Pentax Optio S30 - thoughts?

"Wapenga" wrote in message
om...
Hi

I'm looking to get a very small and cheapish digital just for
snapshots and carrying around in my pocket for any opportunities.

I like the Powershot A75 but it's too big for such uses.

Good prices on the Pentax Optio S30 here in the UK right now. About
130 pounds.

Is it a good 'un? What are the manual exposure control options like?

My brother has an Optio S and it's perfectly sized. But I hear the S30
is very slow between shots.

Dunno about the Optio S30; here in the U.S. it appears to be a discontinued
model (S40 and S50 are the current models). I have the Optio S4i and it is
noticeably slow at processing the shot at maximum resolution and highest
quality. At standard quality it's somewhat faster of course, still takes
maybe two or three seconds. There's also a continuous shooting mode, looks
like about one second per shot (max res, standard quality), though I never
actually timed any of these. Not an issue for me in any case. I would guess
that the S30 and all S series models would be fairly similar as far as
processing speed is concerned.

N.



All help much appreciated.

Cheers

Paul

The Optio 30 (I don't know about the S) is also a bit slow even in cts mode.
It doesn't seem to cache images and writes them directly. The mode that does
4 frames in one shot is much faster but you get reduced size of each
individual shot and the resolution is also limited.

"Nostrobino" wrote in message
om...

"Wapenga" wrote in message
om...
Hi

I'm looking to get a very small and cheapish digital just for
snapshots and carrying around in my pocket for any opportunities.

I like the Powershot A75 but it's too big for such uses.

Good prices on the Pentax Optio S30 here in the UK right now. About
130 pounds.

Is it a good 'un? What are the manual exposure control options like?

My brother has an Optio S and it's perfectly sized. But I hear the S30
is very slow between shots.

Dunno about the Optio S30; here in the U.S. it appears to be a
discontinued model (S40 and S50 are the current models). I have the Optio
S4i and it is noticeably slow at processing the shot at maximum resolution
and highest quality. At standard quality it's somewhat faster of course,
still takes maybe two or three seconds. There's also a continuous shooting
mode, looks like about one second per shot (max res, standard quality),
though I never actually timed any of these. Not an issue for me in any
case. I would guess that the S30 and all S series models would be fairly
similar as far as processing speed is concerned.

N.



All help much appreciated.

Cheers

Paul