The Pentax Optio W30

Graeme from Ian A Little’s, the distributors of Pentax in New Zealand recently provided a Pentax Optio W30 to test on the water but inclement wintry weather provided limited opportunities to put the camera through it’s paces on the water.

A bit of rain wouldn’t have bothered the Pentax however as it’s waterproof and the cold doesn’t seem to bother it unlike we mere mortals.

A kayak trip to the Coromandel in the middle of August was in the diary and the forecast was reasonable so we stuck to the plan.  We had an evening fish at Hahei and the following morning over the other side at Matapua Bay where we’d heard there were some big snapper and hopefully a great opportunity to put the camera through it’s paces.

I can sum the camera up in two words – simply brilliant!  I’ve been kayak fishing for about 12 months and never been game to take my 8 megapix Canon EOS with me. That’s meant some great stories and good shots of fish after the day but no action shots out there while you’re doing it.

That’s where the entax Optio W30 delivers. The pictures tell the story!

There’s the hang your arm over the side and take the pic. Nice

Shane cleaning up on those Nuclear Chicken softbaits – Well done!

Bruce McGill and a nice 2.5kg snapper

And there’s the underwater shot which gives a whole new dimension to catch and release. It just doesn’t feel right putting a perfectly good camera underwater to take the shot and my mind was on keeping out of the water myself while trying to hold a very lively trevally on the leader and get a shot with the other… anyhow I’m sure you get the picture and with a little practice ‘catch and release’ takes on a whole new dimension.

Above

Underwater shot

The second morning was a bit wet, but we weren’t going home and the Pentax Optio W30 captured the moment.

In summary the Pentax Optio W30is now an integral part of the fishing kit, simple as that. It’s the ideal fishing companion regardless of what kind of fishing or outdoors activity you’re involved in. It’s simple to use and takes a very good shot and the best bit is it’s waterproof and dustproof. The image stabilising software will decrease the quality of the shot if there’s a lot of movement, but unless you’re looking for a magazine cover shot it’s hardly going to be an issue.

Key Specifications:

The Pentax Optio W30 also features a 7.1 megapixel sensor, 3x optical zoom lens (38-114mm) and a digital Shake Reduction mode for both still pictures and video.

The Optio W30 is also equipped with Ultra-fast 9-Point Autofocus and has a great feature called Tracking AF. This technology is particularly effective at preventing “dropout” photos, where the camera focuses on the background and not on the subject. It automatically corrects the exposure so faces are correctly exposed even in difficult back-lighting situations which makes for much better pictures of the catch and angler or in this case the side of the kayak.

Buy the Optio W30 online at Camera and Camera