Pentax M30 Review

The Pentax Optio M30 features a seven megapixel CCD image sensor, coupled to an smc Pentax-branded 3x optical zoom lens. Announced alongside the Optio T30, the Pentax M30 is the more affordable of the two models. Priced at $199.95, the Pentax M30 uses a 2.5" LCD display with a resolution of 115,000 pixels - a bit smaller than (and half the resolution of) the display used in the T30, and lacking that camera's touch-screen interface. The M30 is restricted to multi-segment metering only. It also has a rather less bright maximum aperture (f/3.1 to f/5.9 across the zoom range, as compared to f/2.7 to f/5.2 on the T30).

ISO ranges from 64 to 400 under automatic control, with the ability to extend this to a maximum of ISO 1600 in manual mode (and ISO 3200 in what Pentax dubs "Digital SR" mode). Images are stores in 21.9MB of built-in memory, or on Secure Digital cards (including the newer SDHC types). The Pentax Optio M30 ships in the USA from March 2007.