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Doug Harman is the author of the bestselling Digital Photography Handbook and one of Britain's leading reviewers of digital cameras. Here he picks five of the very best
Click to view Top 5 Digital Cameras.
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Best Quality Budget (Pentax Optio A30) |
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 If you want a pocketable, high-resolution snapper for almost any occasion, the Pentax Optio A30 fits the bill. Its 10-megapixel sensor bags heaps of detail via a great 3x optical zoom lens while a superb feature set includes three types of anti-shake and Face Priority auto-focus - ideal when the party is in full swing.
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Pentax’s neatly designed and well-built all-metal A30 has a couple of neat tricks up its digital sleeve that make it an ideal snapping machine. A 10-megapixel sensor means the level of detail captured is very good indeed while a new image processor ensures digital noise - those little speckles where the pixels are misinterpreted - in images is kept to a minimum.
While many cameras boast anti-shake systems to cut the blur caused by camera shake, the Pentax A30 has no less than three systems in place. First a proprietary CCD-shift system moves the sensor around to compensate for any shakiness you might have, say after a heavy night’s drinking. But if it’s a very bad hangover, the Pentax A30 goes even further. It has a special high-sensitivity setting of ISO 1600 to keep faster shutter speeds at your disposal to reduce subject blur caused by their movement as well. And finally, the anti-shake can be rolled out to the excellent movie mode where it uses special built-in software to reduce the effects of a hangover. No sorry, I mean camera shake!
The camera has a svelte all-metal body capable of looking good at all times but still protecting the innards from the vagaries of a night down the pub - though it’s worth remembering it’s not beer proof!
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Keep Faces In Focus |
 A large, 2.5-inch, colour screen is both clear and great to use; menus and playback functions are displayed well with simple to use and understand options. Snapping features include a neat green mode, which is simply an all-auto setting. Better than that, and even cleverer, is an Auto Picture mode that can detect the type of scene you’re snapping and will automatically pick the correct scene mode for it. It has a further 15-scene modes at its disposal including night-scene, portrait and landscape modes.
But what really makes this a top snapper is the cool face “recognition” system or more properly, Face Priority AF. Here the camera can recognise a face in a scene and track it to keep it sharp; even if you (or the face) move, it keeps on following it around the frame. This ensures that the people in a picture are always sharp, not the flock wallpaper behind! |
Great Reviews |
 Okay so it has features and spec to die for, but don’t take my word for it. The website ephotozine.com writes of the A30: “…the Pentax Optio represents good value for money due to the combination of great image quality, combined with an effective camera shake reduction system. The SMC zoom lens fitted to the A20/30 is the perfect compliment for the high resolution 10-megapixel sensor, which yields great results at most ISO sensitivities when compared to cameras of equal specification … Those looking for a simple yet well-specified compact digital camera will definitely wish to add this camera to their wish list, especially if large prints are to be produced.” |
Minor Niggles |
There are a couple of minor problems with the A30. The large screen lacks an anti-reflective coating and there are modest manual options for controlling the aperture settings in manual mode, but these niggles aside, it’s a cracker.
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For an explanation of technical photographic terms click here
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