Squeezing a large display into a small camera inevitably results in compromises. Pentax has addressed this by adding a 3” touchscreen, eliminating extra buttons.
They’ve also crammed in a 3x optical zoom and 7.1 megapixel sensor into pocket-sized body. There's digital shake reduction and automatic face recognition to keep people in focus.
The T30 is quick to start up; it's ready to take snaps in a couple of seconds. The menu is simple to find your way around, with easy to read labels and large buttons to press on screen. The layout is logical, with commonly used settings accessible via just two clicks.
Full resolution images stretch to 3,072 x2,304 pixels and take up around 1-1.25MB at medium quality on your SD card. The card slot at the bottom will accept the new high capacity SD HC cards - but you won't find one included. Instead you'll have to rely on the internal storage that runs to just under 20MB. If you're shooting at full res, you'll fill it up with around 17 images. Image quality is great with decent colour reproduction and realistic light and dark.
Although the touch sensitive screen is easy to use, there's no escaping the problems of greasy finger marks on the display. After a couple of hours, that pristine screen will soon be marred by smeary marks.
The T30 is a great point and shoot camera that's easy to use and creates great pictures. It's reasonably priced at £189.99 for a 7.1 megapixel camera and it's small enough to carry with you most places you go.
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