The Best 3-Megapixel Camera You'll Never See In Stores

What Made Me Decide To Get One

I own a FujiFilm S5100 4-megapixel digital camera. It's a great camera, but its rather chunky size makes it hard to slip in a pocket for point-and-shoot convenience. I decided that with the price of point-and-shoots falling below $200, I would try to find a camera in that class. I wanted a camera that would use, preferably, the same media as the FujiFilm (that is, xD cards). Naturally, I wanted picture quality as good as the full-size Fuji camera, but I also wanted some flexibility that would give me some control over picture quality and other factors.

How I Came Across It

So I hit a number of major retailers including Circuit City, Fry's, Micro Center, and Comp USA. Best Buy had the best selection of cameras on display so I tried – and returned – two of them. One was the FujiFilm A330, which was a nicely priced camera but which performed poorly in low-light situations, and another was an Olympus D540, which had horrendously short battery life (both of which I have reviewed on this site). All the typical brands were at each of the stores – HP, Canon, Nikon, Konica-Minolta, and so on. I didn't see what I was seeking, so a broader search was called for.

Happily, on a whim, I decided to stop by one of our larger independent camera dealers, where I saw, in the glass showcase, a Pentax camera called the Optio 30. This small point-and-shoot, which sports a body color roughly the same as that of ginger ale, seemed to have everything I wanted. After trying it out for a few moments in the store I figured I'd risk the 15% restocking fee and get it. Thankfully, the Optio 30 turned out to be the right choice.

First Impressions

The size and shape of the Optio 30 are wonderful. Its footprint is about the size of a deck of playing cards. The thickness is about two decks at its widest point. It's an easy fit into most pockets.

The camera is lightweight and easy to hold. I was able to comfortably take pictures with it, one-handed, while driving (!).

The battery door, located on the bottom of the camera, covers the SD card slot – which is good for preventing dust. But I see what others talk about when they mention that it could wear down and become loose. You might consider buying a small protective pouch or carrying case in you plan on carrying it around a lot.

Controls

In a change from the design of most cameras I inspected, there are no dials at all to twist on the Optio 30; everything is controlled by push-button. Very nice – there's nothing to wear out. The buttons have a positive click and don't feel cheap (we're not talking about membrane keyboards that have a tendency to stick or fail over time).

A small, round button turns camera on and off. The start-up time is very quick, too, about two seconds – you won't have to worry about missing many shots. A larger button, near the power button, is the shutter release for taking pictures.

The shooting mode dial you find on most cameras is replaced by a rotating ring of shooting modes (including movie mode) which, effectively, scroll in a circular path on the LCD. It's hard to describe this; you just need to see it.

The Pentax Optio 30 is all menu driven. The screen font is a little small but the crisp LCD makes it pretty readable for all but the most feeble of eyes. The menu button is under the LCD. Interesting thing about this camera – the menus can be operated in two modes - normal, or a simplified mode with fewer submenus, which will be appreciated by folks who just want to adjust things here or there. If you want more control, it's there, though.

One button takes you between shoot and review modes, and this button is also under the LCD. Very nice, very quick – you can check your last image easily, without having to fidget with a rotary dial.

As with more and more digital cameras, the Optio 30 has a 4-way directional rocker switch that feels good to the touch and not cheap. Four directional buttons and an OK button in the middle (seems to be becoming the new standard) let you control various functions. The Up button activates a 10-second self-timer (shoot mode) or DPOF (review mode). The Down button lets you choose picture modes (about 12 to choose from).

A two-position rocker wide/telephoto button is near the top of the rear of the camera body; in review mode this button also controls 9-up image review and zoom magnify.

Two other buttons on the rear activate macro and manual focus modes, as well as flash modes. The same two buttons are used to delete or protect images in review mode. Pentax wisely uses color-coded symbols to indicate how the buttons operate in each mode – shooting symbols are in black; reviewing symbols are in blue.

Viewfinders/LCD

The Optio 30 has a bright, beautiful LCD. At 1.6 inches, it's not the largest I've ever seen, but the image quality is nice. I think the small size is actually a benefit – with larger screens there's a greater risk of accidental breakage if you have the thing in your pocket.

There is no EVF; you look through an optical viewfinder, much like you would a conventional point-and-shoot camera. Some folks will appreciate this. I almost always use the back LCD so I'm indifferent either way.

You can review thumbnails of up to nine images on the LCD in review mode. Not bad.

Lens

Turning the camera on extends the lens. One small complaint: the lens motor is a little noisy. I'd like to see Pentax address that in future releases of this class of camera.

You may want to exercise some care when putting the camera in a pocket full of other stuff, as humorous consequences may result if the on/off button is accidentally pressed. (Use your imagination.)

