On the surface so many 3x zoom compact digicams look virtually identical. How do you tell them apart, and what really separates one 3x zoom budget digicam from the next? A lot of times it comes down to the little things, like menu navigation, fit and finish, and price, that make one compact camera a better deal than the next. Here we look at two cameras that at first glance could be mistaken for one another -- the Pentax Optio M30 (street $174.95) and the Casio Exilim EXZ75 (street $229.99), to see if there's really a difference beneath their almost identical skins.
It astonishes how closely the 7.2MP Casio Exilim EX-Z75 and the 7.1 MP Pentax Optio M30 compare physically. Even the lens design and embellishments look virtually identical. The shutter release on each is in the same location and both buttons have a similar look and feel. The flash on each lines up in position and strangely, even the back portions of the cameras have similar button placement. The menu button, for example, is placed on the lower right side of the preview/viewfinder screen on both cameras, with the preview button and function dial also consistently placed as well. It's as if both of these companies had a common engineering staff design one camera, and then Casio and Pentax tweaked it to their own standards. Yet, for all of these physical similarities, the Pentax is priced a full $55 less than the Casio. I had to wonder if the differences went deeper than physical attributes and if so, are they worth the upgrade in price from the Pentax to the Casio, or is the Pentax simply a great deal?
Hands on Feel
The Pentax does have a little more refinement and sculpting in the body. I like the gentle, sloping curve on the (photographer's) left side of the camera. I enjoyed the way that it molded to the gentle curve that my hand has when holding a camera of this type. I liked the combination of brushed silver and chrome mixing in the Pentax body and to me, it simply wouldn't look as good if they'd chosen a color instead of the shiny silver. The Pentax feels solid in your hands as well and it's obvious to me that Pentax has this part of the design and manufacturing process mastered. The camera feels like a high-tech rock in your hands -- and that's a good thing!
The Casio has a larger 2.6" (14:9 ratio) LCD screen that's as bright and sharp as the other Exilim models we've seen and a slightly taller body in comparison to the Pentax. The Casio swaps the rounded side and changes it to the width of the body, giving the camera a pure rectangular look when viewed head-on and a long, stretched oval when viewed from the side. The Casio also has a plethora of colors available with a linear-brushing that's similar in look and feel to stainless steel. Likewise, the Casio has a mostly solid feel to it, but does show some play in the shutter release and other controls, making its build quality slightly less solid than the Pentax. And even though the Casio has a larger screen, it shows fewer pixels and side by side, has less apparent sharpness in comparison to the 2.5 inch Pentax Viewfinder/display screen. This makes sense though, since the Pentax is cramming more pixels into a smaller space.
Source : www.popphoto.com
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