Cool New K-30 from Pentax

I had good luck recommending the 2010 Pentax K-r entry-level DSLR to people. A number of people I recommended them to actually bought one, which is a good thing right there, and all those who did buy them seemed to really like them—and, more importantly, do nice work with them.

But the K-r has been out of the catalog for some time now, and I'd been wondering what Pentax was up to.

The answer is the K-30—an entry-/mid-level DSLR with lots and lots of trickle-down technology. Add the legacy of the K-7's particuarly pleasing shape, and you've got a promising prospect for the $850 body-only retail asking price.

Here are a few of the basics: 16-MP, APS-C-sized CMOS sensor; 6 fps; 1/6000th top shutter speed; "state of the art" AF; weather-, dust-, and cold-resistant body for use with Pentax's WR (water-resistant) lenses; glass prism with 100% coverage; HD video recording; SR, for "shake reduction," Pentax's name for its IBIS (in-body image stabilization); and a soft rubber casing for a good grip.

Plus, I just like the way Pentaxes look.

It's interesting that, five or six years ago, entry-level DSLRs were more or less interchangeable—once you decided on that level, you could more or less choose your favorite brand name and get a reasonable example of the breed. Lately, there seems to be a lot more individuality in the various ranges. Some makers have split the categories into several models, others haven't. Sony gives you "SLT" pellicle mirrors, EVFs, and articulated viewing screens on cameras like its new A57; Nikon has lately gone with a whopping 24 MP with its new D3200; and Pentax has now gone with a relatively more upscale and sophisticated alternative, sort of mid-way between other brands' base and middle levels, that features IBIS and weatherproofing. Even the colors are different—Nikon's D3200 is available in red, where Pentax has chosen a sparkly metallic blue. (Also the customary Stormtrooper version in white.) (And Canon doesn't mess around with colors.)

Great care was taken with the weatherproofing on the K-30. John Carlson of Pentax Ricoh Imaging Americas Corporation (that's a mouthful) says, "No detail was overlooked when designing the dynamic new K-30 to be weather resistant. Every seam, every button, every hinge has been weather sealed for adventure-proof creative photography... photographers can stop worrying about weather conditions." It has 81 separate seals, and will work down to –10°F (–23°C).

Pentax might be Mazda to Canon and Nikon's Toyota and Honda, but with the K-30 it seems to be going its own way and providing an alternative that's both distinctively and usefully different.

Mike

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Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Comments

[Kevin Schoenmakers]

Canon do colored versions too - their 1100d is available in red if I'm not mistaken.

[t kawa]

I was wondering if you were going to get to this =) I like the WR body and have high hopes for the AF, because I have to use my ltd's somewhere! Now if I could just get pentax to make their entry level cameras smaller and lighter, I don't need a sturdy magnesium frame (or whatever it is) for a camera that'll be "too old" in 2 years. Disposable camera body for a disposable society!

[Cab Treadway]

Turns out Canon does mess around with color, just apparently not in the US. If you go to

http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras/slr_cameras/eos_rebel_t3_18_55mm_is_ii_kit#Overview

and hit the product overview flash presentation, the 360 Product View will show you the attractive Red, Gray, or Brown versions of the T3 along with the usual Black. Interestingly, the nameplate on the alternative color versions still says T3, which I had thought was nomenclature only used in the US (overseas calls it the 1100D, I believe), yet I can't see any actual product pages dedicated to any but the black version.

[Lars]

Review ASAP please :-)

[Andy Kowalczyk]

"Pentax might be Mazda to Canon and Nikon's Toyota and Honda"

I thought you were going to stick to cameras and stop this off-topic car talk? :)

Anyways, what does that make Olympus? Subaru?

[Doug Dolde]

Yawn another digicam

[Rob]

On looks alone, the K-30 is a killer--very sexy, but at the same time, rugged. Between this camera and the idiosyncratic K-01, Pentax have shown that they think styling counts, and they are right, but not if no one ever sees or handles the product. The extensive weatherproofing of the K-30 is consistent with Pentax's stated goal of appealing to outdoors types (or those who imagine themselves to be of that type). The specs are more than adequate for a mid-level DSLR, which is not saying much these days, as even entry level cameras are packed to the gills with features and megapixels.

There is no question that Pentax is delivering some interesting and well-built cameras. Their problem is getting people to notice.

[icexe]

I'm still wondering if I like the design or not. All the weird bends and mixture of textures kind of reminds me of a basketball shoe.

[Dennis]

I have to admit, I like the looks of this one. Make it in yellow or army green and it would look like it's supposed to be water proof. I suppose I'd get tired of its different styling after a couple years, but right now, it's one camera whose looks stand out and (unlike the K-01) in a good way.

