The W30, like most current point-and-shoots of this size, doesn’t have an electronic viewfinder.

 

The 2.5” TFT LCD dominates the back of this small, slim camera. The special anti-refraction coating covers the LCD screen, which supposedly increases its angle of view (according to the booth rep). This seemed to hold true for the side-to-side angle that had nearly a 180-degree view, but the top to bottom angle was poor, with barely an estimated 90-degree view. This and the poor pixel count was something Pentax should improve, especially since they’re gearing the camera toward sports enthusiasts. In addition, sharpness could definitely be improved upon, as well as color saturation.

In standard viewing, the screen appears dark until the shutter is depressed, probably a power-saving function but awkward nonetheless. Contrast, brightness, and even sharpness are adjustable, and the highest settings of all these seemed the best for the poor conditions of the show floor.

 

Although the flash’s position on the upper right of the camera’s front is typical for a point-and-shoot, in this small model, it poses problems. In many test shots, unless the camera can be held in the right hand only, fingers easily slipped in front of the flash.

There are a good range of flash settings, including Auto, Off, On, Auto and Red eye, On and Red Eye, and Soft, a reduced power option. The flash range was pretty poor, only 11.8 feet at wide-angle view and 9.8 feet at telephoto view.

 

The 6.3-18.9mm Pentax lens (equivalent to 38-114mm in 35mm camera lenses) on the W30 is a non-telescoping lens that does not extend out from the camera body, an advantage for the camera to remain compact. However, the trade-off comes in the camera’s extremely narrow aperture range, f/3.3 to f/4.0. Don’t expect to take stunning landscapes with this baby. The lens was also slow to respond to the zoom function, which is controlled by the toggle switch at the top back of the camera, though this could potentially be improved on the production model. A nice feature that Pentax incorporates is the Digital Shake Reduction mode, which increases the ISO to 3200 to reduce subject blur in low light. These features, upgrades from the W20 released last year, would be a particularly helpful feature for underwater photography.