You don't mention the "speed" of the lens in this review, and there's no indication of it on the barrel (eg 1:2.8, 3.5 etc). You do mention some noise at higher ISO settings... just wondering how this camera really performs in low light? It could be that the reason the max aperture isn't mentioned anywhere (on the lens or presumably on any of the literature you had) is that it's on the slow side and Pentax are keeping quiet about it. Not necessarily a problem for everyone, but something worth investigating a little I'd have thought.

Explanation for the non-photographic - the lens doesn't let much light through, meaning pictures in low light or without flash may be a bit rubbish. Possibly.

"Likewise, the blink warning system is supposed to tell you that the subject has blinked and that you should take another shot. It would have been more useful if the Optio V20 did this automatically."

Well, I don't think it would be good if the camera did it automatically at all, really. You see, it takes a couple of seconds to write the image to the card at highest resolution, plus there is definitely some lag for the flash to recharge. People would end up getting lots of pictures of the floor, or of the subjects walking away... If it's "manual" (and if it worked), you have to warn the subjects that a new shot has to be taken because someone blinked and all that.