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Pentax Optio A30 Digital Camera

BH #PEOA30 • MFR #19211
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Pentax Optio A30 Digital Camera
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Pentax A30 Overview

The Pentax Optio A30 Digital Camera features an impressive 10.0 megapixels of resolution from a large 1/1.8 inch CCD that provides wide dynamic range for superior image quality and broad color tones, while the 3X optical zoom smc Pentax lens further ensures high image quality through the use of top quality optics and effective lens coatings. The PENTAX original Shake Reduction (SR) technology in the A30 provides both Digital and Movie SR for improved image capture in low-light settings and telephoto capture, and a highly effective Face Recognition AF & AE function automatically detects faces in your image, and then adjusts exposure and focus to properly capture portraits. The Optio A30 also offers a versatile manual shooting mode. Add to this, a 232,000 pixel 2.5 inch LCD and VGA movie recording at 30fps and guaranteed video playback on all DivX certified devices.

Other features include a Auto Picture Mode that enables the use of fixed, automatic settings when taking a photograph and a Pan-focus function for effortless snapshots. The camera has 22MB of built-in memory and a USB 2.0 compatible interface for easy and fast transfer of images to your PC. The Optio A30 also supports PictBridge direct printing, DPOF functions, Exif Print, and PRINT Image Matching III, so you'll get beautiful print with a PictBridgre enable Printer - without the need for a computer at all.

10.0 Effective Megapixels of Resolution
The Optio A30 produces extremely clear, high-quality images thanks to the 10.0 megapixel 1/1.8 inch CCD. This superb level of resolution makes it possible to produce prints with crisp detail even when the photo is enlarged to A3 size. The 1/1.8-inch CCD with it's wide light-sensitive area, also realizes superior tone reproduction, fine textures, and greater noise reduction.
High-performance smc PENTAX Zoom Lens
The Optio A30 is equipped with a high-quality smc PENTAX zoom lens, which is renowned for its clarity and high-contrast image performance. Its lens configuration, with seven elements in five groups, including three aspherical elements, effectively corrects for spherical aberration, and the lenses are coated using a proprietary Pentax-developed technique, which greatly reduces ghosting and flare.
Intelligent Zoom and Digital Zoom
The Optio A30 includes an intelligent zoom feature that "crops into" the central portion of interest in your photo without sacrificing full CCD resolution - avoiding the image degradation found with a standard digital zoom. The intelligent zoom capability is related to the shooting resolution providing 3.6x (7M), 4.2x (5M), 5.3x (3M), 6.7x (2M), 10.4x (1024), or 16.3x (VGA) zoom capability. There is also a standard digital zoom of up to 5.4x available.
Compact and Lightweight Body
Despite incorporating a large CCD and the SR system The Optio A30 has a slim and light body, made possible by using a unique Sliding Lens System together with high-density mounting technology. In the Sliding Lens System, the central lens group slides upward from the optical axis and the front and back lens groups slip under them, housing the lens in two steps in the lens cylinder reducing overall lens size and, thereby minimizing body depth.
Three Types of Anti-Shake Functions
The SR (Shake Reduction) mechanism features two gyro sensors that detect the amount of shake and an image sensor (CCD) that moves both horizontally and vertically to compensate for any camera movement. In the Digital SR mode, the camera automatically adjusts the sensitivity to as high as ISO 3200, permitting faster shutter speeds that reduce not only camera shake but also the blurring caused by moving subjects. The Movie Anti-Shake feature compensates for camera shake while taking a movie, thanks to an electronic, and software driven function.
Face Recognition AF & AE
The camera includes the Face Recognition AF & AE function, which allows you to take bright, beautiful photos of people with perfectly focused faces free of shadows caused by exposing for the background or for the colors of clothing. This useful function automatically detects the position of the subject's anywhere in the photo frame and then adjusts the focus and optimizes the exposure for the detected position.
Auto-tracking AF
The Optio A30 incorporates an auto-tracking AF feature that continuously focuses on subjects such as kids and pets that move around unpredictably. Since the focus frame automatically follows the movement of the subject inside the photo frame, you can be sure to capture those instantaneous photo opportunities.
Record High-quality Movies
The Optio A30 captures movies at 30 fps (frames per second) at sizes up to 640 x 480 pixels with image quality rivaling camcorders, and the Anti-shake Function ensures smooth video motion. Since it employs the DivX (MPEG-4 compliant) movie format, the Optio A30 can record longer, high-quality movies (movie playback is not supported on Macintosh operating systems).
Auto Picture Mode
The Auto Picture mode lets the camera automatically determine the shooting conditions for Landscape, Portrait, Night Scene, and Program modes and choose the optimum settings for each subject, thereby making photography a lot easier for users since it eliminates the necessity of making a number of individual setting adjustments.
A Wide Range of Exposure Setting Modes
In Programmed Exposure mode, the camera automatically determines the shutter speed and aperture. The camera also includes "Shutter-Priority AE" mode and "Manual Exposure" mode, which the user can set freely depending on the effect they are aiming to achieve.
Supports Secure Digital (SD and SDHC) Memory Cards
The camera is equipped with 22MB of built-in memory so you can start shooting immediately - without a memory card, However, for greater storage of high-quality images and longer movies, the available memory can be expanded with a Secure Digital Card; either conventional SD memory cards or with SD High Capacity (SDHC) memory cards that have capacities in excess of 2GB.
Red-eye Correction Available After Shooting
The Optio A30 comes with FotoNation's red-eye correction function, which can correct red-eye problems, a side effect of flash photography, after the photo is taken. With the ability to manually select the area to correct, this function allows for more precise correction of red-eye photos.
Direct Printing Capable
The Optio A30 supports PictBridge Direct printing, which means that it can be connected to or docked with compatible printers and photos can be easily printed without using a PC.

