Customer Reviews

Pentax Optio H90 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 5x Wide Angle Optical Zoom and 2.7-Inch LCD (Ceramic White)

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

 

 

The Pentax Optio H90 is my eighth digital camera. I've been shooting digital since 2003 and have owned several Fujifilm and one Samsung. I still own a Fuji 8mp and a Samsung 12mp. This background is so that you know I've purchased and learned to use a number of digicams.

The Optio H90 is a wonderful little camera. It has great product design and is easy to hold and use. It has the softest shutter of any camera I've ever owned and that is a plus. The controls are very well laid out. It's internal menus are the easiest, most logical and well thought out of any I've ever looked at or used. There is surprising depth to what this camera can do. My favorite feature is what Pentax calls "Memory." This function allows you to set and have the camera remember, each time you turn it on, an extensive list of settings. The coolest of these items is the ability to zoom the camera to any focal length and have the H90 recall it. So if between the 28 - 140mm (35 equivalent) focal lengths you'd like to maybe start around a 50mm lens equivalent, you can do it. There is also a "Green Button" that allows you to take your favorite variable function and bring it out of the menu and onto the green button. I use mine to bracket exposures.

The photos are of very good quality, but perhaps just a bit soft in low light. Pentax has a post shot stabilization system, Pixel Track SR, that actually works quite well. There is a slight delay when it functions, but no more so that other cameras "fix" computations. The menu and mode functions offer an enormous variety of settings. The "OK" button sets what information you can see on the LCD screen. You just push it to see more or less information. The Optio H90 comes is three color varieties, I got the silver and ceramic white job, a very clean looking product. The screen is quite good, even in bright sunlight, but you will probably want to brighten it some to shoot is direct sun. The camera doesn't have an automatic brightness mode. It's very reasonably priced, as well.

Of course, it's not perfect. I wish it had a bit more battery life, it's about average for its class I would say. In the review mode the lens does not retract. I wish it would, in order to protect against accidental touching of the lens or possible damage. The camera batteries don't charge in the camera. That would be nice, too. I bought a $6 SD/USB reader and upload photos to my Macs using it, thereby saving a bit of battery life.

My conclusion is that the Pentax Optio is a great camera for beginners through advanced amateur photographers. It is a camera you'll want to keep on your person at all times. The H90 delivers quality images in a huge varietiy of shooting situations. I've taken great macro photos as well as scenics with it. I recommend it to anyone looking for a reasonably priced and very capable digital camera.

I'm not a professional photographer nor am I an amateur. I bought this camera knowing that it isn't the BEST point-and-shoot out there. I wanted an everyday camera that's practical, stylish, and takes decent shots. People say a camera is just as good as the person shooting it.

Pros:
-Small & compact
-Stylish yet simple design
-Able to take macro shots and wide angle
-On-camera filters for stylish/creative looks: ToyCamera, B&W, Sepia, Retro, etc.
-Fast start-up times
-Relatively quick shot times

Cons:
-Low-light shots can be a little grainy
-The screen on the back is a little small, but it's manageable (it's a P&S, what else do you expect)
-Extremely contrasting images are hard to get a good balance/focus on

Bottom line its great at what it does, it out performs its price range; $100 camera with filters and stylish look, check!

Camera arrived as scheduled. Very nice unit, well made, everything included ready to go!
Easy to use, with all the expected and advertised features. Pentax offers a great value for all photo buffs. Compact, light weight, good quality excellent optics.
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I love the camera. It's simple to use and is loaded with features. It's not an SLR, but it's handy and fits in my pocket. The only thing is that it would've been better if it used AA or AAA batteries. I guess I have to buy a backup battery for emergencies. I like the different shooting settings. It can even take clear pictures in low-light settings. I was able to take some nice shots of the total lunar eclipse although I just got the camera a couple of days before. You can edit pictures on the camera without the software and it creates a second copy, leaving the original intact. You can stitch 3 pictures for panoramic view, right on the camera and it's easy to do it. It basically shows you the edge for the first frame, which you can superimpose over the object and take the second frame then repeat for the third frame.
What I don't understand is why different color models have vary that much in price!!!

