Pentax Optio 230

The Optio 230 is a 2megapixel camera with 3x optical zoom and 2x digital. It's not as slick as its more expensive brothers, the 330 and 430, but has some nifty features that more than warrant its £300 price tag.

It may not be as much of a looker, but all the buttons are excellently laid out, and the menu system is easy to navigate. One minor complaint is that the buttons are quite deep set so from time to time are difficult to manage.

There are automatic settings for both daytime and night on the dial at the top, as well as the manual and playback options. Movie mode is slightly disappointing at just 15fps (frames per second) and at 320 x 240 resolution.

Our favourite feature is the small preview window in the menu system that allows you to check your white balance and exposure setting adjustments.

When in manual focus mode, the 230 zooms in on the centre portion of the image, so you can adjust the focal settings more accurately.

Once connected via USB, the Optio 230 is automatically recognised by Windows XP. Drivers are included for both Mac and PC, though there is very little software other than this, just ACDsee image management software.

Printed images were very accurate colour-wise, but occasionally blurry in parts.

The 1.6in LCD screen is excellent; both crystal clear and bright. A useful feature is that the screen can swing out by 180 degrees, so that you can take a picture around corners, or even take one of yourself, should you so desire. The image can also be reversed, which is handy for portrait shots.

Included is a 16MB Compact Flash (CF) card, which is plenty, as 2megapixel jpeg images don't hog too much memory. You can also store pictures as tifs.

Specifications

• 1,600 x 1,200 max resolution
• 3x optical/2x digital zoom
• 38-114mm focal length (35mm equiv)
• red eye, auto, on and off flash modes
• 1.6in colour LCD
• 180g without battery & CF card
• 103.5 x 63.5 x 42mm (w x d x h)
• USB connection

Details:
Price: £299 (£254.47 ex VAT)
Contact: Pentax 01753 792 792
www.pentax.co.uk