Advantages: Incredibly stylish due to its looks and size, solid feel and construction, good quality pics
Disadvantages: a bit slow on taking pictures

...The Pentax Optio s30 is a brilliant camera, cramed pack full with useful features. To start of with, the size and finish of the camera is extremly impressive especially when you see the results it produces. I was looking for something of decent quality I could carry around with me but without finding it a burden - exactly what I got... with a bit more. I found it very easy to use, while also containg complex manual settings for the more experienced photographer. The Lcd is brilliant and clear and the ACDC software is simple to use and the panoramic feature is also useful. The auto timer is great fun and very good also. The Pentax does have its flaws, the main one being some slowness, especially recovering between shots, but I find that pre-focusing means I can get action shots perfectly easily. I was in Africa over the summer... Read review

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Advantages: Great pictures
Disadvantages: no carry case as STD.

...The first thing that strikes you about the S30 & S40 cameras is the finish. The camera's case is metal, finished in a brushed alloy effect and button lay out is good. The S30 and S40 are identical except for 2 details, the S30 is a 3.2M pixel camera and the S40 is a 4.0M pixel camera. Secondly the S30 has a shorter AVI movie capture time [S30 captures 30 sec. AVI clips] compared to the S40. I bought my S30 in May 2002 and had no problems with it, the general feel is of solidity. The battery performs well and recharge times are approx 1hr, [charger is supplied]. The supplied compact flash card [CF] is too small for serious picture snapping and your first purchases should be a larger CF card [128Mb +] and a soft carry case, as Cannon don't supply one as standard [come on cannon!! for £350+ you should get the carry case... Read review

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Advantages: addictive
Disadvantages: none

...Excite is another great way of chatting! It is all very straight forward and all you have to do is choose a member ID. There are many chatrooms to choose from ,including, 20's, 30's, music, everything you could think of! It runs very quick also which is a good thing, you can do searches for your friends on here too so you are never out of touch with anyone! This chat facility is available to people of all ages and nothing could be easier! So go on, choose a name and get chatting, you will never be alone again :-)... Read review

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Advantages: Good interface, cheap, repeated instructions, user-friendly interface
Disadvantages: No bluetooth, Low speaker volume

...The Navman S30 really sets a standard amongst the Navigation system community simply becuse of its high quality 3D interface, which really looks good, much better than the one found on TomTom's. with the introduction of GPS combatible mobile devices for which navigation software can be purchased at a cheap price. Companies like Navman are being forced into cramming more and more features into their devices. For a price of under £100 you can buy this very navigation system, which boasts impressive features such as relatively advanced audio capabilities compared with its competition. The audio capabilities consist of such instructions like "take junction 23 on the M25". However the audio capabilities are not as advanced as the ones found on TomTom's which have a text-to-speech engine that will read all road names out to you as you drive... Read review

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Advantages: Loads to read
Disadvantages:

...If you want a magazine that contains a bit more than how to achieve an orgasm (and lets face it where is the fun in reading about it?!) Marie Claire is for you. It has the usual glossy features on lifestyles, fashion and travel but is presented in a less 'cheesy' way to some of the other monthly mags. There is an eclectic mix of catwalk fashion and high street names, to suit every budget, in the fashion section and this is followed throughout the other items featured. On more serious subjects, the articles are well researched and very often enlightening. The magazine often broaches subjects of a harrowing nature but they always dealt with sensitivity. Marie Claire is aimed at late 20s' to 30s' career women but seems to understand that it cannot pigeonhole all it's readers into this category. At £2.70 it is a good read rather than... Read review

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Advantages: compact, face detection technology, long battery life
Disadvantages: still 3X optical zoom

...or a bit seconds much faster than my older canon powershot S30. Also, the time lag between shots is much less however it may be because I am using a high-speed xD card as well. Also, this one is better than the older Fujifilm F30 by a new 'Face Detection Technology' built-in to the camera's processor. It really does work and log onto faces (2 eyes and a mouth seeking) even you have a hat on or have funny hair-dos. However if you turn sideways, the face detection won't work. If you have more than one person in view, it can actually log onto multiple faces without losing anyone - amazing! I have compared it with my powershot S30. The "faces" are equally clearer with the F31fd but only one of the faces is clear with S30 unless they are all lined up in a perfect row. If you want to shoot in low light, make sure than the anti... Read review

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Advantages: Everything all in one place
Disadvantages: Not in city centre

...After a lot of hype the complex known as Star City opened it’s doors to the public not so long ago. With it’s 30-screen cinema it holds the title of largest cinema in the United Kingdom. (Six of these screens being dedicated to Bollywood movies) It is also home to a number of shops, restaurants and bars. On getting there I was very pleased with what I found, there has obviously been a lot of money spent in order to create one of the best entertainment complexes in Birmingham. The premiere of the film The Perfect Storm was held here with the presence of both George Clooney and Mark Warlhberg making it one of the few cinemas outside London to premiere a Hollywood movie. It is well worth a visit.... Read review

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Advantages: Manual features, sturdy, excellent pictures
Disadvantages: Umm...too big?

...I thought I'd write a review of this camera from the point of view of a long-term assessment of its performance (rather than most out of the box type things). I have to say that I love my camera, and ever since I bought have not used either of my 35mm cameras. The S30 has a lovely polished look to it and feels sturdy, it has stood up to some fairly rough treatment over the year or so that I have had it (including some small drops at times). I was a little worried that the sliding the lens cover might break (it seemed a little flimsy) or I might damage the lens when in a rush to close it, but neither of these fears have materialised. However I have always felt that the camera's start-up time is a little on the long side - it can take as long as 8-9 secs to get ready to shoot (somewhat longer than taking the lens cap of an SLR... Read review

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Advantages: Range of features, capability, reliability
Disadvantages: Poor battery life, expensive extras

...I got this camera to do my honours project at University a year ago. I needed something that could adapt to different light conditiions very well and quickly, as well as obviously taking good shots. I used a friends Canon after my terrible HP couldn't cut it anymore and I was very impressed. The picture quality was far superior even though it had less pixels! I decided to go for a decent camera and the S30 was pretty much top of the range at that time. 3.2 MP is enough to blow fairly large prints up, something I had in mind, and far more than most people need. It has a 3x optical zoom which means you can maginify the image 3 times without losing quality. It does have a 10x digital zoom but of course as with all digitals, you lose quality using this. 3x is still a decent spec even today a year later. It also has an excellent full video... Read review

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Advantages: Small,light,brilliant pictures,brilliant reviews
Disadvantages: battery life,poor customer services,Broke with in days

...Well last year i thought it was about time i brought myself a digital camera ,I had just read a review in which magazine who had reviewed the pentax optio s30 and highly rated it so i popped down to my local argos and purchased the pentax optio s30 it cost £209.99 at the time. when i got home i took it out of the box and was very inpressed in the sleak compact size it came complete with 2xaa batterys 1xwrist strap 1xusb computer cable and ACDsee software and easy to use manual The camera has: 3.2 million pixels 3xoptical zoom 2.6digital zoom 11mb internal memory SD/MMC memory card compatable built in flash Av output movie and sound capture So i had a read of the instructions which were clear and easy to follow and proceded to but the batterys in and switch on when switching on the camera makes a funny tone to indicate that its on ,I... Read review

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