competitors
and identify which waterproof camera may be right for you.

Pentax WG-3 GPS Overview

by Mike Tomkins
Updated: 10/21/2013

There are a lot of rugged, weather-sealed digital cameras to choose from these days, but to date they've pretty-much all shared an Achilles heel. To charge them, you've had to either open the battery compartment to remove the battery, or open a flap over a charging port -- typically the USB port. Either way, every time the cover's opened, it adds a little wear and tear to the weather-sealing, and perhaps introduces some dirt or debris that could prevent a good seal being formed when the compartment is closed. The Pentax WG-3 GPS is, we believe, a first for the rugged camera market: a camera that you can load up once, and (within reason) never crack the case again.

That comes thanks to the addition of the necessary hardware needed to support the Wireless Power Consortium's Qi standard. Pronounced "Chee", the standard allows for in-camera, magnetic inductive battery charging using a standard power transmission pad. Whenever the camera is within around an inch or so of the pad's surface, it's recharging automatically: no fumbling with cables or chargers needed. Add in the Pentax WG-3 GPS's support for Wi-Fi capable Eye-Fi memory cards, and you can not only get power into the camera without cables, but also get your images back out in the same manner.

There's a downside, of course, in that currently the Qi standard only supports low-power charging at five watts or less, so recharging will likely take longer than it would with a cabled charger. If you can drop the camera on the pad every night, that may not be a big issue for typical daily use, however: Pentax says the WG-3's D-LI92 lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack is good for around 240 shots. And you're much less likely to put off recharging in the first place when all you've got to do is drop the camera on a countertop. If you're a heavy shooter, though, you'll have to open the WG-3's double-locking battery door to swap batteries now and then, but you'll still get the benefit of cable-free charging once you're back home.

Improved ruggedness. Not only does the Pentax WG-3 GPS sport a fancy new inductive charging system: it's also even more durable than past efforts from the company, besting its predecessors' waterproofing by some five feet. You can now shoot with the WG-3 GPS at depths of up to 45 feet (13.7m), which is well beyond the abilities of most snorkelers. In fact, it's getting close to the 60 foot (18m) boundary that defines deep-diving territory, according to the Professional Association of Diving Instructors -- so it's likely plenty for many recreational scuba diving trips as well. And even if you don't plan on going further than pool or beach, there's shockproofing that should see the camera survive a 6.6 foot (2m) drop, crushproofing to 220 pounds (100kgf), freezeproofing to 14F (-10C), and dustproofing (to IPX6 / JIS 6 standards.) In other words, this is a camera you'll not be concerned to take almost anywhere, and to let anybody use -- even the kids.

GPS. A built-in GPS receiver will geotag your images with their capture location, helping make it easy to organize and find shots from a particular destination when you get back home, and even to retrace a day's shooting on a map. Pentax has supplemented the GPS with a digital compass and a pressure sensor that let you also record the altitude (or depth beneath the surface), and the direction the camera was facing when the shutter button was pressed.

Sensor. The heart of the Pentax WG-3 GPS is a 1/2.3-inch, backside-illuminated CMOS image sensor with an effective resolution of 16 megapixels. Total resolution is 16.79 megapixels, and the chip provides a sensitivity range of ISO 125 to 6,400 equivalents under automatic or manual control. Full-resolution burst shooting rate is rather sedate at only 1.5 fps for 60 frames, but at a reduced resolution of five megapixels, you can capture as many as 30 shots at a rate of about 12 fps.

Lens. The Pentax WG-3 GPS' sensor sits behind a 4x optical zoom lens whose design includes nine elements in seven groups, four of them aspheric. There's also a protective cover with a Pentax SP coating. The lens offers 35mm-equivalent focal lengths from 25 to 100mm, everything from a generous wide angle to a modest telephoto. Actual focal lengths range from 4.5 to 18mm. Maximum aperture is a bright f/2.0 at wide angle, falling to f/4.9 by the telephoto position. And as well as the relatively bright aperture for its class, the Pentax WG-3 GPS also includes true sensor-shift mechanical image stabilization. (This is supplemented with pixel-track SR that aims to correct blurring post-capture, "digital SR" that simply raises ISO sensitivity and hence shutter speeds, and movie SR which functions by moving the capture area window around the surface of the image sensor to counter shake.)

Autofocus. As you'd expect, Pentax has opted for a contrast detection autofocus system. There's an AF assist lamp to help with focusing on nearby subjects in low light, and the system can also locate and take account of up to 32 faces within the image frame. The face detection functionality is also used to provide a self-portrait assist mode, making the bread-and-butter of social networking fans simpler to obtain. Focusing modes include both 9-point and spot, and there's an automatic tracking function, as well. Ordinarily, the WG-3 GPS will focus as close as 1.3 feet (40cm), and in macro mode this is reduced to as little as 0.3 feet (10cm).

