My Review of the Pentax Optio W90 Digital Camera

One of the things that made shopping for a new digital camera so difficult is that I'm not a photographer and have no desire to learn anything about photography.

I narrowed down my choices by listing my 'must haves' and then eliminating cameras in my price range one by one until only one remained.

My requirements were:

-Have easy to access buttons since I have big fingers with little dexterity.

-Be easy to hold.

-Must have a lithium battery that would allow me to take hundreds of pictures a day over a week before needing a new charge.

-Make it easy to transfer the pictures to my computer.

-Be small small enough to tuck into a pocket.

-Have enough memory to hold several hundred pictures at a time.

-Be able to take many pictures in rapid succession.

-Have a big view screen.

-Have at least 10 megapixels.

-Be robust since I frequently hike.

-Be attractive.

-The price wasn't my foremost consideration, but around 250CAD would be great.

The only camera to fit all those criteria was the Pentax Optio W90, which I bought in pistachio green.

There isn't much I don't like about my Pentax Optio W90! It really does meet all the important criteria I wanted for my new camera. It has a bunch of different modes that actually made a difference, it's intuitive to use, it's lightweight, it's solid, and it can even be used under water!

The Pentax Optio W90 really is the perfect camera for my lifestyle and photography skills. Take a look at this picture of a picnic table at the Arctic Circle; it almost looks like a painting!

There are two things I don't like about my Pentax Optio W90.

The first is that while this is a study camera meant for rugged use, the screen scratches very easily! I don't like to fuss with screen protectors, but the Pentax Optio W90 really does need one.

The other thing I don't like is that you have to take the battery out of the camera to charge it because the charger doesn't connect to the camera. The second part of this is that to transfer pictures you have to plug the camera into the computer and turn it on. Since it's not recharging when you do this, if you forget to eject and turn off the camera, you will drain the battery very quickly. I consider this a minor thing I just need to get used to since my old camera had a dock that connected to both a power outlet and the computer.

I shopped for a long time to get the best deal on my Pentax Optio W90, checking both online and brick & mortar stores. The best deal I found by far was from Abes of Maine. Even with an additional memory card and shipping to Canada, I came in well under the next lowest price, which was at Amazon. There wasn't even a good deal for it on eBay.

Abes of Maine was great to deal with and very efficient. I had my new camera within days!