Pentax ZX-30 is a Keeper!

I got the pictures back from The Darkroom and it looks like my $39 camera is a keeper. The photo above was taken at the intersection of Highways 44 and 22 in Burnside, Louisiana using the new $39 camera I told you about in my last post loaded with a fresh roll of Kodak Portra 160.  This photo is one of several that I took of a cluster of historical buildings including the present day Cabin restaurant and former St. Joseph’s School. 

Here’s a shot of the school building itself which also serves as home to the River Community Church – South on Sundays.

I have no idea what aperture or shutter speed was used for these photos because I was too busy enjoying the fact that the camera was set on “Auto” and doing all the work for me, including the focusing. The truth is, I was intentionally letting the camera “do its stuff” to see just how well (or not) it would do.  I admit to having some concerns about this camera when I bought it. It pretty much uses the same auto-focus system that the Pentax DSLR’s use and that has been so frustrating in the past.

True to form I found myself at my son’s football game last Saturday afternoon in extremely bright sunlight and the camera refused to focus and/or trip the shutter. My wife using the Pentax *istDL had similar problems. I did not switch the AF off and try focusing manually but instead just picked up the Nikon P-300 and took pictures with it instead. That little gem doesn’t seem to ever have problems taking pictures regardless of the lighting or other any conditions for that matter.

Later I did a bit of research and discovered that the contrast detection AF that Pentax and many other cameras use not only has problems with dim light but also with extremely bright light too – go figure! Anyway, it’s best to find these things out before you get into a jam unable to take an important photo because you have the wrong equipment for the job.

In any case the camera and the 28-80mm, f3.5-5.6, Promaster zoom that it came with worked flawlessly otherwise, and the pictures (scans) I just got back from the lab are all excellent - well, all except for the one of the ground I inadvertently shot while trying to figure out why it wasn’t working correctly at the football game. I think I will be using this camera quite a lot in the future.

The ZX-30 can be operated in full auto mode including several “picture modes” like “Portrait,” “Landscape,” “Action,” and “Night Scene.” It can also be set for aperture priority, shutter priority, or full manual modes and has an EV function button with a range of -3 to +3 that can be used in all modes except full manual. It even has a built in pop up flash good out to about 13’ and a self-timer so I can even get into my own pictures if I want.

In fact the only negative I can come up with for this camera (other than the auto-focus issues that seem to plague all cameras using contrast detection algorithms) is that I can’t use all my manual prime lenses with it. It simply will not operate without a lens that has an “A” (or automatic) setting which of course, my manual prime lenses do not have. For that reason I will continue to use my manual bodies with the prime lenses for “serious” photography but for quick snap shots in more “normal” lighting situations this camera “rocks!”