Availability: Usually ships in 3 to 5 days
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
-
W30 long term review
I bought the W30 as an upgrade for the Pentax WPi which I have had for about three years. That camera gave good service and met its waterproof claims. It was used extensively for kayaking, skiing and snorkelling and eventually failed after being taken too deep.
The W30 is now about 15 months old and has been used for skiing trips and travel in Oman but had not been used in water. I have been very happy with image quality and ease of use. I take mostly landscape photos so tend not to use a lot of the alternative settings. Reading other reviews I see a lot of comments about problems with use in water and I want to concentrate mainly on this area, especially as it is the distinguishing feature of the camera.
Last week I took it snorkelling and clipped it onto the diver flag bouy I was towing. This put it about about six inches below the surface. after swimming out to the reef I unclipped the camera and found the LCD screen was half full of water. Returning to the shore I found the battery compartment was wet as was the USB compartment. I had carefully checked both were closed correctly before starting into the water.
After drying out the camera was still not functional so I took it apart and did not find any obvious damage to the seals although water was still present in the main body of the camera. A check with a magnifying glass found no faults with the seals. It was not apparant where the water had initially got into the camera. I reassembled it making sure that the seals were installed correctly and took it back into the sea. This time the camera flooded before I even had my mask in place, again the camera was clipped on to the float. Water had penetrated battery compartment, screen and the main body of the camera. Again on strip the seals were in place properly.
At this point I conclude that assembly is correct, the design limitations were not exceeded. It would appear that there is either a manufacturing issue that results in some cameras with good seals and some with bad ones or the seals have degraded since new. As the camera is now useless I plan to carry out some more tests using additional sealing to see if I can determine the origin of the failure and to explore whether temperature is possibly an issue (hot camera going into colder water for example). I am buying a W60 to replace this one but I think it will be treated as a 'splashproof' camera rather than a waterproof one. It is a shame because this is a very nice camera in general use and reliable waterproofing would make it a great camera for so many people.
Rating: 
-
Pentax W30 - Dont buy it!
I used the Pentax W30 for 3 weeks and it already died. It won't turn on. Seems to be moister in the screen. Even when I did use it the picture quality in movie mode was poor. Underwater movies and normal movies were grainy and jerky, even though I set for max resolution. Thank goodness Amazon will allow me to return it - then I'll order an Olympus, which get better reviews online. And this from a lifelong Pentax camera user.
Rating: -
Great as my first waterproof, but there are better.
This was the first waterproof camera I ever used, and I loved it! The flexibility of being able to take my camera into the water was great. The pentax is easy to use, takes decent pictures and I have never had any problems when using it for snorkeling, even for longer time periods than recommended. Since then, though, I purchased a waterproof Olympus and like the quality of the pictures better and the larger screen size is nice.
Rating: 
-
Do not buy this camera, it is not waterproof
I used this camera once in the water. The entire screen is water logged and the camera is broken. I don't know how Pentax can claim this camera is waterproof as it clearly is NOT. If you are looking for a waterproof camera, get the one by Olympus. I had that one and it was just amazing (until it was stolen). This camea also takes horrible photos at night, day time shots were just fine, but you could get much, much more for the price.
Rating: -
Pentax W30 x2
I have owned 2 Pentax W30 and I regret purchasing both. In the sun the LCD disappears. Your can't tell if your close up or tele. Whoever thought doing away with the viewfinder in a camera of this type is serving profits not the public. As of now, and I have done the research unless you want to use a camera housing and they don't work much better, there is not a digital camera on the market which will give good to great results under wet conditions. Incidentially, I caved in on this one but regret it. I need a "wet" camera I can store in a pocket in my life jacket to access quickly while sea kayaking. "Water animals and birds" to not wait for you to focus or mess around with digital junk. A DSLR which is water resistant/proof would be ideal. But the mfg. are more interested in profits than serving their customers. I suspect if one did, and it was reliable and produced quality pics without problem, like our current DSLR do, it would be an immediate hit. I tlooks like the new Pentax W?? is not much better. And, I have heard similar complaints from other camera owners (different mfg.) whose camera has only an LCD