Now I have walked a week with (literally) K-30 in one hand and K-5 in
other. I wrote a review for our local press, but obviously I'm not going
to translate the whole thing, but just want to share some points (and
please forgive me if my English is not good enough).
+ Nice body. I'm not very happy with K-7/K-5 body design (especially w/o
battery grip attached) and K-30 feels better. First it looks a bit
suspicious, but it's really comfortable in hand, even for a long
carrying/shooting.
+ Two-wheel user interface. I've never liked single-wheel cameras like
K-r (and many other). Considering the price, it's really nice feature.
+ Very good viewfinder and possibility to change focusing screen. Once
again, I wouldn't expect those features from less-than-top-line camera,
especially Pentax (who has such a short line of cameras).
+ The picture quality is nearly the same compared to K-5 under ~ISO
6400. I've really compared around 100 "parallel" shots and just
sometimes K-5 images seem to have a tiny bit more dynamic range. At very
high ISOs K-30 noise becomes more prominent and has different nature
(rougher grain). Considering that Pentax K-5 have been named as the very
best APS-C SLR, it seems that now the second best is also Pentax.
+ Video quality is superior to K-5. It's not much surprising as K-30
utilizes the same PRIME M processor that we've already seen in K-01.
Focusing in video mode has made a significant leap forward compared both
to K-5 and K-01.
0 Much praised modifications to focusing system are nearly unnoticeable.
K-30 may be a bit more self-confident with SDM lenses, but can not drive
older ones as fast as K-5.
- Battery life is not impressive and there's no battery grip either. Of
course, 450 shots per charging is not THAT bad, but serious enthusiasts
will definitely need a spare battery.
- Shutter is noisy, about the same as K20D. Continuous drive at 6 fps
sounds quite scary.
- Video soundtrack is mono and camera has no external mic connector.
- Image buffer could be larger. Nowadays the memory chips are
inexpensive, after all.
All together, we have got an really impressive camera. IQ is much better
than K20D and almost the same as K-5. My personal favorite is still K-5
(I need battery grip and don't care about video), but I'm quite sure
many existing pentaxians will prefer K-30.
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