[Bob]

Yes but this is the same old thing and pentax don't seem to have clocked that things have moved on,....I dumped my pentax DSLR and now do much better with my Sony NEX kit wich is cheaper, lighter, smaller, better designed, more useable AND can take any lens I choose to use. Pentax is well made stuff and i would go back but I want mirrorless, 23mm square sensor, remote v/f, attachable optical finder, thumbswitch for format change, weather sealed adaptors for ANY lens......

....STILL no pentax f2 moderate wide after 11 YEARS of making DSLR's!!!! A few 'bottle-cap' primes don't make a system.

[Paddy C]

I think the design of this is just great. Aggressive, sharp looking rig. Not at all blobby. Nicely done.

Alas, no full frame route and a lack of lens options ruled out Pentax for me. It's a shame because I love my P 67 and would like to have bought into a Pentax digital system.

It's hard for me not to view them as being out-of-step (not in a good way) with things.

[MarkB]

"I'm still wondering if I like the design or not. All the weird bends and mixture of textures kind of reminds me of a basketball shoe."
-icexe

To relate this camera to the recent discussion about "most beautiful cameras" I'd say that Pentax is actually trying to distinguish their weatherproof line of cameras by invoking the "Transformers" aesthetic, both in metallic colors and non-functional, "visual bling." See their Optio WG-2 waterproof compact:

[Nico Burns]

I've seen a lot of good stuff coming out of the smaller camera manufactures recently (e.g. not Canon or Nikon). It seems that with sensor technology maturing, and competitive image quality being readily available, there is more room for product differentiation and variation.

[Jonathan]

After my K10 I considered the K20/30/7/5. Instead I went with a 5D2 and never looked back. My Canon equipment is bigger, heavier, less refined and more expensive, but it solved my problems. I can get the lenses I want. I don't have to care about "roadmaps" or whether Pentax will be in business in 2 years. For me, these considerations outweigh the appeal of the innovative secondary brand, but to each his own.

[Doug Reilly]

I'm sure it's a capable camera. I've owned a K-X and a K7 and I rather liked them.

But I'm not grooving on the aesthetics. Looks like it was designed by Lamborghini, all those plane and sharp angles. Transformers is right! I think there was a version of the K-X that somebody slightly modified to look like Voltron. Anyway, I'll give Pentax props for not being afraid to be different. The rest are of the DSLRs are in a race to be the most amorphous blobs they can be. Still I'm more of a Porsche guy than a Lamborghini guy, I'll take curvy minimalism over technobrutalism.

[fred]

I know-beauty is in the eye of the beholder,but my eye says Pentax hired designers from Nike or Adidas or .....

[Steve G, Mendocino]

And, alone among the major manufacturers, Pentax/Ricoh uses DNG as it's RAW format - no waiting for a camera raw update to work in RAW. That rocks.

[Robert L.]

I serious evaluated if i could could trade item for item on my nikon gear for this; it's a brilliant little camera - the weatherproofing + image stabilization + teeny tiny little limiteds. Sigh. Oh well, mind reading flash system and lens selection ease the blow:)

[raizans]

someone at pentax likes water sports. they should make these in yellow/black!

[illdefined]

Affordable WR for SLRs is a wonderful market concept that only Pentax provides, and is imminently qualified for.

I've been concerned however with the mixed message Pentax is sending with its aggressive weather resistant marketing while bundling kits with the non-WR 18-55mm lens in the US.

At best, it could be considered misleading. At worst, it could go as far as being considered false advertising. The sub-$1000 market isn't used to the idiosyncrisies of WR SLRs.

[Miserere]

Mike, this isn't a K-r replacement, it's more of a K200D replacement, only better (dual e-dials, TAv and Sv modes...).

Makes me wonder what the K-5 replacement is going to be like to make it worth spending $1,600 for it vs $850 for the K-30.

Or maybe Pentax have simply lost their mind.

[Juan Buhler]

> Pentax might be Mazda to Canon and Nikon's Toyota and Honda...

Funny, I was making the *exact* same analogy to my girlfriend (a Canon user) the other day.

I think I picked Mazda for Pentax because of the Miata and the Limited lenses :)

[Burt]

too bad canon can't make such a definitive statement about the weather sealing on my new 5D for four times the price.

[Richard Tugwell]

You compare it to the K-7 and not the K-5. Which is interesting. I know a few people who are very interested in the AF improvements given that there still seems to be a lot of angst over the AF performance / reliability of the K-5 (check out Pentax Forums e.g) - I'm wondering how Pentax will approach an update to their top of the range model now that the K-30 has narrowed the gap?

[D]

Ugh, this is a great camera, feature wise, but it is not pretty. It looks like a space weapon from a video game. After the great looking K-5/7, Pentax has turned out some ugly cameras with this K-30 and the K-01.

[Zeeman]

I was wondering what you'd say about the K-30. To my eyes, it's a poster child for "spoiled by fake styleyness", quite the opposite of the no-nonsense K-5.

