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For the opportunity Pentax K-30 review Many thanks to Oleg Ilesk.

Pentax K30 review

The Pentax K30 is a good amateur camera. First of all, the camera is interesting simply for its enormous capabilities, such as video shooting, good dynamic range, moisture protection, and a strong waterproof case. If you are looking for an inexpensive good SLR camera, then the Pentax K30 will be an excellent option. To be honest, I was just amazed at the capabilities of the hobbyist Pentax K30. In this review, all sample photos were taken with a lens. SMC Pentax-DA 1: 3.5-5.6 18-55mm AL WRthat comes with the camera.

Pentax K-30 sample photo

The main things to pay attention to in the Pentax K30:

1. The Pentax K30 camera housing is waterproof. This is a very nice plus in the Pentax gradebook. This not only allows you to shoot in fine rain, but also indicates a good design in general.
2. Pentax-K30 16.1 MP and CMOS matrix. You can find information about 16.3 and 16.5 megapixels. 16.3 is effective pixels and 16.5 is total pixels on camera. But the camera itself produces images of 4928 by 3264 pixels, which is equal to 16.1 MP. This is a good indicator, however, megapixels are not always so important, you can see for yourself in the section Battle of Megapixels. It is very important that the Pentax K30 uses a matrix from a professional Pentax K-5.
   

   Pentax K-30 sample photo

3. Pentax K30 has an ISO range of 100 to 12,800 and can expand its range to 25,600... Believe me, even 12,800 is just an excellent figure for a crop APS-C camera. My full frame Nikon D700 and it has an ISO range from 200 to 6400. The noise level at high ISO is very similar, in my opinion, to the noise level of the camera Nikon D5100.
4. The Pentax K30 has a marvelous three-inch, 920,000-dot LCD display. View photos and poke around the menu is very convenient.
   

   Pentax K-30 sample photo

5. Good viewfinder with 100% coated frame and an increase of 0.92X. This is really a very good indicator. 100% coverage means that everything that is visible in the optical viewfinder will be in the picture. This indicator is very important for me.
6. Pentax K-30 uses 11-point focus systemmoreover, 9 focus points are cruciform. The speed and accuracy of focusing very much depends on the lens and shooting conditions. The camera can set shooting priorities for modes and AF-S, AF-C. For example, you can set burst priority or focus priority. This is very important and useful, given that the camera has fast continuous shooting.
   

   Pentax K-30 sample photo

7. Great frame buffer: Pentax K-30 can buffer up to 8 frames in RAW format and up to 30 in jpeg format. Frame buffer – this is one of the most important things when shooting a series. RAW files have a DNG (Digital NeGative) extension and weigh from 10 to 25 MB. The camera uses memory cards SD, SDHC, SDXC. I used the camera with a 32GB SDHC class 10 card without any problems. The camera only encodes 12bit RAW file.
8. The shooting speed is as much as 6 frames per second. This is just awesome speed for an amateur camera. Only advanced amateur and professional cameras can boast of such fast burst shooting.
   

   Pentax K 30 sample photo

9. The Pentax K-30's battery is pretty weak, withstands up to about 500 shots. The number of shots that the camera can take depends very much on the shooting conditions, lens, and method of working with the camera. But Pentax K-30 can use ordinary AA batteries
10. The Pentax K-30 camera has a very well thought out live view. The mode has the function of highlighting the contours of objects when focusing, which helps to sight through the camera display without any problems.
    

    Pentax K 30 sample photo

11. Of course, the Pentax K-30 can shoot 1080p HD video up to 30 fps in MOV format. You can shoot in 720p at a speed of 60 fps. Also, basic settings for video are available. When shooting video, auto focus works.
12. The camera menu is quite large, divided into logical sections. The menu is easy to use. In the menu you can find a huge number of useful settings.
    

    Pentax K 30 sample photo

13. Pentax K-30 works great with manual optics, the camera measures exposure and confirms focus with manual lenses. You can safely use Soviet lenses and any other old high-quality manual focus optics.
14. Pentax K-30 has built-in image stabilizer. This means that with any lens, the camera will perform the function of suppressing hand shake. This is a very useful feature, with the stabilizer you can take off at relatively slow shutter speeds.
    

    Pentax K 30 sample photo

15. An interesting fact is that the Pentax K-30 supports alignment of optics. This means that if some lens has a back or front focus, then the camera can be adjusted to compensate for the lack of a lens.
16. Pentax K-30 uses shutter speed from 30s to 1 \ 6000. Of course, 1 \ 6000 is not standard excerpt 1 \ 8000 on professional cameras, but still very good.
    

    Pentax K 30 sample photo

17. The camera supports interval shooting. There are GPS connectors on the camera body, etc.
18. Of course, the Pentax K-30 is equipped with a screwdriver - a built-in focus motor, which allows the camera to be used with a wide range of older non-motorized autofocus lenses.

Pentax K-30 sample photo

Personal experience

The direct competitor of Pentax K-30 is Nikon D5100. I must admit that the Pentax K-30 is much better Nikon D5100 in management and feature set. I really liked the Pentax K-30 features such as:

• Ability to delete only RAW or JPEG images if shooting in RAW + JPEG
• Setting up several function keys to the desired functions
• Virtual horizonwhich has a vertical and horizontal tilt scale
• bar chart in live view and when shooting video
• A simple video editor
• Auto ISO, which takes into account lens parameters and adjusts shutter speed
• automatic distortion correction
• Automatic chromatic aberration correction
• HDR function for creating unusual shots with a large dynamic range
• Almost every function has a lot of additional settings, which allows you to very well and accurately configure the camera for any shooting conditions
• Pentax K-30 supports remote control
• Pentax K-30 has the classic noise reduction functions at slow shutter speeds and high ISO, you can adjust the noise reduction
• Pentax K-30 has an unusual green backlight auto focus
• Pentax K-30 is available in several body colors.
• Metal-based polycarbonate housing, which makes the camera very durable
• Pentax K-30 can mask dead pixels, which over time becomes very relevant
• The camera has an excellent dust removal system. Matrix cleaning function it is configured to turn the camera on or off, and cleaning can also be performed forcibly. When cleaning occurs, something feels in the hands that the camera is shaking
• In the menu, you can adjust the font size, the color of the navigation elements (adjust to the color of the case), you can configure (calibrate) the display
• There is even a wonderful autofocus trap function

Pentax K 30 sample photo

Pentax K-30 uses a matrix that Sony produces, the same matrix is ​​available in cameras

• Nikon D5100
• Nikon D7000
• Pentax K-5
• Pentax K-01
• Sony a580
• Sony A55
• Sony NEX-5N

The only thing that remains a mystery to me is how to turn off the display when the camera is on. When you turn on the camera, with the shutter button not pressed halfway, the display with shooting information always lights up. A minor drawback of the camera is the delay at startup and the fact that the camera does not show the picture until it is written to the memory card. Also, there is no booster for the Pentax K 30.

Pentax K-30 sample photo

Prices for modern Pentax cameras in popular stores can look at this link.

In comments Can I ask you a question on the topic and you will answer, and you can also express your opinion or describe your experience. Many little things for a photo can be found on AliExpress.

Pentax K-30 - great camera... Most likely, Pentax K-30 - one of the best amateur crop cameras for 2012. I recommend.

Material prepared Arkady Shapoval.