First impressions are good

Posted by Dan on 7th Jun 2011

I've only had the Pentax WG1 GPS camera for a few days now, but I'm getting the hang of it and it seems good.
The controls are easy to use but will be awkward with gloves on, as with most cameras in this category. Setting user preferences through the menues is pretty straight forward, though selected features are easy to accidently turn on/off while scrolling between items.
Image quality is very good. I have not taken enough diverse shots to go into any real detail but first impression is that it is far superior to either Olympus ruggeds I've had before(77OSW and 6010). Noise was bad with them, I see none with this camera. I have taken some mediocre shot but that was to do with the shot composition and the focus area setting I'd chosen.
The GPS seems remarkably accurate for what it is. The one test shot I took gave me a coordinate at the exact longitude, and approx 120 metres north of my lattitude.

Things I don't like... the battery seems really weak, it seems to run down in the camera over several days and no way do I expect to get the recommended 260 photos per charge. The GPS chews lots of power and must be turned off through the menue each time after use or else it will keep running even if the camera is shut down, according to the manual.
The battery and port cover doors seem flimsy, and having previously had cameras with protected lenses, I notice that with the WG1 I've always managed to put a big fat finger print on the lens each time I get it out of my pocket.
The carabiner and strap is a bit of a gimic. Once the little plastic 'O' rings on the caribiner have moved or fallen off I can see the lens damage happening from the crab hitting it.
It is light, it certainly looks rugged (other than the flimsy covers mentioned), a ludite like me can set it up the way I want. All in all I reckon it will be a great camera, but I am worried about batery performance.