Macro. That's not all, though. Like its recent predecessors, the Pentax WG-3 GPS retains the company's "digital microscope" mode. This uses an array of six LED lights to provide even illumination of your subject, reducing shadows. In this mode, the camera can focus as close as just 0.4 inches (1cm), although the lens is fixed at the middle of the zoom range, and the resolution dips to just two megapixels with a fixed 16:9 aspect ratio. A macro stand is included in the product bundle, to help you position the camera appropriately and keep it still during the final shot.

Displays. On the rear panel of the Pentax WG-3 GPS is a 3.0-inch, TFT LCD panel through which images are framed and reviewed. (Like most cameras these days, there's no optical or electronic viewfinder.) The display has a 16:9 aspect ratio, and a resolution of around 460,000 dots, equating to around 153,000 pixels. Pentax has included an anti-reflective coating, helping to make the most of the display's wide 170-degree horizontal and vertical viewing angles. There's also a small monochrome status display on the front panel that shows a clock and either air pressure or altitude.

Flash. As well as the LEDs that make up the digital microscope macro light (that can also function as a flashlight), the Pentax WG-3 GPS also includes a built-in five mode flash strobe. This includes red-eye reduction capability, and when using Auto ISO sensitivity, has an effective range of 34 feet (10.4m) at wide angle, or 14 feet (4.3m) at telephoto.

Shooting modes. Although it doesn't offer priority or manual-mode shooting, the Pentax WG-3 GPS does provide both green and program modes, plus a healthy selection of scene and special effect modes. Shutter speeds range from 1/4,000 to 1/4 second in most modes, although the night scene mode allows shutter speeds as slow as four seconds. There's also an auto picture mode, which analyzes your subject, then selects one of 16 different scene modes automatically. A variety of multi-shot modes include HDR (captures multiple images, then combines them into a single image with expanded dynamic range), handheld night snap (shoots four images with greater sensitivity / shutter speed, then averages them to reduce noise), digital wide (stitches two shots to create a five megapixel image roughly equivalent to a 19mm wide angle), and the relatively commonplace panorama function. There are also 12 digital filter effects, interval shooting, and a dual-axis electronic level that helps prevent tilted horizons and converging verticals.

Video. And the Pentax WG-3 GPS allows more than just stills, as well. You can capture high-definition movies, too, using MPEG-4 AVC / H.264 compression, and including stereo PCM WAV audio. The highest-resolution mode provides a Full HD (1080p; 1,920 x 1,080 pixel) video at a rate of 30 frames per second. If you trade off resolution, you can achieve a rate as high as 120fps, for a 1/4 speed slow-motion effect when played back at 30 fps, but the movie will be captured at just 640 x 360 pixels. There's also a time-lapse movie function. Interestingly, in-camera movie editing extends beyond the typical functions to extract a single frame as a still image, and to trim the start and end of the clip. You can also add titles to the start or end of the clip in-camera.

Connectivity. We've already mentioned the WG-3 GPS' inductive charging capability; you will also find several physical ports, however. There's a combined USB 2.0 High Speed data and NTSC/PAL composite video output port, and a Type-D Micro HDMI terminal. Pentax has also thoughtfully included two infrared remote control receivers, one each on the front and rear of the camera body, letting you trip the shutter remotely whether you're behind the camera or in front of it.

Storage and battery. Images and movies are stored on Secure Digital cards, including the higher-capacity SDHC and SDXC types. There's also a somewhat generous 70MB of built-in memory, enough to save the day with a handful of the most critical shots if you accidentally leave your flash card at home. And as previously noted, Eye-Fi Secure Digital cards are supported, if you want to take full advantage of the cable-free nature of the WG-3 GPS by transmitting images via Wi-Fi. Power comes courtesy of a D-LI92 lithium ion rechargeable battery pack, rated as good for 240 shots on a charge.

Software. Pentax includes ArcSoft's MediaImpression 3.6.2LE software in the product bundle for Windows users, and the app supports Windows 8. If you're on a Mac, you'll find a copy of ArcSoft MediaImpression 2.2LE, which supports up to OS X 10.8. There's also a carabiner strap in the product bundle, so you can clip the camera to a backpack, belt loop, or anywhere else that will keep it safe. Optional accessories include an O-LA135 lens adapter through which you can mount the DW-5 Ricoh Wide Conversion Lens, taking wide-angle coverage out to 20mm-equivalent, plus a SportMount chest harness for hands-free capture.