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As a photojournalist, I've
always been a writer who photographs rather than a photographer
who writes. My penchant for not wanting to carry a Sherpa-sized
gadget bag full of gear has created a love for small cameras
that can accompany the writer in me at all times.
In shooting mode, the Optio's
tiny 37-111mm (equiv.) f:2.6 lens pokes out about 1-1/2 inches.
Over the years, I've owned a
Minox, an Olympus Pen F, several 16mm subminis, a Rollei 35, an
Olympus XA, a Nikon 35T and a Canon Elph. But conventional
cameras have always been limited by their film containers in
achieving the smallest size.
And print quality is
dependent in great part on the film size and sensitivity.
Viewed from the rear, the
little Optio shows a full back of controls. Flash modes,
self-timer and macro are controlled by separate buttons. The
menu is remarkably bright.
When I switched to digital
four years ago, I continued to go smallish, buying a Nikon 950
as my personal camera. I have tested and reviewed dozens of
digital cameras, always keeping an eye peeled for the tiniest
ones.
Canon was the leader with its
Digital Elph but before I got to test it, Pentax had come along
with an amazing device in the Optio 430.
Detail in our outdoor shot
compares favorably with results from other, much bigger 4
megapixels cameras.
Now, making a digital camera
small is a simple matter of squeezing the lens and other odd
bits needed around the medium, in this case, a CF card. And
Olympus has done that with flair in the Optio 430.
This watchfob jewel is a 4
megapixel camera with all the bells and whistles of its bigger
brethren. (Note: Pentax also offers the 3.2 mp Optio 330 at $100
less).
Limitations are very few: a
CCD sensitivity of Auto and only ISO equivalents of 100 and 200
seems to be the most severe. All full list of the Optio's
features can be found at
http://www.pentax.com/products/cameras/camera_overview.cfm?productID=18053
Optio's macro mode offers
sharp detail in this view of an English postal scale, one of my
favorite test subjects.
However, among its multitude
of features, there are two that I believe are unique to prosumer
digital cameras of any size.
The first is a multiple
exposure mode, allowing the user to put two (or more?) exposures
on a single image frame. I can think of all sorts of uses for
this.
The second is just cute: an
alarm clock that allows you to wake with the image of a loved
one every morning. Awwwww! Argh! Just when I thought Pentax had
come up with a serious camera.
The camera comes with a very
skinny rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery and charger. What using
the alarm clock does to battery life remains to be seen.
The Optio 430 has a street
price of $799. It's too small to hide under the tree but a
perfect stocking stuffer. |