Pentax Optio 330GS

I bought Pentax Optio 330GS as a do anything cheapish first digital camera for taking quality shots of a newborn amongst other things. So far it has been excellent. I'm not particular technical so was pleased to be able to understand the features and found they were simple to use in the right conditions. I am extremely pleased with the quality of pictures. To my untrained eye the picture quality is similar to a work colleague's camera but he spent 3 times as much money.

There are plenty of cameras in this price range but it all gets a bit confusing. This model is an excellent camera for first timers and has enough features to keep others happy. Top quality and recommended.

I bought this camera a few days ago. This is an excellent camera, small enough to slip into a shirt pocket, but controls that aren't too small. Takes excellent pictures outdoors and good flash shots indoors. In fact, this camera has an excellent flash (in most situations), with both good coverage and pretty good anti-redeye. It is also stronger than most in this size camera, easily covering 5m at wide angle and 3m at the tele end.

There is a focus assist lamp which comes into play in poor lighting (almost undocumented). While this can slow things down a bit, you can always pre-focus or switch to manual focus.

Incedentally, the Standard mode restricts shooting to 1/4s. I cannot find reference to this in the documentation. Night-scen mode works well, rendering 4s shots at 400 ASA (if you set it) that are brighter than you perceive with your own eyes.

The fold-out viewing screen is a nice feature for family group-shots, including yourself. It's surprising how easy it is to see the count down of the self-timer using this screen.

There are plenty of of other manual controls to keep most people happy and the menu system is easy to master.

Download of files to my PC via the USB cable extremely quick.

The only vices are quite minor. The manual focus scale is not graduated, and I find it hard to focus based on the image displayed on the LCD. A simple scale would have been useful.

The 'Auto' setting for white balnce does not cope too well when shooting with indoor lighting and no flash. You need to select the 'Tungsten Light' setting.

Also the flash may not throttle down adequately for really close flash work. I'm talking about distances of 10 to 15 cm here. Setting exposure compensation to -2EV gets part of the way there, but the old trick of slipping a little bit of white paper over the falsh unit (without obscuring the sensor) works perfectly.

I would recommended this camera to anyone. You can pick it up this 3MP camera for the price of many 2MP cameras. It has a good range of features and does most things well. A great little camera at a fantastic price.

Nice..... not sure about the adaptor though that is require for this camera..

Have 2 other digital cameras, both Olympus. C1 & C700UZ. Purchased the Pentax as a small go anywhere camera. Totally amazed at its quality and the quality of its pictures. Good looking, well specified and fabulous value. I chose the 330GS as its powered by AA Batteries (not a silly battery pack), so you can use re-chargeables and are never caught out with a flat battery. I have to say I love everything about it, its dead easy as a point and shoot (you dont even have to read the handbook) Menu's offer lots of options, but are dead easy to understand even if its your first digital camera. For more involving photography you can mess with many of the settings. I took the camera out of the box, stuck a battery in and took it out that night to a smokey bar to see a live band. Took loads of pictures in low light conditions and with varying intensity of stage lighting from none to banks of coloured lights. I used both the 3x optical zoom and the digital zoom. I transfered the pictures to PC and everyone was clear and in focus and despite many of the pictures being flash shots, it avoided all the red eye.....Thinking of a sensible small, high quality, well built camera, look no further buy yourself a Pentax Optio 330GS.