Looks aside, it appears to be a great camera. Would get one if I didn't already have a K-5. And it's nice to see Pentax reviving the weathersealed entry/mid-level camera.

[Mike Johnston]

"this isn't a K-r replacement, it's more of a K200D replacement"

Miserere,
I didn't mean to imply any exact correspondences. (It really doesn't interest me very much how well something fits some amorphous idea of this or that "level.") On the other hand, I do think the K-30 is at the moment Pentax's de facto entry-level DSLR (and hence will be its most generally recommendable DSLR while that remains true) in that there is no lower-cost DSLR currently available from them. That's why I called it "an entry-/mid-level DSLR."

Mike

[Mike Johnston]

"what does that make Olympus? Subaru?"

Andy,
Works for me.

Mike

[Shotslot]

Seriously, if Pentax did an affordable full-frame I'd dump my Canon kit in a flash. Pentax seem to offer so much more bang-per-buck and aren't afraid of pushing envelopes, to me, decent resistance to the elements is a must for a machine that costs so much and that I'm going to use in all conceivable weather conditions. I like the new K-30, and if I was shopping for a cropped-frame now I'd probably buy one.

[Iñaki]

Well, actually it is a bit of the very same situation that happened when the K200d was launched vs. the K10d, that it got everything of the then elder bigger sister bar the optical viewfinder quality [which I think it is quite the paralell to the current Polycarbonate body vs. Magnesium Alloy body].

And then, the K20d came on and trounced and separated itself from the K200d for quite some distance.

[Ben]

The only camera to have a built-in awning and a grip made out of old steering wheels. Man it's ugly. But in olive drab it would definitely work.

It's a good spec though and makes a lot more sense than Nikon squeezing 24 million pixels into an entry level camera. I wonder how the average D3200 buyer will cope with 24mp decompressed RAWs on their $400 laptop.

[Photoblossoms.wordpress.com]

Mike is right, it is Pentax entry-level DSLR. Nice to see Pentax doing again a feature-rich camera under 1000€. When I think of an upcoming Rebel, the D3200 from Nikon, the Sony Slt 37 the K-30 will be the only rugged camera with 100% Viewfinder and two dials. Needles to say that DSLR-Beginners always want to step up to a better Body, with the K-30 they don't need to. It's also packed with one of the best sensors on the market, too. If Ricoh is now spending lots of money, like canon, in marketing and ads I am sure this camera is shaking the entry-level tree with success. I am also sure that the K-5 replacement will feature some technology from the K-30, maybe with a swiveling screen.

[Ruby]

I already have a K-5 and am not looking to buy a new camera, but I can tell you that my 9-year-old daughter told me it's not blue enough, and my 17-year-old son disagreed, saying it is the right amount of blue. I'm nearly 44 and don't really care about colored cameras, but I can tell you that the young folks are attracted to this sort of thing (teenage males love that yellow K-01, in my experience), which would seem to make it a good strategy for attracting new young users who will become long-term customers.

[Manuel]

The Optio WG2 instantly sprung to my mind when I saw the first pictures of this camera. No doubt it is a very good camera, but Pentax does seem a bit lost when it comes to design. Anyway, if I had to choose between a K-01 and this, I'd get the latter - but only in black. (Pentax should take a lesson on Henry Ford's sarcasm on the Ford T's colour schemes: "any colour you like, as long as it is black...")

[Robert Roaldi]

Every year or two, Pentax does something that makes me regret selling all my K-mount prime lenses back in 2003-2004 because I gambled that Pentax was not going to do much in the digital realm. And then I wrote a note on here moaning about my stupid decision. I like my Oly 4/3s gear, but I think I would have liked this more. It's never good to make hasty decisions.

[Fajar]

The design concept and the look of this new Pentax reminds me a lot of the Casio G-Shock watches and probably to serve the same purposes.

[Emmanuel Huybrechts]

The styling looks like a lot of outdoor items. Pentax has made the right choice I think. WR is their key differentiator as they are the only brand offering low-price body and lens WR. And the K30 is a bit more encouraging than the weird experiences like the Q and the K-01. Now I'm still waiting for a worthy successor of my trusty K-5.

[Pak-Ming Wan]

This is interesting. The styling I find rather ... aggressive, to put it mildly (I don't like it, but I'm sure it's capable). It flies exactly in the opposite direction to say the K-01. And the K-5 is I suppose their classic-serious-work-tool camera. And the Q -- who knows who that was for!

So this leaves me wondering if ther segments aren't low, mid, high: but just specific and complementary segments altogether. If that's the direction, it's rather fresh thinking.

Pak

[Michael Barkowski]

Nice unique combo: low price/weight, grippy, with a large viewfinder (0.61x equivalent). Pentaxians should rejoice.

