The Pentax Optio 430 Pocket Camera!
Written: Jun 09 '02 (Updated Aug 30 '03)
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Pros: Small and light with a lot of nice features!
Cons: No Microphone and a short battery life!
The Bottom Line: This is not a bad little camera, though for the money I would recommend another brand.
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| surferdude7's Full Review: Pentax Optio 430 Digital Camera |
The Pentax Optio 430 is a 4-megapixel digital camera that will easily fit in your shirt pocket. It measures 3.6 inches wide by 2.3 inches in height by only 1.2 inches thick and weighs in ay only 8.5 ounces.
This little camera has a stainless steel body for durability verses many cameras today made out of plastic.
The Photos
The photos that are saved in the JPEG mode have three levels Good, Better or Best. Then there are three resolutions to pick from 2240 x 1680 dpi, 1120 x 840 dpi and 640 x 480 dpi.
The photos are stored on a CompactFlash card, it comes with a 16MB card.
Movies
The Pentax Optio 430 will also let you take movies in the QuickTime mode of 320 x 240 at up to 30 seconds at a time.
The movies are fair in quality and rather small on my screen. The zoom feature works in the movie mode also.
The Buttons
On Top of the camera is the ON/OFF Button with the Mode Dial for your operating modes. The Mode Dial has six settings Playback, Auto Record, Night Scene, Manual Record, Movies and Multiple Exposure. In the center of the Mode dial is a Shutter Button that takes your photos when fully pressed and when you press it half way down you can make your focus and exposure settings.
On the Back of the camera to the top left is an Optical Viewfinder with a Diopter Adjustment Control Going from left to right on the top of the back you have a Flash / Erase Button, Drive Mode / DPOF Button, Focus / Protect Button and a Zoom Toggle Button. Going on down the back of the camera and you find a Menu Button, a Four Way Arrow Pad & OK Button and Display Button.
What comes with the Camera
They include a 16MB CompactFlash card. (I recommend purchasing a 64MB or 128MB card.)
Included is a Battery charger with AC plug cord and a D-Ll2 rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack. (I recommend an extra battery pack so you have one charged at all time.)
They include a Video cable, USB cable, Wrist Strap, Operations Manual and a CD with everything you need to get going plus ACDSee software.
The Lens
The lens is a 3x optical zoom that is equivalent to a 37mm-112mm in the 35mm format. There is also a 2x digital zoom.
It has 7 elements in 6 groups (2 dual-sided aspherical elements) and can be used in manual and auto focus.
The Flash
A general type built-in flash with on/off features and red-eye reduction.
Not made for adding another flash.
The View
This camera offers you an Optical Actual Image Zoom Viewfinder.
There is also a 1.6 inch, TFT color LCD. It is adequately bright though a little small for viewing. There is a 4 magnification for previewing the photo for accurate details.
Other Features
Shutter speeds from 1/2,000 to 2 seconds
Aperture range from f/2.6 to f/9.2
Continuous Shooting Mode
Multiple Exposure Modes
Night Scene Photo Mode
Close-up settings (Macro)
A 10-second Self-Timer
DPOF (Digital Print Order Format)
Multi-Segment, Center-Weighted and Spot Metering Modes
Image Contrast, Sharpness and Saturation Adjustments (Hard, Normal and Soft settings for all three)
Exposure Compensation of ±2EV in 1/3EV steps
White balance modes of Auto, Daylight, Shade, Tungsten Light, Fluorescent Light and Manual
ISO setting of Auto or a fixed equivalent to ISO 100 & 200
My Last Words
My main turn off was the size, I grew up with having a 35mm camera most of my life and for me the digital camera needs to feel very similar for me to feel comfortable with. There are many advantage of a small camera like this by being so compact.
When you first turn it on the lens will telescope out for use. I find that the camera is a little slow in recycling for the next shot. The quality of the photos are nice and print up like a Kodak picture when using photo paper from both indoor and outdoor shot. The flash is a little week under some light conditions, when taking photos under a fluorescence light the photos turn out a little dark. Outdoor night shots have to be taken at a fairly close range for good quality.
One of the features I found interesting was the Multiple Exposure like you find on your professional 35mm cameras and rarely found on a digital camera. Yes the Multiple Exposure works just fine taking one photo over another.
My biggest con for the camera is there is no built-in microphone, what good are taking movies without any sound. A small camera like this has a small battery, I got off 51 shots and it needed to be recharged. I did use the LCD most of the time, which eats the battery power faster.
Overall it takes good photos and has a lot of nice features. List price is $799 and can be found on the Internet for as low as $508, check out the Epinions advertisers.
I won’t recommend the Pentax Optio 430 because I think it is an over priced digital camera that they offer. They are trying to give you a lot of nice features and at the same time cutting or forgetting other features like the cheap flash and no built-in microphone.
~~~ Print your digital photos for 18 cents each; Click on Me to find out how! ~~~
Here are some of my other camera reviews!
Canon PowerShot G1 Digital Camera
Casio QV3000EX Digital Camera
Casio QV-2300UX Digital Camera
Fuji FinePix 2800 Digital Camera
Kodak DC215 Zoom Digital Camera
Kodak DC280 Zoom Digital Camera
Kodak DC3400 Zoom Digital Camera
Kodak DX4900 Digital Camera
Minolta Dimage E-201 Digital Camera
Minolta Maxxum HTsi 35mm SLR camera
Minolta Maxxum 7
Minolta Maxxum 800si 35mm SLR camera
Olympus Camedia C-3000 Zoom Digital Camera
Olympus C-3020 Zoom Digital Camera
Olympus C-4040 Zoom Digital Camera
Olympus Camedia D-40 Zoom Digital Camera
Olympus Camedia D-380 Digital Camera
Nikon Coolpix 900-s Digital Camera
Nikon Coolpix 3500 Digital Camera
Sony MVC-FD87 Digital Camera
Sony Mavica MVC-FD95 Digital Camera
Sony DSC-F717 Cyber-shot Digital Camera
Sony DSC-P2 Digital Camera
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 579
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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Epinions.com ID:
surferdude7
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Location: Elizabethtown, Ky.
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