Optimal Image Quality and Speed

I happened to buy this camera for a student association and I got this camera for a few days.

I am truly happy with the quality of this product. The pictures it takes are the sharpest I've seen from a 3 Mpixel camera of ANY MAKE. Trust me, I tried Nikon coolpix 3100, Canon A70, HP 720 and HP 735... at 3 megapixel I didn't get any better pictures. For the pixel and cost class this camera is unbeatable - if you can't afford something better (5 mpixels and up) then get this now.

PROS
This camera is truly light and small. It runs on 2AA batteries which is a major advantage should you finish the recargeables. It is not as thin as a Pentax S30 but at this price and with this quality you can't ask for more!

Image quality is simply amazing. It is not just a matter of looking at the details! One could easyly print these pictures on a A4 sheet and get more than good results. Again trust me, I am anal retentive when it comes to picture quality. I compared shots from the Canon A70 (a big delusion in my opinion) and they don't keep the pace.

Unlike the ultracompact optios the optics of the "30" are the best in the class. A slight barrel effect can be noted in wide angle images. No blurring is visible on the edges, very little blooming effects in extreme situations on the corners of the pictures.

Very LOW NOISE on the sensor: In digital terms the noise is when the picture exibits pixels of the wrong colour. This is very unlikely to happen with this camera

The night shooting modes with long aperture times give excellent and sharp results! (a tripod is needed).

Operating times are too good to be believed. It has the faster zoom (optical) that I ever tried. Less than half second from focus to exposure. Less than 3 secs for a cold start.

As a memory uses MMC and/or SD. I tried both kind of memories. It is much faster with SecureDigitals, but supports (unofficially) also the MMC (multimedia cards).

I also tried some shot with fast moving objects but the pictures where alway clear (direct sunlight though).

The camera also feature a live exposimeter. This is the first time that I see such a tool on a 3mpixel ;-)

CONS
trying to find some defects... well the movies are captured without sound. This is a bit disappointing since a added microphone would not have costed much to pentax. I can only think that if this feature was added then the camera would make too much competition to other pentax models...

Maybe too many scene modes and features can confuse the absolute beginner, it needs some hours of "driving school" to get the best of it ;-)

In the average
Someone dislikes that the USB connector is unprotected by a door. Yes it is unprotected. But I see this as a feature (not toying with a filmsy door to connect the camera to the PC). Well I suppose this is not good nor bad. Just in case you think that's important Pentax has another model that is totally waterproof...

White balance sometimes fails. This can be anyway controlled by going into the menu and changing the white balance from auto to a fixed value.

CONCLUSION
The best small digicam I ever tried. Also it is one of the cheapest. I would suggest this to anyone except enemies.

UPDATE
After a couple of years in service this camera is now defunct. The lens assembly failed.