Customer Reviews

Pentax Optio W90 Digital Camera - Green (12MP, 5x Optical Zoom) 2.7 inch LCD

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This camera pretty much has it all really.
The overall look is sleek and eye catching, with a brushed metal plate on the front. It comes packed with great features like pamoramic, wide photo, the standard portrait and landscape modes, lots of little different digital effects and the best macro I have ever seen in a compact! The digital microscope mode is simply stunning... The 3 LED lights on the front really work wonders when shooting up close and it rarely fails to focus on the subject. The wide screen allows shooting in 16:9 ratio (fixed with a max of 9mp) but it is a pleasure to use with great screen clarity.
The zoom is a max of x5 optical which I think is quite decent for a compact as some other brands just cant (or wont) break the x3 optical. The movie mode works well with HD recording and allows zoom while recording.
I have not used it under water yet, but if its as good under water as it is out of water, this is an all round compact that will be very hard to beat for looks, speed, functionality and ease of use.
Well done!
Couldnt be happier!

Great camera, all the features of a decent Pentax compact but with the peace of mind that you can take a photo in the rain without cowering.

Picture quality is good, and 5x optical zoom within a sealed unit is very good.

Havent used it underwater as such, but its been wet when hillwalking and had no issues.

Bought it for a trip to Thailand in monsoon season, so its ruggedness should be handy!

My only minor criticism is that the print on the front that says 'waterproof' in yellow has started to come off, but its going to get punished so im not too fussed.

Overall, a great camera by a quality manufacturer that should last the distance.

camera purchased specifically for video and photos in Red Sea Egypt.The results were excellent and the camera was so easy to use except for one problem that occured with the liquid crystal display after about 10 days of use.White spots appeared on the screen when in the sea but dissapeared when dry. I contacted Amazon on my return to England explaining the problem and they had a replacement camera in the post next day.They were brilliant.

I bought the W90 after my W60 decided to hop overboard during a sailing trip. I liked the W60 as it was small enough for my pocket, took good pictures and was robust enough to take along on offshore trips. My experience, however, was that it seemed to struggle in anything but reasonably good sunlight and that such pictures would often be noisy or blurred.

So, after my W60 went swimming, I went for the newly released W90. It is larger than the W60 but has a lot of new features, including LED's to illuminate close subjects. The 16:9 ratio means that, when taking pictures with a "normal" ratio, there is a black strip on the preview screen - not an issue but it took some getting used to. However, the noise problem seems to have gotten worse - a lot worse, in my view. If you are planning to buy this camera, please make sure you test it first to see if this is OK for you.

I bought this to go on holiday with as I wanted to save the weight of my dSLR.

This is a great little camera, crisp clear pics in all settings. I had one of the landscape shots printed out at 20"*16" and I cannot see any artefact or image distortions. The user interface is intuitive and simple to use as is the bundled editing software with some really good features like background blur to make subject images stand out.

Only two minor niggles;
1) The video camera operation EATS battery life so get a spare battery if you intend to use this for any amount of time. Seeing as spares are only a few £ I would suggest one anyway.

2) The panorama and wide options do not stitch images together completely seamlessly, you have to rely on your ability to overlap a ghost image projected on the small LCD screen with the 'Live' image on the same screen and all within 15 seconds before the screen dims to save power and you cannot see a thing on it. But then for a sub £[...] camera it does a decent enough job.

The underwater functions worked exceedingly well in both the hotel pool and sea without any water ingress into the camera body.

All in all I would rate this as probably the best point and shoot I have ever owned.

I have seen a few reviews commenting on the video freezing as it records and I was initially concerned by these. However this is down to the quality of the SDHC card used to write the image to. In order to write HD video without the need for buffering the camera needs a class 10 card, so if you are thinking of purchasing this camera make sure you get the right card to go with it.

I had no problems with video buffering whilst recording for well over 12 mins continuously.

I wanted a camera in addition to my large(ish) digital SLR. But what camera? I wanted a small one - but also a camera that I could use when I'm wary of using my SLR, such as in the rain or on the beach (or for holidays in this country, rain AND the beach at the same time...). I also do lots of outdoor activities with Cub Scouts and wanted to be able to take a camera out and about without worrying about minor bumps and splashes with water. I love my little orange W90 - easy to use, lots of functions, really high quality videos, high quality photos. I've used it outdoors in heavy rain - not underwater as yet - it's a revelation how it removes the concerns about water. I will probably buy a silicone skin to make it even more bump proof too.

