Pentax Optio W90

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 7/5/24

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Pentax Optio W90

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 7/4/24

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Pentax Optio W90

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 7/3/24

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Pentax Optio W90

The Galleria, Photo of the Day, 7/2/24

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Pentax Optio W90, A Morning Show

Compact Comeback: First impression, the Golden Hour with a 12MP CCD Pentax Optio W90 (2010), a very versatile all-weather digital adventure camera.

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Images do speak for themselves, and in the case of these exceptional first impression images here, it looks like a resounding good start for the ruggedized, dustproof, waterproof, and shockproof all-weather digital compact, the 12MP CCD Pentax Optio W90, which I acquired recently at quite a fair and reasonable price.

The underwater digital, a 2010 vintage, is one for the go-anywhere, do-anything outdoorsman whose preference for the rough-and-tough is reflected by the hardware and equipment he uses.

On the W90, images are framed and reviewed on a 2.7-inch LCD with a 230,000-dot screen resolution that has a wide viewing angle and is finished in anti-reflective coating.

Autofocusing is by a 9-point contrast detection autofocus system, with face detection that can recognize up to 32 individual faces and three pet faces with Smile Capture and Blink Detection to ensure portraits look their best.

Focusing is possible as close as just one centimeter in Super Macro mode, and up to 10 centimeters in standard Macro mode. Three LED lights around the lens provide illumination in Macro mode shooting.

The W90 has a normal shutter speed range from 1/4 to 1/1,500 seconds, up to 4 seconds in Night Scene mode, and a self-timer with a two- or ten-second delay.

Normal ISO sensitivity, from 80 to 1,600, is automatically or manually controlled. ISO sensitivity can be expanded to ISO 3,200 or ISO 6,400 under manual control, or in the automatic Digital SR (Shake Reduction) mode, by dropping image resolution to 5MP.

Pentax Optio W90

Exposure modes include a Green (fully automatic) button, Auto Picture, Program, and a selection of 21 scene modes, with 24 capture modes.

Pentax Optio W90, Go Anywhere

Compact Comeback: The Pentax Optio W90 (2010), a rugged, all-weather digital camera known for its durable outdoor design and carabiner-style strap, waterproof, shockproof, and freeze-proof.

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For the compact enthusiast, the Pentax Optio W90, a vintage 2010 CCD go-anywhere camera with a 12MP sensor and a 5x optical zoom lens with a 35mm equivalent 28mm wide-angle to a 140mm telephoto lens, might just be the right tonic for your go-anywhere outdoors, for just sitting in the rain, or submerged to depths of up to 20 feet for as long as two hours.

The compact minuscule is just as well dustproof and can withstand a drop from four feet onto 5 cm-thick plywood.

The camera has a normal shutter speed range from 1/1,5000 to 1/40 second, or up to 4 seconds in Night Scene mode, a standard ISO speed rating from 80-1600, or up to 3,200 or 6,400 by dropping image resolution to 5MP in automatic Digital SR mode, and a self-timer with two- or ten-second delay. Images are framed and reviewed on a 2.7-inch LCD with a 230,000-dot screen resolution with a wide viewing angle, finished in an anti-reflective coating.

The aperture varies from f/3.5 to f/5.5 across the zoom range. Exposure modes include Green (fully automatic), Program, Auto Picture, and a wide selection of scene modes. Exposure metering is by TTL Multi-Segment, Center-Weighted, or Spot metering, with exposure compensation in 1/3EV steps.

Autofocusing is by a 9-point contrast detection autofocus system, with face detection that can recognize up to 32 individual faces and three pet faces with Smile Capture and Blink Detection to ensure portraits look their best.

Pentax Optio W90

Focusing is possible as close as just one centimeter in Super Macro mode, and down to 10 centimeters in standard Macro mode. Three LED lights around the lens are used to provide illumination in Macro mode shooting.

Pentax Optio W90, Out And About

Compact Comeback: Image making with a 12MP CCD Pentax Optio W90, a versatile all-weather compact digital camera with a 28-140mm equivalent zoom lens.

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Had the chance to take the Pentax Optio W90, the go-anywhere camera that's perfect for the outdoors, for an out and about recently, and came away with this set of images, which were captured from the shaded entry and egress of an LRT station, looking across to the midst of the very warm and bright mid-morning sun.

Designed to be dustproof and waterproof up to 6 meters, the camera is coldproof down to -10°C (14°F), and shock-resistant for drops of up to 1.2 meters.

The W90 comes with a 5x zoom (28-140mm equivalent) lens, a 2.7-inch LCD, a Digital Microscope mode, HD video recording, and a face detection system that also recognizes up to three pet faces.

The strength of the camera is, of course, with its CCD sensor, the standard for digital camera sensors from the early 80s till the late 2000s, which were acknowledged for their high-quality, low-noise images

On the downside, the W90 does not have an optical image stabilizer for its lens.

Pentax Optio W90

What is available, instead, is Pentax's Pixel Tracking Shake Reduction (which can be turned off), which applies digital processing to the images to smooth out the jitters. or a high-sensitivity anti-shake mode, which pushes the shutter speed and ISO up while giving you a 5-megapixel photo.

Though neither is optimal, there wasn't much visible camera shake at maximum telephoto when standing still. There's a digital stabilizer for movies as well.