Pentax Optio W30 Review

Review Date: June 11th 2007
Author: Mark Goldstein

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Conclusion

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4
Features	4
Ease-of-Use	4.5
Image Quality	3.5
Value for Money	4

The Pentax Optio W30 is a fairly unremarkable camera that succeeds largely due to being water and dust proof, and very easy to use. This is truly a camera that you can take on your next beach holiday, and not have to worry if it gets dropped in the sand or sea. The W30 also makes a great companion for a snorkelling trip, and is generally a hard-wearing camera - if it can survive daily use by the Royal National Lifeboat Institute, then it can survive most things! Pentax have also concentrated on making the Optio W30 very easy-to use, with most aspects of the camera designed to be standard and non-intimidating. There are a wealth of different scene and playback modes to suit the camera's target audience. On the downside, image quality is hampered by noise, which appears at ISO 200, becomes very noticeable at ISO 800, and reduces images to a pixellated mess by ISO 3200. The Shake Reduction mode offered by the W30 simply increases the ISO speed up to the maximum of 3200, which could leave you with some very unattractive photos. The must-have feature for all compact digicams in 2007, Face Recognition, is supposedly one of the headline additions, but as with most of these systems, you'll get better results by focusing the camera yourself. The 1cm macro mode is very appealing, but the maximum shutter speed of 4 seconds limits what can be achieved at night. Performance was quite good, although it's best to stick to the single-shot mode. Overall the Pentax Optio W30 makes a great point and shoot choice for the next family beach holiday.

PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Pentax Optio W30 have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.

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