Canon EOS Rebel T4i / 650D vs Pentax K-30 — Which Is Better?

The Canon EOS Rebel T4i / 650D and the Pentax K-30 are both APS-C DSLRs released in 2012, each taking lenses only from its own brand's line. Buying either commits you to Canon EF or Pentax KAF glass.

The Pentax K-30 is the more compact body at 130 x 97 x 71 mm, against the Canon's 133 x 100 x 79 mm. The Canon is the lighter carry at 575 g, some 75 g under the Pentax's 650 g.

The T4i gives you slightly more room to crop a distant subject, with 18 megapixels against the K-30's 16.3. The K-30 is the stronger choice for handheld work. Its in-body stabilisation works with every mounted lens, its 11 autofocus points cover off-centre subjects better than the Canon's 9, and it shoots at 6 fps against the Canon's 5.

In bright light the K-30's 1/6000 second shutter allows a shorter exposure than the T4i's 1/4000, useful for wide apertures or freezing motion. Its viewfinder uses a pentaprism to the Canon's pentamirror. Both use CMOS sensors and share the same standard ISO range of 100 to 12800, expandable to 25600.

Both cameras record Full HD at up to 30 fps, so neither limits casual clips. The difference lies in workflow. The K-30 offers built-in timelapse, capturing interval sequences without accessories, and it records MPEG-4 video.

The T4i writes Motion JPEG files instead and has no built-in timelapse, so interval shooting requires an external intervalometer.

The T4i's 3-inch LCD tilts and responds to touch, a clear advantage for video and awkward-angle shooting, letting you tap to set focus and frame from low or high positions. It also shows more detail, at 1040000 dots against the K-30's 921000.

The K-30 answers with weather sealing, so you can keep shooting in rain or dusty conditions where the T4i needs protection. Both offer a built-in flash, an external flash shoe and live view, and neither has GPS, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, so wireless transfer is unavailable on either body.

Storage and charging match, with both writing to a single SD, SDHC or SDXC card and neither supporting USB charging. Their batteries differ. The T4i's LP-E8 is rated at 440 shots against 410 shots for the K-30's D-LI109, a 30-shot lead in the rated figures.

Each camera runs on its own battery model, so a spare must match the brand you buy. The same SD, SDHC and SDXC cards work in both, which makes sharing cards between bodies simple.