Pentax X90

I've been given one of these as a present! It's our 35th Wedding Anniversary soon you see, and I have a lovely, kind and considerate wife...

Battery is charging now, but what strikes me is that no review ever seems to appreciate the quality of the trappings. Nice box, sturdily made, high quality inserts, good packaging and printing, and even the battery when it's unwrapped is a solid, beautifully made piece of kit.

And we haven't even got to the camera! Essentially an optio design with a huge lens on the front, we shall see very soon what it delivers. In any event, bridge cameras can be very useful for eBay pictures and ultra close-ups. Maybe the massive zoom lens will be good for some wildlife as well.

I'll report back soon.

Blow the trappings - get to the camera - we want shots OF it and shots taken WITH it

John - you forget - you can go swimming with it too

I now have a mental image Techno of you at Christmas - ripping parcels apart and scattering packaging as you dive into the pile of presents under the tree...

We'll get to the camera soon - in the meantime I'm savouring the first sips of a fine wine, so to speak.

But, just as a taster, the X90 is in metallic blue. Very tasteful.

Congratulations on the camera and your wedding anniversary!

I'm looking forward to hearing more about the X90.

The colour is a good start.

That's me - but I will admit that the packaging goes straight into the circular filing cabinet , layer by layer as it comes off

My mistake I was thinking of the W90

In terms of handling, the X90 is pretty much the same as any other current Pentax, so ergonomically superb and no handling issues whatsoever. The operation is smooth and the lens impressively free from distortion, even close up.
In the standard focusing range I made this image this morning:
[IMG]http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff250/johnriley1uk/027-Gallo-X90.jpg[/IMG]
and using the Super Macro setting went a little closer with this one:
[IMG]http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff250/johnriley1uk/028-Gallo-Close-X90.jpg[/IMG]
Unfortunately the camera would not memorise the time and date, a fault I have come accross before, so some batches may have a fault in the system or the firmware. A replacement will be sought for that, so no problem once the faulty ones have worked their way out of the system.
All in all a creditable start and a fairly responsive camera. Not as fast to use as a DSLR but certainly as good as any bridge camera that I've used.
For the purpose intended it will be a useful addition to the arsenal.

I went for a wander around Arley Hall today and decided to use the X90.

It worked very well. It's always more difficult to guarantee spot on results with compacts and bridge cameras, certainly when compared with a DSLR. Most of this is due to the very small and light cameras being susceptible to camera shake. The sensor shift SR certainly helps with this.

The results look good, I'll be posting one on EPZ just after midnight and I'll post a couple in the Gallery here in a while.

The first battery charge lasted for 130 shots before showing red on the screen, but considering that it's a couple of months now since I charged it I think that's probably not too bad. I did leave it on for a couple of hours out and about today, but it was cool out so keeping the camera on and warm seemed reasonable.

35 years? Sue was obviously a child bride...

It was down to the canal at Worsley at dawn today and the X90 worked very well in the low dawn light.

Sue was using her K20D with the 18-250mm Pentax lens and she found that the DSLR metered totally differently to the bridge camera.

There is a 4 second limitation with the X90, but I get the feeling that this example does extend the shutter speed range a bit further than that. This is quite usual in that there's a minimum spec that is often exceeded.

I'll post something from the shoot a little later on - no time to sort it out just now.

A W90 I bought a month ago did that, I thought I must be doing something wrong like missing out a press of the OK button, but after four or maybe five attempts it accepted the date and as far as I know has been OK since, it was certainly OK for several days afterwards, but then I gave it away.