Best Digital Cameras, Customer Reviews

Review by Agent 003:

This is the third Pentax Optio Waterproof camera that I have owned. I have been pleased with this family of cameras over the years, but I had read that recent versions of the camera were not as good as the older versions which I had owned. But I must say that this latest version is amazing and a lot of fun. It looks very different from previous Pentax Optio Waterproof cameras… In fact, it looks pretty different than any camera I’ve ever seen! The pistachio green camera, which I own, has a really cool, outdoors look. The camera has a sturdy feel and rugged design, but it is also slim and light and fits comfortably in a pocket. The camera was already dropped on a tiled floor on the second day that I owned it, and it was fine.

What really surprised me is how much better this camera does with INDOOR pictures. I was always pleased with the quality of outdoor pictures in my previous Optio WP cameras, but the quality of indoor shots was not as good on those cameras. Not so with this camera… I am not a camera expert, but it seems that there is a lot more technology built into this camera to help pictures turn out well. It can take close up pictures, it has face recognition capabilities, and it can even detect when a person smiles and then take the picture at that moment.

I have not yet used it outdoors, but I am looking forward to taking it with me on numerous camping trips, bike rides, ski trips, mountain climbs, and other outdoor adventures, as I have done with my previous Optio WP cameras. This camera is perfect for those kinds of uses.

Review by T. Haynes:

Update: Shooting results after 24 hours of use – my initial impressions of the design and feature set are below. But first, a few words about image quality. So far, I’ve taken ~100 photos in different modes and lighting just playing around with the camera and settings. Image quality is not quite as high as I was hoping for. I was hoping for outstanding image quality; this is only good.

Color accuracy appears very good, with the exception of a strong yellow cast in some videos and in night modes. The camera consistently seems to use higher-ISO than I would prefer (or than would be used by similar PnS cameras), and the result is graininess for many of the photos.

Some small amount of graininess is present even in the fastest mode, ISO-80, in broad daylight and at fast shutter speeds. It is disappointing that there is noise present even in perfect conditions. My guess is that this is a reflection of 12.1megapixels being forced out of a tiny 1/2.3″ CCD. This is not unusual, but the cameras I use most often — a variety of 8-10mp Canon PnS cameras — have noticeably less image noise.

The upside is that with 12.1mp and a 5x zoom, most people will seldom really need all those pixels. When printed in small sizes or reduced for the screen, little or none of the noise is apparent.

Another factor contributing to noise is that this camera lacks any actual image stabilization — it has a software-implemented “shake reduction” feature for both the still-frame and video modes, but the “shake reduction” — at least in my limited experience so far — produces blurrier images when it’s on than when it’s off. I think this feature is marketing hype and does not translate to real world improvement on pictures. I have not tested it yet with video, only with still shots.

One of the biggest downsides to this camera is that there is NO WAY to set shutter or aperture priority. Shutter speed is whatever the camera feels like, and there is nothing you can do to change this. I spoke with Pentax tech support to confirm the complete lack of this feature. At this time, they have not released any plans to implement this feature in future software upgrades. But maybe if enough of us e-mail them (pentaxinfo at [...]), they will relent.

The place where the inability to change shutter speed is most frustrating is with the flash on. Usually, turning on a flash sets a PnS camera to a very fast shutter speed (1/500 on most PnS Canons)… with the Pentax W90, the shutter speed with flash enables locks to 1/50 — ten times slower than many other models. This means that even with a flash, you can get some blur in the image.

The camera has a wealth of shooting modes, but it lacks some of the modes that you would expect, like a simple “outdoor” shooting mode or a simple “indoor” or “low-light” shooting mode. There are some neat feature modes like candlelight mode or fireworks mode that are seldom likely to be used, but some of the basic modes are missing.

On the bright side, the camera powers on and is ready to shoot very quickly. I’d estimate it’s barely over 1 second from hitting the power button to being ready to shoot — that’s very fast. Shot lag time with full autofocus appears to be (my guess), about 1/3 of a second, which is also pretty fast and plenty good enough for everyday use. Flash recycle time appears to be 2-3 seconds, which is good as well. Shot-to-shot times (no flash) appears to be ~2 seconds. All of these figures are estimates, but probably close enough to give you some idea of the camera capabilities. The camera feels plenty quick, and comparable or better than most small PnS cameras.

