Pentax Optio A30

The Pentax Optio A30 is the newest addition to Pentax's flagship line of compact cameras. As the successor to Optio A20, the A30 boasts some new improvements to its design and features.

In terms of design, the A30 is compact enough to fit into any trouser pocket. The A30 is also scarce of buttons and knobs, giving it a very clean look.

It weighs only 150g with the battery so you can carry it anywhere with you.

On the back panel you will find a large 2.5in LCD screen, which is perfect for framing and reviewing pictures.

It packs a 10-megapixel CCD sensor, which makes it perfect for capturing lots of detail. The A30 has 3x optical zoom lens and is able to cover a 35mm equivalent focal range of approximately 38 - 114mm.

Aside from capturing images, the A30 is able to record VGA quality (640 x 480pixels) at 30 frames per second.

Some of the other features packed into the A30 include Shake Reduction to help photographers with shaky hands and face recognition Auto Focus (AF) & Auto Exposure (AE) for better portrait-taking.

Modes for everyone

The A30 is a good compact camera that caters to both amateur and semi-professional photographers.

More experienced photographers will appreciate the inclusion of common semi-pro functions like Program, Shutter Priority and Manual Exposure modes for them to express their creativity.

Those not so experienced with cameras will come to appreciate the pre-set scene modes like portrait, landscape, sports and night scene.

The auto-tracking feature certainly helps to a certain extent, but it does suffer from some drawbacks. The AF does take a while to track down the subject and, at times, completely misses the subject and focuses on the background instead.

Another plus point is the camera's face recognition technology that optimises exposure and focus for faces it detects in images.

Performance

The A30 is an easy compact camera to pick up and use, be it at a social function or family outing. It performs especially well on bright sunny days, capable of capturing good quality photos with lots of detail that turned out sharp and crisp.

Although it has a tendency of capturing slightly over-exposed pictures, it is not too much of an issue as this can be easily corrected with some minor adjustments to the exposure compensation.

Reviews > Digi/Video cams Thursday May 10, 2007

Quick on the draw

By CHONG JINN XIUNG

OPTIO A30

(Pentax)

Ultracompact digital camera

Sensor: 10-Megapixels (3,648 x 2,736pixels), 1/1.8in type

Lens: 3x optical zoom, f/2.8-f/5.4

Shutter: 4sec – 1/2000sec

ISO range: 64 – 1600, 3200 available in Digital SR Mode at 5-megapixels

Exposure modes: Mode selection with 11 scene modes, full auto and program, shutter priority and manual exposure.

Viewfinder: 2.5in TFT LCD

Battery: Rechargeable lithium-ion

Storage: SD, SDHC

Interface: USB 2.0, AV-out, DC-in, video-out NTSC and PAL

Other features: Face recognition, camera-shake reduction

Dimensions (w x h x d): 89 x 58 x 23mm

Weight: 130g (without battery)

Price: RM1,499

Review unit courtesy of Shriro (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, (03) 7874-9842.

The Pentax Optio A30 is the newest addition to Pentax's flagship line of compact cameras. As the successor to Optio A20, the A30 boasts some new improvements to its design and features.

In terms of design, the A30 is compact enough to fit into any trouser pocket. The A30 is also scarce of buttons and knobs, giving it a very clean look.

It weighs only 150g with the battery so you can carry it anywhere with you.

On the back panel you will find a large 2.5in LCD screen, which is perfect for framing and reviewing pictures.

It packs a 10-megapixel CCD sensor, which makes it perfect for capturing lots of detail. The A30 has 3x optical zoom lens and is able to cover a 35mm equivalent focal range of approximately 38 - 114mm.

Aside from capturing images, the A30 is able to record VGA quality (640 x 480pixels) at 30 frames per second.

Some of the other features packed into the A30 include Shake Reduction to help photographers with shaky hands and face recognition Auto Focus (AF) & Auto Exposure (AE) for better portrait-taking.

Modes for everyone

The A30 is a good compact camera that caters to both amateur and semi-professional photographers.

More experienced photographers will appreciate the inclusion of common semi-pro functions like Program, Shutter Priority and Manual Exposure modes for them to express their creativity.

BIG: The back panel features a large 2.5in LCD screen.
Those not so experienced with cameras will come to appreciate the pre-set scene modes like portrait, landscape, sports and night scene.

The auto-tracking feature certainly helps to a certain extent, but it does suffer from some drawbacks. The AF does take a while to track down the subject and, at times, completely misses the subject and focuses on the background instead.

Another plus point is the camera's face recognition technology that optimises exposure and focus for faces it detects in images.

Performance

The A30 is an easy compact camera to pick up and use, be it at a social function or family outing. It performs especially well on bright sunny days, capable of capturing good quality photos with lots of detail that turned out sharp and crisp.

Although it has a tendency of capturing slightly over-exposed pictures, it is not too much of an issue as this can be easily corrected with some minor adjustments to the exposure compensation.

PLENTY OF DETAIL: The Pentax Optio A30 has a good macro mode capable of retaining lots of natural details in its pictures.
It is also worth noting that the A30 has a very quick start-up time of 1.8 seconds. In fact, you can practically switch the camera on and start taking pictures in just 2.5 seconds.

The A30's AF system was very responsive and quick to focus on subjects in well-lit areas. The camera's continuous shooting mode was able to capture three pictures in succession in 2.1 seconds.

Having conducted some test on ISO sensitivity, the A30's performed surprisingly well. Noise levels were nonexistent below ISO100 though at ISO800, images maintained a higher degree of noise but are still usable even for large prints.

Needless to say, noise levels peaked at unacceptable levels at ISO1600 and above.

One thing we liked about the ISO setting on the A30 is the option to set the maximum ISO sensitivity. The feature comes in handy if you want to leave the camera to help you choose a certain range that you want the camera to use, like ISO64-200 or ISO 64-800, saving you the trouble of manually selecting the ISO.

In terms of battery life, the A30 is an average performer that is capable of taking just below 200 pictures on a single charge. While the charge may not be strong but it is sufficient if you make your shots count.

Video capabilities

The video recording abilities on the A30 is surprisingly good and I was pretty pleased with the quality of the videos. Another plus point going for the A30 is its MPEG4 encoded videos, which gives users longer periods of recording time.

One problem we encountered while recording with the camera was the fixed focus of the camera. If you were to focus on your subject from a certain distance, your subject will be out of focus as you move closer.

Still, aside from that one minor problem, the recorded videos were smooth and showed no signs of pixelation or jerkiness. Sound quality was average at best but it was good enough to hear the recorded voices over ambient noise.

Menu interface

The buttons (or lack of buttons) on the A30 takes some getting used to. While most cameras have dedicated buttons for functions like flash, mode changing and macro mode, the A30 combines them with the directional pad.

The interface for changing different camera settings like shutter speed and aperture felt a little difficult to work with, considering the number of button presses you have to go through.

However the A30 has a great photo indexing system that arranges pictures day by day in a calendar style format. Basically, you can "zoom" in and out of different days to view your pictures. It certainly is a useful feature if you take lots of photos.

Another user-friendly bit is the use of a check box system to delete multiple pictures at once, saving you the trouble of deleting your unwanted pictures one at a time.

Conclusion

Overall, the A30 performs well as both a digital camera and video recorder, producing sharp contrasting pictures and smooth videos. It also helps that the A30 has a good user interface to back up its enhanced features.

The camera's versatility and portability makes it a good camera to have around and definitely one you can rely on to take capture life's precious moments.

Pros: Very quick auto focus; good looking videos; small and lightweight.

Cons: Battery life could be better; changing camera settings requires too many button presses.

Source : http://star-techcentral.com/