Battery - I've have a spare (about £8) as heavy use would leave the battery flat after a few hours.

Picture quality - high pixel count, but of course not as much detail as an SLR with a top-drawer lens. But an excellent picture for the price.

I've had my first one of these replaced as it failed after 6 days on the Red Sea snorkeling 2hrs a day and on day 6 it died taking a picture of a palm tree on dry land! It seems water had built up from condensation inside the camera. The second one did fin over 7 days snorkeling with 2-3hrs in the Sea each day.

Picture quality for anything but the closest brightest shots in the clearest sea is average, although with 12MP gave plenty of data for image processing once at home and I've ended up with some good shots. A slight drawback is the shutter being a bit slow, not so slow that you wouldn't get used to it but just enough to make you miss those first few fish but with a big enough memory card it just means take as many shots as you can!

Video I have to say was great, a bit slow to adjust to differing light conditions underwater but the picture quality is fabulous I think better than on the Sanyo Xacti CA100 (and I've had two of those fail underwater!) even though its only HD720.

However there is a better camera out there for underwater photography and it's the Canon PowerShot D10 Digital Camera (12.1 MP, 3.0x Optical Zoom) 2.5" LCD. It does a much better job of reproducing the colours of fish and coral underwater in the same conditions as the Pentax but alas only does VGA video. It also has so far lasted through two weeks of snorkeling while the Pentax had to be replaced after the first week.

Verdict: Having the Canon for pics and the Pentax for video was great and it meant if one failed there still was a back up, stay away from the Sanyo Xacti CA100 Outdoor/Waterproof Dual Camera (14MP, Full HD recording, 12x Double range Zoom, Waterproof to 3m) - Pink though (major waterproof issues!). While the Canon looks clunkier and is much bulkier this could also mean it is more durable for underwater use in the long run..

Having had many cameras over the years this pentax w90 has really taken me a back by its construction /feel/sturdenious and optical quality ive used it under water-pin sharp easy to use mode/set up makes for a truley amazing piece of kit to own

I was going on an amazing holiday and wanted a robust waterproof camera that could take photos snorkelling. Despite being meticulously careful, reading the instructions and treating it as carefully as I would a normal non-waterproof camera, it broke during its second outing. It would seem the waterproof seal had failed. Thus we were left without a good camera. Similarly I found Pentax support to be about as supportive as this waterproof camera was waterproof.

This was an excellent choice as addition to my larger digital SLR ;-). I bought it in February, used it a lot over next few months, but mostly during my summer brake in Croatia for underwater photography where I had some excellent photos from.

COUPLE OF ISSUES

I fell on a floor while walking Edinburgh streets in April with camera attached to my wrist, which might be the reason why my camera doesn't work anymore :-(. During the summer (July and most of the August), I've used it a lot, especially for underwater photography, which 100's of my friends admire on Facebook, and I had a very positive reaction from my friend's husband who is professional photographer (aerial views from airplanes and helicopters) which made Pentax W90 right choice for this summer ;-)

I've used camera mostly in shallow waters, but not deeper than 3 to 4 meters. I can tell you that I haven't seen ANY water inside or any other related issue, apart from battery cover that moves slightly (couple of millimetres) to the left, but should stay firm in one place. I can only put this to this fall in Edinburgh, but wandering WHY I didn't have this problem just after accident or when I've started to use camera underwater?! When I would move that cover towards left (those couple of millimetres) I would see battery FULL green sign going to RED empty square as it is empty?! That was the only issue, apart from fall, that I can tell you about.

I am now talking to company in Manchester, official Pentax repairer, to try to sort this out, because I cannot start up my camera now :-(

BRIEFLY: Excellent camera that takes amazing shots IF you master shutter pressing in right moment ( a bit slow). I wasn't happy at all with video (too grainy in my opinion), buy A FEW extra batteries, if you want to take a lot of pictures during the day, away from any power source. I had six, and used 5 during one day, but usually 2-3 will satisfy my moderate daily needs for taking photos. I have two 16Gb memory cards, but I've never used second one.