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I was able to have a brief hands on with the new Pentax K-30 camera body at Camera Craft Inc. in Rockford, Illinois. EDIT, they closed down when the owner retired.  My overall impressions: The camera feels a lot more solid than I expected it to be. Of course, the casing is all plastic, but it has a solid feel to it. From what I can recall from the K-x and K-r, they feel cheap compared to the K-30 by a good margin. The grip is probably one of the better ones to come out from Pentax. It isn’t as soft as the K-5, but is actually a bit better in fitting all of my fingers on the grip (instead of the pinky being off the camera. It still isn’t tall enough for my entire hand to be completely comfortable, but a bit better. The design reminds me of the K-10/K-20 and I can’t say I like that. I think Pentax’s best design from the Digital age would be the K-7/K-5 as well as the *ist D. There are some embellishments that I think might have a little bit of function to them, but their primar...

I saw that Pentax Japan will be having more K-30 camera colors than the black, white, and blue we will get over here (again). http://www.pentax.jp/japan/products/k-30/color/index.html The color that stands out the most for me is the military green. It’s pretty appealing. The added bonus is that I could see it being the Master Chief’s camera of choice (main character from the popular HALO games)… Here is an image to illustrate my point:  If Master Chief had a camera. So why would the Chief use the K-30?  Military green doesn’t stand out and actually matches pretty closely with his armor color of choice. The matte finish version doesn’t reflect light as much as most cameras. He doesn’t want snipers seeing the glint of a shiny camera. The K-30 is weather resistant. Would he settle for anything less? The overall design fits pretty well with what I would expect to see as a military spec. Spartan camera. If I had the funds I’d probably want to import one of those when they event...

The Pentax K-30 information was leaked.  K-30 looks pretty cool! Update: See official information on PentaxForums.com EDIT: Some updates for new information… Specifications so far I personally think are valid: Traditional digital SLR camera. 16 Mega-pixel sensor with video capabilities like the K-01 Weather resistant (Pentax WR). Uses AA or rechargeable batteries. Basically the same power system as the K-r. ISO range from 100 to 25600. Black, white, and blue body panels in the USA. 3-inch LCD like existing K-7/K-5/K-01 cameras. Dual scroll wheel operation. The shutter/mirror system appears to be from the K-r, so 6fps operation and 1/6000th maximum shutter speed (the negative being louder compared to the K-5’s). I personally like the rugged look, especial since I think it will be able to back up the claim. This will be one of the smallest large-sensor weather resistant cameras out there. The Olympus OM-D is probably the only real competition, but Pentax has it topped in affordable ...