The lens has 3X optical zoom; digital zoom is available as a mode that can be turned on or off (in the menus). It has a built-in lens cover that closes when you turn off the camera, so you won't need to buy one or finagle with screwing one on and off.

Flash

As this is a point-and-shoot, flash is simple and adequate. It seems bright when it goes off, but if you take a shot at something beyond 10 feet, you may be disappointed. Close-up shots are fine.

Movie Mode

The movie mode, for such a small camera, is surprisingly good (at least to me). It produces 320x240 MOV files (at 10 frames per second) that are playable in QuickTime. There is no sound, though, so you might limit use of movie mode to quickie stuff – like demonstrating a faulty car part under the hood, or capturing a momentary event like a dog chasing a clown. It's good enough to capture video, but if you want to do editing, you'd do better with a full-function camcorder. I don't even know if MOV files can be imported into programs like Adobe Premiere or Ulead's VideoStudio.

Battery Life

The battery life on the Pentax Optio 30 is wonderful! Considering the camera runs on only 2 AA cells, in my experience you can snap off well over 125 non-flash images without any problems. Using flash will, naturally, shorten your battery life some. Best to get some NiMH (nickel metal hydride) rechargeables. These batteries now go for about $12 for a set of four, with a one-hour charger going for about $30.

The only thing that really seems to suck juice is the movie mode. The mode seems to drain power even if you're not shooting. It seems to recover, though, if you allow time for the batteries to "rest"; the battery indicator seems to rise back up with some time off.

The battery indicator on the LCD is color-coded and shows four states: good/fully charged (green), partly depleted (green), nearly depleted (yellow), and almost flat (red). You do get adequate warning before the battery dies.

One great thing about the Optio 30 is that it's power efficient when you're downloading pictures. This is the first camera I've ever seen where the LCD stays off completely when copying pictures. Disk activity is indicated by a small, flashing red LED next to the viewfinder. I think this is pretty ingenious; other cameras I tried show something on the LCD that's essentially unnecessary.

Note that my rating the battery life as "Excellent" does not exactly correspond to Epinion's description for this grade of performance (over 300 pictures). Epionions.com needs a new rating scale for 2 AA-cell cameras. For two AA cells, over 100 pictures is good, if you ask me; neither of the other 2-AA cell cameras that I tested even made it that far.

Image Quality

I've been very pleased with the image quality of the Optio 30. Colors are vibrant and true; lines are sufficiently crisp and well-defined. Sunlit images are slightly nicer than indoor, existing light images.

You may change the ISO rating for photos you take. The default mode is Automatic, in which case the camera selects for you, but you may also explicitly select ISO 400, 200, 100, or 50. ISO 400 is, as far as I'm concerned, the most important rating to have available because it lets you take good photos indoors, under existing lighting (fluorescent or incandescent). Be sure to steady the camera for night shots, even if using ISO 400 mode, but I'm pretty sure you'll like the results.

There are four manual white-balance modes in addition to the camera's Automatic mode (AWB). The incandescent white-balance mode produces very nice results – takes the orange/yellow tinge right out. Good job, Pentax!

Image quality can be controlled to save space on your memory card. It uses a star rating system – three stars is best quality, two stars is moderate quality, one star is lowest quality. I suppose these correspond to "fine", "normal" and "economy" on other cameras.


Additional Information

Pentax promises you'll feel comfy with their cameras in about three minutes. I believe them. See more information on the Optio 30 on their web site:

http://www.pentaximaging.com/products/product_details/digital_camera--Optio30/reqID--1016/subsection--optio

While you're there, click on the "Download Manual" to get the dirt on the other features this camera has, most of which I've not tried and (to be honest) will probably not use.


Final Verdict: Buy!

I tried two other cameras before stumbling across the Pentax Optio 30. The FujiFilm A330 was a good deal pricewise, but didn't have ISO support above 100 speed. The Olympus D540 had beautiful specs but abysmal battery life (see both of my reviews of those cameras for other details). Lots of other cameras I saw in stores didn't have the feature mix I wanted, nor the price. The Pentax Optio 30 has been absolutely perfect for my needs. It's a wonderful point-and-shoot, which makes me wonder why it's not more available than it is. Best Buy and Circuit City should be carrying this camera over other brands and models.

For $179, you're not going to find a better 3-megapixel point-and-shoot digital camera. It uses inexpensive SD media cards, has long battery life for a 2-AA cell unit, and takes beautiful pictures. Don't be fooled by the fact that the Optio 30 is the "lowest" in Pentax's Optio line of cameras; it's a solid performer for those wanting a simple-to-use, lightweight camera at a decent price. You may have to drive a long way to see one in a store, or even resort to mail order to get your hand on one, but I think I can be safe in saying that once you do, you'll wonder why more stores don't carry them!