In response to our “is this the best camera for under £150” comment about the superb Canon IXUS 220. Here is a completely different kettle of fish. Everyone knows the name Pentax, but they have been relatively quiet recently on the digital camera front. Who do you know with one? However in a direct response to ultra zoom portable cameras like the Panasonic TZ20 is this superb 18x optical zoom Pentax Optio RZ18 digital camera by Pentax. At only £129.99 is comes at a price similar to most quality compacts with 5x zoom, so to have a full fat wide angle paparazzi style lens is incredible at this price. Plus 16 mega pixels combined with the large zoom means anything can be visible no matter how far you are away. It also does 720p HD video and has a good quality “dual shake reduction” option which is impressive to stop blurry images in low light.

All this feature set would be impressive on a £200 camera but at £129 from Amazon.co.uk it is simply superb. While the Orange colour is a bit bright for some (others will love it), you can always get the black again for £129.99. The white Pentax Optio RZ18 however is £149.99 at time of writing.

The stand out features of this camera for this price are:
18x Optical zoom,
Lightweight chassis,
16 megapixels,
Black, White or Orange colour,
HD video recording

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