Overall, I’m not 100% decided if I will keep this camera. I’m going to give it two weeks to see how it does in some real-world scenarios. I don’t know yet if the inability to set shutter times, the 1/50 shutter time on flash photos, and the noise and tendency to default to high-ISOs are going to be deal-breakers or not. I really, really like this camera, and initial results are promising, though not conclusive.

ORIGINAL REVIEW — focuses on features and design:

Like many people, I’ve been eagerly awaiting this camera, along with the Olympus Tough 8010 and the Panasonic DMC-TS2. I’ve been trying to hold out for good reviews on each of them to decide which one to get. But alas, very little info is out, and with a trip coming up I finally broke down and bought the Pentax Optio W90, based on the feature set and a conversation with customer service at Pentax to confirm a few details about the camera.

The camera arrived today and I spent about 30 minutes trying out some of the features during lunch. It’s not much content for a review, but I’m sure others are as anxious as I am to learn more about this particular model, so I’m posting what I know. For the record, I’m a bit of a techy with a solid photo background and a lot of experience with digital cameras — everything entry-level point-n-shoot models to professional digital SLR equipment, so I feel fairly competent to share my impressions.

My initial impressions are very favorable. The w90 has a few features that I was hoping for, based on feature sets of previous models, but that I had been unable to verify. First and foremost is a pretty vigorous time-lapse capability.

There’s the small-scale time lapse that will really make getting yourself in photos easy… you can set a timer and then have the camera take anywhere from 2 to 11 pictures at any interval you want. Amazing feature. For instance, you could do sets of 11 pictures at a time 2-3 seconds apart, after a 20 second lag to get set up… easy way to get just the right expression… this will be amazing (and much safer) for group shots when hiking… no mountaingoat jumps from rock-to-rock needed to get in the picture, and no need to go press the button again to try a second (or 3rd or 4th or 5th or 11th) picture. I think this is going to be immensely useful for travel.

The other version of time lapse I didn’t really play with much, but it appeared you could set the camera to turn on and take a picture every minute or 5 minutes or hour or whatever… cool if you wanted to set it to capture a plant opening or sun coming across a garden or something like that.

Also has an alarm function which could be useful for travel. Have the camera wake you up instead of having to leave a cell phone turned on. Didn’t try this either, but it seemed like a good idea.

Menus throughout are very clearly labeled and easy to navigate. Buttons feel good and are well placed — especially for a ruggedized camera. The camera itself feels smaller and less intrusive than I expected based on the pictures. The zoom feels good and the 28mm-140mm range is generous and is pretty much a best of all possible worlds for everyday usage. It will be much, much, much easier to hold the camera at arms-length and get a good self-portrait thanks to the wider angle. I know that may sound silly, but I’ve got a lot of pictures with only half my face filling 1/3 of the frame when trying to hold a camera at arm’s length.

Other functions include the ability to lock the full-auto shooting mode to a certain ISO range to prevent images from getting too grainy (this may sound overly simple, but is a rare option on digicams). And you don’t have to lock it to a specific ISO, but to a range, 80-400 for instance… great little detail.

It’s also got a well-implemented feature for stitching together panoramic photos in camera, and a mode for taking uber, uber, uber closeups of objects (distance of less than 1cm). The camera has three white LEDs surrounding the lens that provide lighting and help eliminate camera-shadow on uber-closeups. Not necessarily super useful, but could be cool for uber-closeups of flowers, plants, etc…

Also a mode that is optimized for taking pictures of text (like museum signs) which is something I do often to help my memory, and I think I will appreciate. The whole camera just seems very well thought out, and I’m impressed by the options… menus are clear, easy to read, and for the most part they clearly explain what each mode is best for — no more having to guess at tiny little symbols.

I have no idea at this point what the image quality looks like from the actual pictures; it’s too hard to tell from the tiny screen… but so far I’m impressed by the overall design.