Great light weight, fit in your pocket camera with wide clear screen, easy to use controls and straightforward menus. Very nice optical zoom and macro features. Perfect camera for taking high quality pictures when you do not want to lug around your SLR. Super camera for the price.

I purchased this camera as an intended upgrade to my Canon SD1000 Elph point & shoot that I've used for the past three years. That Canon is a 7.1 megapixel camera and I've been very happy with the shots produced by that camera. Only problem I had with it was that there was a good deal of lag between pressing the shutter button and the picture being taken -- easy to miss good shots.

My only previous experience with Pentax is the K10D SLR that I've had for three years as well, and I absolutely love that camera. It is fantastic. Pentax is great in my book. When looking for a new point & shoot, I thought I'd give Pentax a try given how much I like their SLR.

The best thing I can say about the Optio H90 is that the shutter is faster than the SD1000, and it has a burst mode that will take continuous shots that my earlier point & shoot does not have, although it reduces the resolution to 5 megapixels in the burst mode.

Unfortunately, the picture quality of the Optio H90 is nowhere near as good as what even the SD1000 produces. I realized I'd make a mistake buying the H90 as soon as I looked at the first pictures I'd snapped. By comparison to the Elph, the pictures taken by the H90 are very noisy, even at the lower ISO settings. Ramping the ISO up makes it a lot worse. Pictures in low light without a flash are terrible -- and the flash blows everything out. The flash is particlarly disappointing -- its range is very short, and it is overpowered and/or the camera doesn't appropriately adjust itself when using the flash. Flash pictures look terrible.

As I said, I've tried very hard to like this camera. I've gone through the manual (which is a plus for this camera that you do get a very good sized printed instruction manual that is very detailed) and experimented with all of the modes and settings. I spent the afternoon today outside taking pictures with both this H90 and the SD1000. No question that the SD1000 takes superior pictures. It captures more detail and the pictures are brighter, and much more pleasing to the eye.

I've never written a negative review like this before, but after today I feel a need to let others know of my issues with this camera. I read the reviews before buying this camera, and the only negatives that stuck with me at the time were the short battery life -- which is true, the battery life is short. Which also bites because I listened to those reviews and ordered several additional spare batteries at the time I ordered the camera. Darn it.

I bought this camera as an entry level camera for my wife. She needed it for an introductory course to photography.
As the other 1 star review points out, some of the online reviews (other sites besides Amazon) for this model might be deceptive.
Image quality is lacking, and noise is a real problem unless shooting at very low ISO speeds. I wouldn't recommend it as an entry level point and shoot. If you are purchasing a camera for a first time user, you'll probably do better with a camera that has more consistent results.
The one I bought also developed a black spot on the LCD display during the first week of use.
I'm very disappointed as I thought Pentax would have better quality, even on low end products.

I received the camera that I had purchased as a gift for my parents, that I ended up keeping for myself. It is so small, easy to operate, and takes fantastic pictures very simply. I like simple and that is what I got. I would reccommend this camera to any one...Pentax Optio H90 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 5x Wide Angle Optical Zoom and 2.7-Inch LCD (Ceramic White)

It's okay. It takes photos well. It shoots video well. It doesn't do anything remarkably well. Nothing stands out about it. Its best feature is that it looks really cool.

For how cheap it is the image quality is ok, but the problem is the rest of the camera.

It looks cool in Ceramic White, but the main problems are:

-pathetic battery life
-needs firmware upgrade to make eye-fi usable- very aggravating for something that is eye-fi ready (i know it works in any camera, buy "eye-fi compatible" cameras are supposed to know to remain on until the images transfer completely)

-screen interface is from 1998


Im pretty camera savvy and getting eye-fi to work regularly was an exercise in patience. Also, after a full charge the battery meter would go to yellow after about 20 shots. It also will not allow eye-fi transfers at that battery level.

Youre better off just turning off the eye-fi portion and changing the standby settings to let the card do it itself, but then your drain your battery even faster.

Returned it for a Sony DSC-W560 and that is miles ahead.