Optio W90

My new Optio W90 arrived today. I was impressed with this when I reviewed it for EPZ, so clearly impressed enough to buy one.

Being able to immerse the camera underwater down to 6m sounds as though quite a few new possibilities will be opened up. I'm not going diving, but the camera certainly will get a few dunkings!

As soon as I have some results I'll post some examples, but for now the battery is charging so I'll have to wait.

Been tempted by one of these for yonks but have restrained myself, as my LBA is bad enough without going down with CBA! But underwater photography does open up a new world of opportunities. I've been using an old point and shoot with Dipac water casing (little more than a reinforced ziploc bag in reality) in Greece over the last few summers. Optically it's not ideal, but the unusual perspectives can be great. Here's a few of mine - I imagine with the W90 the image quality would be significantly better:

I'm quite tempted to get one W90 for my honeymoon in Bali since the K-X is a poor swimmer I'll wait for John's examples though since I've read it performs not-so-well in low-light conditions.

These water/shockproof cameras can certainly be handy for holiday snaps. For example I was able to take mine with me when clambering up Dunn's River Falls in Jamaica when everyone else had to give their cams to the guides for self keeping. However the two I have had so far have both been disappointing. The first was a pricey Olympus which gave indifferent picture quality and started to let in water after 2 years of average leisure usage. It turns out that hidden in the small print it specifies that the water seals should be replaced each year - I wonder how many people do? My current one is an even pricier Sony that gives better picture quality but isn't very tough at all - it's starting to show all kinds of problems after only 12 months.

That being said these things are undeniably handy for beach hols so if the W90 lives up to it's spec then I may go for one myself - it is certainly better value than those I have had so far.

I did a test for EPZ and subsequently bought the W90. The one I bought is actually better quality than the one I tested, so maybe that was an early review sample. I've posted a few W90 images already here and there, but here's another one:

https://www.pentaxuser.com/photo/w90-test-shot-27210