The Pentax Optio E30 is a new compact digital camera from Pentax that features a 3x Optical Zoom, 2.4 inch LCD screen, 7.1 megapixel image sensor and 11 megabytes of internal memory.

PENTAX Imaging Company introduced the PENTAX Optio E30 compact digital camera today in advance of the upcoming Consumer Electronics (CES) Trade Show in Las Vegas. Named for the easy-to-use line of PENTAX compact digital cameras, the Optio E30 offers 7.1 effective megapixels for exceptional high-resolution photography.

Featuring AA battery compatibility, the Optio E30 is a convenient travel companion that uses less power and captures up to approximately 200 photos with alkaline batteries or 760 shots with lithium AA batteries. A helpful Green mode allows new digital camera users to enjoy effortless picture-taking, while additional features include a large 2.4 inch LCD monitor, a 3X optical zoom, and 11 MB of built-in memory.

PhotographyPress has a review of the Pentax Optio E30 and gives it an 8 out of 10 rating: "Exposure, flash exposures or otherwise and colour control are vibrant but with strangely boosted yellows. Focusing is slow and the camera often picked the wrong AF point to use while macro focusing has a modest, 0.49m close focus point. ... Bearing in mind the price and target market for this camera and with such a high-resolution sensor, this camera is not bad at all. It may be built to a price, but it is still quite well specified and so is well perfectly for those snappers needing an inexpensive but capable camera that can be used without a lot of mucking about."

Trusted Reviews has a review of the Pentax Optio E30 and writes, "The E30’s one saving grace is its picture quality, but even that has its limits. The lens performs well, providing good corner-to-corner sharpness with minimal distortion, and colour rendition and exposure are very good. Dynamic range is fairly limited, but then it frequently is with cameras in this class. As long as you manually set the camera to 80 ISO and only ever use it at this setting then noise control is also very good, but as soon as the ISO gets even as high as 160 there are image noise problems, which by the camera’s maximum setting of only 400 ISO are so bad the pictures are unusable. All in all a rather disappointing camera from one of the big name brands."

RegHardware has a review of the Pentax Optio E30 and writes, "Performance wise, photos taken with the Optio E30 appeared with very little noise. That’s thanks to the minimum ISO 80 and maximum ISO 320 settings that are used in automatic mode, depending on how much light you have. Noise only increases to distort the images as the ISO level is increased, but only users accessing the more advanced Program function can go as high as ISO 400. ... A few nagging problems aside, the Optio E30 is a very good camera for the price tag. Images are as crisp and clear as a budget photographer could want, the viewing screen is large and it’s extremely easy to use right out of the box."

Digital Camera Review has a review of the Pentax Optio E30 and writes, "No digital camera will have everything you want. There is always a tradeoff. If you want a camera with a 10x zoom lens, it will in general be larger and heavier than a camera with the basic 3x zoom. With this said, the E30 is a well rounded camera. It has an out-of-the-box ease of use that more sophisticated cameras perhaps won't. While at the same time its pictures are sharp and true to color. ... The E30 is a great choice for first time camera buyers, or simply someone wanting an easy to use camera that offers decent quality. It offers sharp, high resolution photos that are true in color, and is intuitive in its design and operation. "

LaptopMag has a review of the Pentax Optio E30 and writes, "Colors looked fairly accurate on our tests. A photo of a coworker was well saturated with warm tones and a crisp focus. Noise wasn't overly apparent on our test shots, even when we raised the ISO to its max setting of 400. The Optio E30 also shoots 28-fps VGA video with sound, but as with the other models tested, don't expect to capture footage worth watching on the big screen."