Pentax K-30 review

Pentax has produced a string of superb consumer SLRs in recent years, and the K-30 raises the bar yet again. Its price puts it in direct competition with the Canon EOS 650D, but various features position it closer to more expensive cameras such as the Canon EOS 60D.

The viewfinder uses a pentaprism rather than a pentamirror for a brighter view, and the 0.92x magnification and 100 per cent field of view are bigger than any other optical viewfinder at this price. It’s hard to exaggerate how much of a difference this makes – it’s like upgrading from a 19in to a 24in monitor. That’s us pretty much sold already, but it gets better.

These images were shot through the optical viewfinders of the Pentax K-30 and Sony A550, and demonstrate how much bigger the K-30’s viewfinder really is

There are dual command dials on the front and back for direct access to shutter speed and aperture controls. An electronic spirit level is built in, with feedback appearing either on the screen or through the viewfinder window. As with all of Pentax’s SLRs, optical stabilisation is built into the sensor, so it’s available regardless of which lens is used. The most surprising feature is a weather-resistant body, and the 18-55mm AL WR lens we tested is weather-resistant too (make sure you get this kit lens, as it’s only £20 more than the standard model without the WR suffix). This is an extremely useful feature that’s never been available before on an SLR at this price.

It lacks a passive LCD screen for displaying shooting settings, which is common on upmarket SLRs such as the 60D. It also lacks an articulated screen, which various other £600 SLRs have. Still, this helps to keep the bulk down. The lack of an HDMI port is less excusable, and the 410-shot battery life from its slim lithium ion battery is well below average. It can run off four AA batteries with the help of the optional battery holder (part number D-BH109, £30 inc VAT). You may as well buy a spare lithium ion battery for £45.

This is a striking camera, especially in the metallic blue finish we were sent for testing. The viewfinder hump and pop-up flash protrude to a sharp edge at the front. If we were feeling kind, we’d describe its appearance as sporty. On other days, we’d call it ugly. It’s extremely comfortable to hold, though, with a substantial moulded handgrip and a contoured back for the thumb to rest on. The viewfinder only protrudes a few millimetres from the back of the camera, and we found it difficult to press an eye close enough to cut out light in our peripheral vision. Meanwhile, the SD compartment door made it a little tricky to grasp cards to remove them.

The controls are a triumph. We appreciate having dual command dials in manual mode, but they really excel in program mode. Here, adjusting the front command dial instantly takes the camera into aperture-priority mode, while adjusting the rear dial switches to shutter-priority. Pressing the green button beside the shutter release returns to program mode. It’s simple and brilliant, and a massive improvement on the less prescriptive program shift concept. It’s also really useful to be able to switch to priority modes directly from the current exposure settings rather than the last-used manual settings.

The other controls are as good as we’ve seen at this price. There aren’t a huge number of buttons but Pentax has made the most of them, combining self-timer, continuous shooting and exposure bracketing into single drive mode button, for example. We particularly like how pressing ISO gives access not just to the manual ISO setting but also to the upper and lower values of the Auto ISO mode. It takes about a second to change this, whereas it can take up to ten seconds on Canon and Nikon’s SLRs. HDR options are buried in the menu but the scene presets offer an alternative, quicker route to HDR shooting. We also really like the ability to shoot JPEGs but retrospectively save the last shot as a RAW image too. The lack of a depth-of-field preview button might frustrate some people, though.

It’s a little slow to switch on, taking 1.5 seconds to its first shot, but the K-30 raced through our other performance tests. It took 0.35 seconds between shots in normal use, or 2.3 seconds with the flash set to full power. Continuous mode ran at 5.7fps for 48 frames before slowing to 3fps. That’s comfortably the fastest performance we’ve seen from an SLR at this price. It fell to 4.9fps when we enabled continuous autofocus, but that’s still extremely competitive.

These results were only possible when lens distortion correction was disabled, though. With it enabled, the camera slowed to around 1fps after just six frames. Enabling chromatic aberration (CA) correction didn’t hamper performance, though. We can live with distortions but chromatic aberrations are much more annoying, so we’d happily leave the camera on these settings to exploit its top speeds. The Canon 650D demands that users make a tougher choice, with CA correction decimating continuous performance.

The K-30 is also much quicker than most SLRs at focusing in live view mode. Using the viewfinder and the 11-point phase-detect autofocus system is still by far the quickest way to shoot, but whereas most SLRs’ live view modes are virtually useless, this one is quick enough to use when the situation demands it.

The JPEGs look pretty good, but processing raw files (in this case using Photoshop Elements) shows what this camera is really capable of – click to enlarge

Videos are captured at 1080p at a choice of 24, 25 or 30fps. AVC compression gives clip lengths of up to 20 minutes (at 25fps) before the 4GB file limit stops play, but the camera shows a countdown so you know when it’s coming. Picture quality was good rather than excellent, with less detail than we’ve seen from other SLRs’ 1080p videos, plus the usual problems with moiré interference. Program, aperture-priority and manual exposure modes are available, but autofocus stops working as soon as recording commences. The screen’s sharp 921,000-dot resolution helps with manual focus, though, and there’s no need to switch to manual focus before adjusting – the focus ring is always operable. The zoom ring has a smooth action that’s particularly welcome for video capture, too. Our biggest concern with videos is that soundtracks were accompanied by a rhythmic chattering noise. With no microphone input, there’s no way to avoid this except by using a stand-alone audio recorder and syncing the picture and audio manually in editing software.

Skin tones are a tough test for noise levels, but the K-30 performs well in this ISO 1600 shot – click to enlarge

It’s rare that we see an SLR that struggles for photo quality, and the K-30 certainly had no such problems. Colours were lifelike and details were crisp into the corners of frames with the kit lens. The Canon 650D delivered slightly sharper details on default settings, but there was barely anything in it. The difference was much greater when comparing the X-30’s JPEGs to its raw output – processing raw files in Adobe Photoshop Elements or Lightroom revealed a lot more detail in fine textures. Still, this could be said of any SLR. Noise levels were impressively low, and level pegging with the 650D for raw output. Comparing JPEGs, the Pentax’s high-ISO shots were a little more grainy but had less multi-coloured blotches.

There’s a fair amount of grain by ISO 3200 but less blotchiness than in rival cameras – click to enlarge

This isn’t the best SLR for video, but for photography it’s almost impossible to fault. It has the biggest viewfinder, the fastest performance and the best controls at this price, and image quality is up there with the best. Weather sealing sweetens the deal even further, and makes it easy to overlook the quirky appearance. We’d gladly have these features rather than an HDMI port and longer battery life. It’s a resounding Best Buy.