Pentax Optio 430

Pentax ups the resolution with its new digital camera.

The Optio 430 is the size of a deck of cards, weighs in at a mere 240g, looks divine with its sleek brushed stainless steel case, and takes remarkable photographs.

This model is all-but identical to its predecessor, the Optio 330, the difference being a top resolution of up to 2240 x 1680. For everyday snaps, the middle setting of 1120 x 840 is perfectly adequate, and even the lowest resolution, 640 x 480, produces acceptable results.

There are three levels of image compression available, which means you can choose to sacrifice picture quality to a degree by reducing the size of the resulting image files which are saved in JPEG format. Since the supplied 16Mb CompactFlash memory card can only store five uncompressed pictures taken at maximum resolution, compared with a whopping 200 fully compressed pictures taken at 640 x 480, the attraction of compromise is clear.

We found the optical viewfinder a little too small for comfort but the 4cm colour screen on the back of the camera is pin-sharp. The Optio 430 has a 3x zoom lens which is just fine for everyday use.

Settings include autofocus, options to adjust the white balance and ISO speed, and configurations for taking optimal photos, including night-scene mode, manual exposure and continuous shooting. You can even film 30-second video clips at 320 x 240 resolution.

The camera comes with a rechargeable battery - which ran out of juice in under two hours in our flash photography tests - and can be easily connected to a computer via the supplied USB cable or to any television equipped with a video-in port.

On a PC or Mac, the bundled software makes the camera look and behave just like an external disk drive, so transferring images from the memory card is as easy as dragging and dropping.

Contact

Pentax: 01753 792731 www.pentax.co.uk