I bought this camera after reviewing several others for pleasure use only. I found that this was all I needed for what I wanted a digitial camera for. The program allowing downloading to a PC works great so long as you have a Pentium 2 or better. After adding a 256mb memory chip I find that I can spend an entire month taking pictures before having to download and sort.

Raves
We love it!!Our compact affordable pentax optio 230 has hit the floor a few times and still works fine without a scratch.We have taken it all over Canada and the USA. The swing out lcd monitor is great for fast self portriats or monitoring tripod shots from in front of the camera.The timer is handy too.The 3x optical zoom is a must considering digital zoom degrades pixel quality.Outdoors it produces good landscapes.Indoors the bright flash is more than enough.Great entry level camera. We plan to get the new optio 550 (5mp/5x zoom) but we will miss the swingout lcd of the 230.

Rants

Its not really fair to complain about the best quality most feature packed 2 MPXL camera on the market. It also has the best price. Of course a 3-5 MPXL will produce better results and features hence the higher price.Heres a few tips we found out on getting the most out of our 2 MPXL optio.

1.use highest resolution settings ("tif" for pro shots)
2.Movie mode is best outdoors in the sun. Indoors requires lots of extra lighting to avoid yellow tinges.
3.Only use optical zoom (not digital).
4.Avoid auto color on the editing software as it tends to produce a corpse like effect.The cameras auto color is better anyway.
5.Be prepared to learn the redeye reduction edit in the software to compensate for the optios powerful flash in dim lighting conditions.Its a very effective tool and can save any shot other than a deer in headlights.

Enjoy your Pentax Optio 230 digital camera

After hours of going through sales ads, trying out cameras in stores, and hours of research on the Internet, my husband and I finally decided on this camera. Reasons? 1) It's lightweight 2) The digital zoom only kicks in after a long pause (if you have it activated) 3) The whitebalance feature and 4) The reasonable price. Before it was shipped, we were still a little worried about how much we'd actually like this camera. I must say that it has "wowed" us so far. The whitebalance is excellent, the picture quality is far better than our previous digital camera, it's easy on the batteries (even with the LCD on), and it's very easy to tote around. Don't worry about the plastic -- it doesn't feel "cheap". The LCD swivel makes it easy to take self-portraits (if you really wanted to) or if you take pictures from a tripod pointing straight down (like -- for auction posting), you don't have to stand on a chair to see what it looks like before you take the picture! Great camera, great price.

I received the camera in July but didn't try to use it till September. No damage to package, no reason to believe it wouldn't work. Followed instructions to insert battery (tested--it works) and card, but when I push button to turn on, it doesn't. Since it's my first digital camera, I consulted two friends who are more familiar with them; it didn't work for them either. Screen display doesn't come on. Tried taking it to a camera store but was told I'd have to send it to manufacturer. Probably a good camera if I hadn't gotten a lemon.

I was searching for the perfect digital camera for my husband's birthday; I wanted a camera that would fit our needs and after extensive research it seemed things pointed to the Pentax. I am glad I purchased this camera and here is why: this camera has manual settings (such as night mode, landscape mode, movie mode, and full camera mode). It also has an automatic mode if you want the camera to pick the right setting for you. It has a full color feature, black and white and sepia. It has a handy flip out LCD panel for self-portraits, which is a cute feature. The camera comes with software for easy driver set ups (it took all of 2 minutes to hook up to the computer) and overall it's very easy to use. The 2 megapixels works out well for us, since we don't plan to blow up the film past 8X10. For a point and shoot camera, I highly recommend the Pentax.