Pentax A30 Specs

Camera Type
Ultra Compact Point-and-shot Digital Camera
Image Quality
Image Sensor
1/1.8" 10.37 Megapixel interline transfer CCD with a primary color filter
Effective Resolution
10.0 million pixels
Color Depth
36-Bit RGB
Color Modes
Color, Black & White, Sepia, 8 Color, Black & White+Red, Black & White+Green, Black & White+Blue, Soft, Illustration
Image File Formats
JPEG (Best, Better, Good)
Recorded Resolution
10M (3648x2736)
7M (3072x2304)
5M (2592x1944)
3M (2048x1536)
2M (1600x1200)
0.7M (1024x768)
VGA (640x480)

During Blur reduction mode, the recorded size is fixed to 5M (2592x1944)
During Frame composition mode, the recoded size is fixed to 3M (2048x1536)

Video Recording
AVI MPEG-4 DivX with Audio (Best, Better, Good)
640 (640x480 @ 30fps)
320 (320x240 @ 30 fps)
Clip length limited only by available memory
Audio Recording
WAV (PCM format)
Audio record time limited only by available memory.
Optics
Lens Type
smc PENTAX Power Zoom Lens (7 elements in 5 groups with 2 dual-sided aspherical elements, and 1 single-sided aspherical element)
Optical Zoom
3x (up to 16.3x Intelligent zoom at VGA resolution)
Lens Focal Length
7.9mm - 23.7mm (38mm - 114mm equivalent)
Digital Zoom
5.4x
Minimum Focus Distance
2.4" (6cm)
Maximum Aperture
f/2.8-5.4
Optical Image Stabilization
Yes (CCD-Shift)
Accessory Lens/Filter Mount
No
Focus Control
Focus Type
TTL contrast detection autofocus system (5 point AF, Spot AF, Tracking AF)
Focus Modes
Autofocus, Infinity Landscape, Pan Focus
Focus Range
Normal: 13.8" (35cm) - Infinity
Macro: 4.7" (12cm) - 19.7" (40cm)
Super Macro: 2.4" (6cm) - 5.9" (15cm)
Manual: 4.7" (12cm) - Infinity
Exposure Control
Sensitivity
Auto ISO (64-1600)
User Selectable ISO (64, 100, 200, 400, 800)
Digital SR: ISO 3200
Shutter Type
Programmed AE electronic lens shutter with CCD electronic shutter
Shutter Speed
4 - 1/2000 seconds
Aperture Range
f/2.8-5.4 (max.)
Exposure Metering
TTL metering (Multi-segment, Center-weighted, Spot)
Exposure Modes
Auto Picture, Program, Shutter-priority, Manual, Exposure Compensation (±2 EV in 1/3EV steps), Green
White Balance Modes
Auto, Daylight, Shade, Tungsten Light, Fluorescent Light, Manual
Scene Modes
Night scene, Landscape, Flower, Portrait, Kids, Blur reduction, Surf & Snow, Candle Light, Text, Food, Sport, Frame composition, Pet
Flash
Built-in Flash
Yes (Auto, Flash-off, Flash-on, Red-eye reduction, Auto backlight compensation)
Effective Flash Range
0.2' (0.06m) - 23' (7.1m)
External Flash Connection
No
External Flash Control
Not Applicable
Performance
Start-Up Time
2.2 seconds
Shutter Lag
0.05 seconds
Time Between Shots
Not Specified by Manufacturer
Burst Capability
0.7 fps Continuous
Self Timer
2 seconds or 10 seconds
Interval Recording
No
Date & Time Stamp
No
Memory & Power
Built-in Memory
22MB
Compatible Memory Cards
Secure Digital (SD/SDHC) Card
Recording Capacity
Includes 22MB of Built-in Memory

Still Image Capacity

Best Better Good
10M 6 9 12
7M 8 12 18
5M 12 18 25
3M 19 27 38
2M 26 38 54
0.7M 49 71 95
VGA 90 130 180

Video Capacity

Video Mode Record Time
640 (Best) 59 seconds
320 (Best) 231 seconds
Battery Type
D-LI8 Rechargeable Lithium-ion Battery
Power Adapter
D-AC8 AC Adaptor Kit (optional)
Input/Output
Computer Interface
USB 2.0 (Hi-Speed)
Direct Print Capable
Yes (PictBridge)
Remote Control
Remote Control E or F (optional)
Video Output
Yes (NTSC & PAL)
Web-Cam Capable
No
System & Software Requirements
Microsoft Windows Me, 2000, XP, Vista
Macintosh OS 9.2 or later; OS X (10.1 or later)
Display
Viewfinder
No
LCD Display
2.5" TFT color LCD (232,000 pixels) with Wide Angle viewing (160° horizontal and vertical)
Language Options
English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Turkish, Russian, Thai, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese
Playback Options
One image, index (9 thumbnails), magnification, image rotation, movie playback, sound playback, histogram, bright/dark indication, folder display, select & delete, calendar, slideshow, resize, trimming, image & sound copy, digital effects, movie edit, redeye reduction, voice memo, protect, DPOF, image recovery, start-up image, Magnification (up to 8x), Digital filters (Color Filters (B&W, Sepia, 8 color filters, Color extraction B&W with red/green/blue), fisheye filter, brightness filter, frame composite, my drawing, soft filter, illustration, special effect filter, slim), Movie edit (save as still image, divide movie, stitch movie, extract movie), Deleted images recovery function
Physical
Dimensions
2.1 x 3.5 x 0.9" (55 x 89 x 23mm)
Weight
4.4 oz. (125g) without battery

Pentax A30 Reviews

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