[Rob White]

I have a love/hate relationship with Pentax. On one hand, delightful primes and beautiful files when done right, as well as cameras that fit my (smallish) hands perfectly.
On the other hand, AF that simply SUCKS! If Pentax has solved their AF issues, I will go back to them from Nikon in a New York Minute.
If not, well DANG IT! Get it right, okay?

[Scotto]

I already bought into the Pentax system a few years ago for the weather sealing. The thing I like least about my k200d is looking through a viewfinder that's dim compared with my MX, ME or M3.

It's ugly for sure, but functionally so. It looks like it could be the one...

[Dennis Ng]

as this has ibis sr feature, i assume it can do astro tracking with o-gps

a very easy way to do astrophoto ....

[Gato]

Seems to me there is a lot here to like. The feature set that works for me, and (to me) this camera looks as if it would fit well in the hand. Maybe a bit more 'styled' than necessary, but overall pleasing.

Problem is it's a DSLR. I waited years for camera makers to lose the moving mirror and now that Sony, Olympus and Panasonic have found ways around it a new DSLR seems like a step backwards.

[Andre]

@illdefined

I'm quite certain that the K30 is bundled with the WR version of the 18-55mm kit lens; at least that's how B&H has it listed. It's apparently also available bundled with the 18-135mm WR or as a two lens kit with the 18-55mm WR and 50-200mm WR.

[Paris]

I kind of like the styling, if only because it's different from the current "carved-out-of-soap" standard.

I'd want to try this before buying, though. I had a K100 briefly, and the shutter sound was like shaking a shoebox full of broken glass.
Apparently Pentax save the nice shutter sound for the higher end.

[Mike Johnston]

"(Pentax should take a lesson on Henry Ford's sarcasm on the Ford T's colour schemes: 'any colour you like, as long as it is black...')"

But don't forget Model T's were originally available in colors. The black-only color scheme that inspired that quote was actually an innovation, adopted as part of old Henry's relentless drive to cut costs to the absolute minimum--the black paint dried more quickly, IIRC.

Mike

[Will Frostmill]

I'm not sure I have a reason to use a modern DSLR, now that I have an E-PL1.* But if I was going to be doing any amount of messing about on boats, particularly out here on the Chesapeake bay, I'd love to have something like this. Image Stabilization, a weather sealed two zoom kit: if I sailed I'd buy two, one for each zoom, and they'd always be in the boat. And there is no question that the folks who can pay for boats (and fuel, or new sails, or docking fees, anti fouling paint, club memberships, insurance, etc) can definitely afford to buy these kits as many times as they have too.

My point being that Pentax knows that the DSLR enthusiast market is shrinking, and they want to capture a wealthy, decisive segment that is interested in cameras, not photo forum spec comparison contests. After all, the only thing better than a camera collector that buys and resells one of everything you make, is someone who uses them up by dropping them off a cliff/into the ocean/glacier/volcano etc. No worries about the reseller market there.

Are any of Sony's SLTs weather resistant?

*I might have a reason to get one for portraiture, but that makes up a very small percentage of my usual work, and while the Pen is nice, I'd still like more fuzziness in the near background. Since I already have a nice Minolta A mount 50mm, I might as well get an old model Sony, or a refurbed A55.

[Sam]

You can get Red Rebel Cameras at the Canon online store.

http://shop.usa.canon.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_10051_10051_275683_-1?utm_source=google&utm_medium=Product_Search&utm_campaign=Google_Product_Feed

[Eolake Stobblehouse]

It's a pity they pulled the K-r so soon, it's a very admirable camera. (As is the K-5 and was the K-x.)

[Dennis Ng]

@will sony a77 and its kit lens 16-50 f2.8 is weather sealed. I walked in the rain with itvfrom time to time. Another lens rumourr to come out next year 70-400 is also. Not sure other lens. Pentax k30 is much cheaper.

btw a comparsion of k30 vs k5 which is readable here:
http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-k-5/186886-k5-vs-k30-3.html

[illdefined]

@Andre

Apparently B&H itself isn't quite sure yet what it's offering. The pictures and listings of their kits have been all messed up since the K30's launch and the official word has gone back and forth.

If it is indeed the 18-55mm WR, it would be quite an exclusive for them as other big retailers Adorama and Amazon only have the 18-55mm DA-L kit at that same price.

Either way, there's been considerable confusion already and I fear for the newcomers who have pre-ordered or buy a kit expecting a WR system when it's not.

[Will Frostmill]

Thanks Dennis, yes that is a bit of a price difference!

[illdefined]

Looks like B&H confirmed they are not selling an 18-55mm WR bundle after all and have changed their listing. Hope they've effectively communicated this to all their pre-orderers, especially the ones planning any trips to anywhere with a rainy season...

[Gaspar Heurtley]

I'm in love with a machine. Harrison Ford and I have something in common, finally!