Pentax K-30 Digital Camera Review

Automatic Features

As all DSLRs do, the Pentax K-30 comes with a full automatic mode for those who just want dead simple operation with as little fuss as possible. The camera also will automatically determine exposure in most other modes, including the camera's many scene modes. While most DSLRs include five or six scene modes, the K-30 includes 19 such modes, letting the user find an option that will work in some of the more difficult lighting conditions you may face.

Buttons & Dials

The K-30, despite its more angular body design, features a button layout that is very similar to past Pentax models. The K-30 features dual control dials—one on the grip and one on the back of the camera—along with a physical mode dial. The back of the camera has a four-way control pad with an OK button, with a customizable RAW/Fx button, Live View activation button, and info and menu buttons scattered around the body.

Effects, Filters, and Scene Modes

The Pentax K-30 offers the kind of effects you'd typically see on a point-and-shoot camera rather than a DSLR. In addition to a full suite of 19 scene modes, the K-30 includes seven digital filters (such as extract color), an adjustable HDR mode, several custom image presets (color modes), and options to correct for performance, such as distortion and chromatic aberration correction.

Menu

The menu on the Pentax K-30 is the same as we've seen on other Pentax cameras: a series of tabs aligned into groups horizontally along the top portion of the screen. Each tab is a single page of options, and a flick of the rear control dial moves between tabs. This makes it easy to navigate through the entire menu quickly, similar to how Canon and Samsung design their systems.

The Pentax menu includes groups of tabs for shooting settings, playback, setup, and custom. The custom settings include some of the more obscure settings that you might want to activate. Some of these are really out there, such as the option extend ISO to its maximum of 25600. Other options are less likely to matter to most users, such as whether in bulb mode the shutter is held open while the shutter button is being held, or whether it just takes a push to open it and another push to close it.