The one semi-negative is that the tripod mount is way off-center (see pictures in the 360* view on the Pentax site)… I suspect this will make it harder to level pictures easily with small flexible tripods like the Gorillapod (my default for travel). However, the huge plus for the tripod mount is that it is made of metal, which is a very rare feature on digicams… and a metal tripod mount is much more important to me than whether or not the mount is centered. Much better longetivity and helps keep with the overall rugged design of the camera.

It appears this camera is better thought out than any other model I’m aware of for taking pictures anywhere of anything and getting the shot you want — with you in it. If picture quality is anywhere near design quality for this camera, I am going to be very, very pleased.

I wish I could answer questions I know people are asking: what is the shot lag like? what is the shot-to-shot time like? What is the flash recharge time like? How is quality underwater? At what ISO do the pictures get too noisy? etc… I’m sorry I can’t help yet with any of those questions — hopefully a full review will be coming soon for the camera. But for now, hopefully this helps fill in a few gaps for people who are on the fence.

Review by V. Vanderbent:

The pictures come out really well and almost professional looking. The camera responds well, feels really comfortable in the hand, with the controls easily accessible and responsive. I was looking for an inexpensive camera like the Nikon P100 but without too many picture taking compromises and without AA batteries. So the X90 fits the bill, yet, the missing lens thread, manual pop-up flash and the childish scene options interface make it a bit awkward overall. I am tempted to keep it though because it is pretty fast in startup, while less so in flash charging, light weight and capable of tremendous zoom. It looks great here on Amazon but rather amateurish once I opened the box. Of course, I shouldn’t expect that much from a camera in this price range, and perhaps I should just appreciate the terrific picture quality this baby is capable of – so thanks Pentax, a job well done albeit it a bit lacking in some regards, Wish I really could have that Fuji E900 in an upgraded version, but the Pentax X90 will do for now.

UPDATED

After taking a number of shots with the camera over the past few weeks I can say that it performs remarkably well. Sure, it’s not a professional camera but the clarity is astounding at this price point. The image stabilization is world class IMHO. Both at macro and tele, the camera performs excellently. There were a few situations in which it underperformed. A friend’s Samsung P&S was able to get better backlit portrait shots (the background came out much better – but that same Samsung did a terrible job with any other portrait shot so Pentax left it far in the dust overall), and I had to adjust the flash to -2.0 to reduce the strength. The default settings of the camera have the flash set for super bright and white balance to wash out most colors. This is adjustable once I became familiar with the menu options. What I really, really like about it is that it remembers all your custom settings. I have one at Program, Scene, and Manual. Each time I want to take three different shots to get a variety of results in difficult lighting conditions, all I have to do is turn the dial to another mode and it automatically returns to my previous setting. When I couldn’t get a good outdoor portrait shot of my wife, I turned to Manual mode, adjusting the aperture such that I got good exposure with the flash and in the background. The options are virtually endless! The camera says it’s made in Indonesia if that is important to you. Excellent job Pentax!

PROS

Numerous customization options for the beginner and advance amateur

Superb image stabilization

Relatively small size

Excellent fit and grip for average size hands

Excellent image quality for the price

Li-Ion battery for large number of shots

CONS

Awkward menu options, takes many clicks to get what you want (but that’s too be expected considering how many options there are)

Awkward lens cap (comes off easily)

Build quality average, when you shake the camera you can feel the lens moving about a little

Charging unit comes with separate cord. The plug should have been built in for easier carrying (like Panasonic in same price class).

No lens thread. This is actually a major disadvantage because a polarizing filter could make lots of outdoor pictures with this camera much better than they already are. In this economy, Pentax should have taken the trouble to put a thread in, even if it were plastic, IMHO.

Review by Cynthia E. Castellaneta:

Hi there i want everyone to know, i finally have found a great point and shoot camera, i have owned many cameras including the panasonic f35 which has great ratings, how ever the pentax has gone a few steps forward. Its great having an electic view finder as well as a nice size screen, the 26 xx zoom is fantastic. The camera is made well, in gun metal blue. it really come close to using my slr, with out carrying all the lenses, etc, Thank You Pentax.