Pentax Optio W30

Reviewed June 2007

Test Photos

STILL LIFE

This subject is photographed in a room that has a mix of fluorescent and incandescent light, but which is not brightly lit. The camera's flash is used to add fill light. The backdrop is 1.95 m (6.5 ft) from the camera.

Set to 64 ISO — the sensitivity with the least noise — and using the flash, a subject such as this that is already reasonably well-lit and relatively close yields an image that is at the limit of what is acceptable in terms of brightness since some light falloff is detectable in the corners of the frame.

The image sharpness is average, the compression — 8.7:1 for this image — appears to soften some details when the image is inspected at 100%.

ZOOM PHOTO

Now we zoom in on the on the centre of the image above to gauge the sharpness of the image at the zoom's maximum setting. The camera remains at the same distance as in the preceding photo.

At the telephoto end of the zoom, the maximum aperture available to the camera decreases a bit more, and images captured at 64 ISO are too dark, forcing an increase in sensitivity to 100 ISO. In this case, the alternative of using Auto ISO is not preferable as the camera — whether at the wide angle end or the telephoto end — increases the sensitivity to 400 ISO, introducing noise into the image.

When set to the Macro mode, the Optio W30 can focus on a subject 1 cm (0.39 inch) from the front element of the lens. At this distance the flash cannot be used, and the subject must be, somehow, well-lit to yield an acceptable image, and yields a field of view of approximately 1.5 cm (0.58 inch) with very little distortion.

The hatchling in the photo shown here, however, is photographed from a distance of 15 cm (5.85 inches), allowing the use of the flash.

BUILDING PHOTO

This image is our "outdoor" test. The architecture of the building, in particular the angled girders, immediately show the presence of jaggies. The shadowed entrance can also often reveal the quality of the exposure.

While the default multi-segment metering of the W30 captures a perfectly exposed image, a little bit of marbling can be detected in the blue sky, possibly the result of the image processing and of the comparatively strong compression (8.7:1 for this image).

The image also reveals that there is no serious chromatic aberration, but that the overall image sharpness is a touch soft.

ZOOM PHOTO

Zooming in on the entrance of the building, the shadowed entrance takes on a greater importance for the metering and can cause an overexposure of sections that are directly lit.

At the telephoto end of the zoom, the camera's auto white balance yields colours that are completely consistent with those of the wide angle shot. Similarly, the metering produces an excellent exposure.

The sharpness and detail in the image is, however, not as great as we could expect, probably a result of the compression.

NIGHT PHOTO

As this camera is capable of a long exposure, a photo taken at night is included.

The maximum exposure time of the W30, 4 seconds, is only available when the camera is set to the Night Scene mode or the Fireworks mode. Unlike the Fireworks mode, however, the Night Scene mode provides for user-control over the colour balance, and the ISO sensitivity, making it more suitable for night shots.

At the lowest ISO sensitivities, up to 200 ISO, this subject is too dark to yield images that show any detail, and only from 400 ISO onwards do images start to be brighter than what can be seen with the unaided eye.

Starting at 400 ISO, noise becomes easily visible in the images, and at levels from 800 and up, even after noise processing, noise is omnipresent. Still, the 400 ISO sensitivity yields an image that contains enough detail to be interesting, and which, if reduced in size or printed out to a 4x6 (10x15 cm) size, does not show too much noise.