Outstanding

I spent a long time researching digital cameras, I wanted one of the new breed of ultra-small ones and was willing to give up a little on image quality over features. Several appealed to me, including the Sony DSC-T1, Casio EX-Z40, Minolta DiMAGE Xg and Xt. I narrowed it down to the Casio and the Pentax Optio S4i, settling on the Optio because I wanted video out (on the Xt but not the Xg, and not on the Casio), and wanted newer features like PictBridge support not available on the Xt.

I looked all over the internet, finding fantastic reviews at:
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/cameraList.php
http://www.steves-digicams.com/hardware_reviews.html
and an outstanding one that also had a complete set of sample pictures taken at all settings at:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/S4I/S4IA.HTM

Along the way I found message boards discussing the Optio S4i, and it was just incredible how mixed the reviews were, it was about 50-50 on those who loved the image quality and those who hated it, stating how it was grainy, and blurry on the left side, although most were agreed that just based on the features and size that this was an incredible piece of technology. A case in point was in Steve's review (see link above) where his first camera was blurry on the left side, but then Pentax sent him a new one and now it was fine. So did this mean he was sent a bad one, or that Pentax updated the firmware or something on the new one, or there was a bad batch now corrected? Whatever it was, it would certainly appear that some people had received bad cameras, others perfect ones. Of course this was a big issue unless I was willing to pay a higher price at a store that was OK with returns, or willing to take a risk. Being the gambler I am I took a risk, I bought from buydig.com for $315 (plus $9.95 for 3-5 day shipping), the lowest price on the net. They take returns, but with a 10% restocking fee and not including shipping. Their prices for SD cards, batteries, etc. were high so I decided to delay buying all of that, or buy elsewhere.

First off, buydig.com was an outstanding experience, I ordered online, it was shipped within 48 hours, and arrived FedEx within 4 days of ordering, in perfect condition, brand new factory fresh as promised. I also ordered a Sandisk 512K Ultra SD card from Dell, at the website it included a 15% discount, which wasn't shown when I was checking prices on a price comparison site. The Dell delivery was good also, but came DHL, no weekend delivery so kept for 2 extra days at their depot minutes from my house.

Now, on to the camera. WOW! It is everything I hoped for and more. The features and size are amazing. the image quality for me has been fantastic. One complaint I read about is that the camera kept defaulting to ISO 400, mine hasn't done that, it's taking pictures mainly at 50 and 100, but I wonder if that was the defect in earlier models because it would explain the many complaints of grainy images. Mine have been super sharp, with just an occasional very slight blur in the corners, something I expected in this format.

I spent a lot time studying my shots, magnifying them, examining every part of them, looking for the blurriness and graininess others complain of (I wanted to make sure I could return it within the 10 days if I had a problem camera), but so far they all look perfect to me, actually far better than I expected. Now I wonder if maybe some of the mixed reviews are because I mainly bought this for 'point and shoot', where others are more into photography and expect more from their shots.

Others complained of build quality and 'flimsiness', I don't see any of that either, it looks incredibly well built to me with not a hint of flimsy.

The software supplied with the camera is also excellent, this is full blown software that I would have been willing to pay for to manage my photos, it's certainly not the cheap bundled program that you often find.

Based just on my experience I would recommend this camera to anyone, but I'd also at least caution people to be aware of the reported issues just in case.