Pentax Optio M30 review

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Verdict:

Review Date: 18 Apr 2007

Price when reviewed: inc VAT

Reviewed By: Ben Pitt

Our Rating 3 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

Pentax's Optio M10 (What's New, Shopper July 2006) set a new standard for image quality from a £150 camera.

It shows just how much things have changed in a year that the M30 takes higher-resolution photos and videos and has a slim aluminium case and a lithium-ion battery in place of the M10's plastic body and AA batteries, and yet its £128 price isn't particularly remarkable.

The menu system is straightforward and quick to navigate. A green button switches the camera to a simplified mode but can be reprogrammed as a short cut to another option. Still, this isn't as useful as Fn buttons on other Pentax cameras, which give quick access to four options simultaneously. It's unusual to find manual focus at this price, although the 2in screen's 115,000-pixel resolution makes it tricky to adjust precisely. Portrait mode includes face detection to help with focus and exposure, but it takes a while to find faces in a scene. General shooting is slow, too, at around three seconds between shots. Continuous shooting starts at 2fps but slows to 0.5fps after four shots.

Image quality gave us no cause for concern, with colours that were just as pleasing as those from the much pricier cameras we tested this month. Focus was up to scratch, too, although it deteriorated towards the corners. However, the main problem was that image noise was visible even when shooting in bright conditions, giving pictures a slightly messy quality. Noise wasn't excessive in low light but, as with many compact cameras, we wouldn't use this above ISO 400.

The M30 is a worthy successor to the M10 and intervening M20, but the competition has moved on even further. FujiFilm's FinePix F20 shows that you can expect fantastic image quality for around £120, but the M30 can't quite provide it.

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