Photo answers review
Photo answers rating 
The Pentax RS1500 boasts a 14MP sensor and 4x optical zoom equivalent to 27.5-110mm, but it’s the interchangeable covers (skins) that are its most obvious feature. Pentax has placed the look of this compact firmly in the hands of the user, by providing ten interchangeable skins with a range of unique designs and five blank skins on which to draw or download your own image. The lens ring pops off easily so you can place your chosen cover onto the front of the camera. This funky feature makes it a cool camera for kids to use and have fun with, or simply keep to yourself for a night on the town.
Despite being extremely small and light, the RS1500 can capture high-definition TV-quality movie clips. This feature also comes with a shake reduction mode, which automatically compensates for unsteady hands.
The large 3in LCD monitor takes up nearly the whole of the back of this very small compact, giving a very clear and crisp picture, but we did feel it had a slight colour cast.
As to be expected with a compact at this price, you won’t find a vast array of creative modes, but it does have nine different digital filters, including Toy Camera, Retro, Sepia and Fish-eye, to add popular effects in-camera. And the Digital Panorama feature (more on this below) actually got us more hooked on taking photos than any other mode on the camera. It also boasts Face Detection and Smile Capture – where the camera automatically fires the moment it detects the subject’s smile!
Digital Panorama
The best feature on the RS1500 is easily Digital Panorama, as it allows you to stitch images together in-camera. Simply select which direction you want to rotate the camera, take a shot and pan around so the two half-camera icons meet up perfectly to make a whole one. Another shot is automatically taken. Then just do this for a third shot, allow the final image to be processed, and you have your finished panoramic all stitched together! Just be careful what you shoot – we found some weird bumps on our straight horizons.
Performance
It doesn’t take long to get your head around the settings on the RS1500, mainly because there aren’t that many! But the lack of buttons on this compact is actually quite refreshing and make it a real ‘back to basics’ affair that you’ll have up and running in no time. We shot our test images at sunset and the camera performed well. It captured lovely colours and wasn’t at all fazed by the high-contrast lighting conditions.
PA verdict
Easy to use, great value for money and interchangeable skins to boot – the Pentax RS1500 has a lot going for it. Digital Panorama was easily the best feature and once we had taken one decent image with it we found it hard to actually shoot normally again! Kids will love the RS1500 for the fun factor, while trendsetters will find it offers the perfect balance of pocketability, quality images and stylish looks.
www.pentax.co.uk