Less Is More – Pentax Optio E90 First Thoughts

It’s no secret that of the hundreds of cameras I’ve owned in the last 10 or 12 years, more have been Asahi/Pentax than any other brand, by far.

My favourite 35mm lenses are Takumars. The semi-automated (and AF) lenses I use and love most are Pentax K mount.

In my film heyday, when I reached for a compact zoom camera, the Pentax Espios were my pick of the bunch.

Three of the four DSLRs that remain in my arsenal are Pentax,. The fourth is Samsung GX-1S, a clone of the Pentax *ist DS2.

So it’s something of a surprise that amongst the many Sony, Panasonic, Ricoh, Casio, Canon, Olympus and FujiFilm digital compacts I’ve used, I’ve never had a Pentax.

Until now.

Thanks to a mention by Frank in a recent thread, I looked into the budget Optio E90, from 2010, and managed to pick up a fully working one from eBay.

The seller wanted £14.99, which I would have paid, but always looking for a bargain I put in a cheeky offer of £10 and they accepted.

The E90 arrived today, so here are my preliminary thoughts.

This won’t be an exhaustive review, but what I like about the camera and how I’ll use it.

The body is compact, balanced, and easy to conceal in your palm or slip into a trouser or skirt pocket.

But best of all is the handling, with the rubberised coating and the bulge of the hand grip where the (2 x AA) batteries go making it very comfortable in the hand, and unlikely to be dropped.

The rear is a little cramped and there’s no obvious thumb rest like on the Lumix LX3 for example, but I’ve found resting my thumb just between the zoom control and the corner of the screen gives enough purchase – again that rubberised body really helps.

The sensor is of course CCD.

10MP in this case, quite high in the MegaPixel count for me compared with many I’ve used, and whilst pretty small at 1/2.3″, this is typical for such a compact camera. Since I neither pixel peep nor make huge prints, this doesn’t present me with any problems.

On the lens front, it’s a 3x zoom, going from a useful 32mm (well, approx 31.5mm says the manual!) to 94.5mm.

As with 95% of zoom cameras/lenses I’ve owned, I plan to use it as a fixed lens, in this case the 32mm end.

This is a pleasing focal length I can use for virtually all of my shots, without thinking it’s too wide as can happen with a compact that’s 28mm or even 24mm at the wide end.

The max aperture at the wide end is f/2.9, but in usage so far it seems in fact only two apertures are used.

The camera uses f/2.9 wherever possible, until the light is bright enough that it hits its maximum shutter speed, so it jumps the aperture to f/8.8. I did a series of tests into a bright sky and could not get the camera to use any other apertures than these two extremes.

This again, suits me fine, and my little Lumix XS1 does a similar thing. I assume it’s much easier to engineer a lens with just two aperture settings then rely on shutter speed (and ISO, if you’re using auto ISO) to fit all the lighting conditions in between.

And even at the lowest ISO100, it still needs a very bright scene, for example pointed directly towards the sun, to drop to the f/8.8 aperture. I anticipate for 98% of my shots it will be wide open at f/2.9.

So essentially for my use this is a compact camera with a 32mm f/2.9 lens.

As with many digital cameras, by default the Optio E90 has a range of annoying beeps and chirps. I usually turn these off immediately by dropping the master volume to zero.

With this Optio though, you can switch various sounds on (choose between three equally irritating noises) or off. By switching off all of these separate sounds, but keeping the master volume at the first level, the only sound I then hear from the camera is a familiar little chirrup when it’s locked focus. The exact same sound I swear cameras like my Pentax K30 and Q emit.

This audible AF confirmation is helpful because sometimes it’s too bright to make out the fine detail of the image on screen.

I can see my overall composition but not the AF square or whether it’s locked green.

Also the screen isn’t the best I’ve used anyway and has some deterioration only visible at certain angles, so again hearing the AF lock is reassuring.

On the focus front there’s standard AF, then macro (down to 0.1m) and infinity.

So far I’ve left it on macro for all but two or three shots of trees silhouetted against the evening sky.

Not the closest focusing lens I’ve used, but close enough most of the time, and combined with the audible AF confirmation I can easily focus as close as the camera will go when required without guessing whether I was too close and my subject was in focus or not.

Again as typical for most consumer cameras, it has a plethora of shooting modes for food, pets, night time etc.

So far I’ve just left it on Program mode.

But as mentioned about the lens aperture above, in practice I’ve been shooting at ISO100 and f/2.9, and letting the camera choose the appropriate shutter speed. So it’s more like using a film camera wide open on Aperture Priority mode.

Probably the only other notable feature to mention is the memory option. You can choose which settings the camera remembers after powering off and on again, and which it resets to default. I’ve ticked everything, meaning the camera is always set up just like I left it. Lovely.

So in use, all I’m really adjusting from shot to shot is the composition, making sure it’s locked focus, and that’s it.

Which makes it a very simple camera to use, and combined with the feel and handling, compact size, virtually fixed f/2.9 32mm lens and CCD colour output, means it’s already bringing many a smile to my face.

Which is what this adventure is all about.

How about you? What camera(s) do you use with a simple and direct set up?

As always, please let us know in the comments below (and don’t forget to tick the “Notify me of new comments via email” box to follow the conversation).

Thanks for looking.

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