Pentax Optio E90 review

An affordable and well-specified compact

Until recently, low in price meant low in features. Not any more. Although very affordable, the Pentax Optio E90 boasts a useful 10.1MP sensor and a host of shooting modes, including Movie. The little camera also includes face recognition and has plenty to please casual and more serious users alike.

The body is neat and functional, if somewhat anonymous. The rubberised finish with metallic trim gives the camera a classy and rugged feel that belays the price, and there’s a choice of black or red versions.

The camera is powered by AA batteries, which is no doubt a cost-saving measure. They may not be eco-friendly, but they are readily available and you could always use rechargeables. We did find the batteries lost power suddenly and without warning, rendering the camera unusable, so it’s worth carrying spares.

The LCD is reasonably bright and large, and next to it are the usual controls which are clearly marked and easy to operate.

Press the Power button and the camera comes alive in a reasonable two seconds. Once on, the green button on the back shortcuts you straight to Basic mode, which overrides all other settings and makes the camera near-idiotproof. In this mode, the camera picks the most suitable shooting mode, while face detection ensures that the camera focuses and exposes for faces in the frame.

Other shooting modes are accessed by pressing Mode and using the control wheel to navigate through clear on-screen icons, with written captions explaining what each mode does. There are all the usual subject modes that we’ve come to expect, including Portrait, Landscape, Snow and Sunset. In addition, Frame mode gives a choice of gimmicky surrounds for your pictures, which kids may enjoy. Digital SR (shake reduction), meanwhile, sets a higher ISO to reduce the risk of camera shake.

Another button controls the Face modes. You can scroll through face detection, smile capture and off. Smile capture fires the shutter the moment the subject smiles at the camera. It works well and is less of a gimmick than you’d think – it ensures you capture a happy face and is also a handy way of taking self-portraits.

If you like to take your photography more seriously, then Program mode allows you to control ISO, exposure, flash and drive mode. The latter offers one-shot and continuous (1fps) plus 16 Frame mode, which takes 16 low-res (640 480) shots over 2 secs.

There are some basic editing features built-in, ranging from the useful (exposure correction, cropping and red-eye reduction) to the gimmicky (star highlights).

The 10.1MP sensor promises reasonable results and, on the whole, it delivers. Images are acceptably sharp, although there is a slight softening at the telephoto end. Head beyond that into the digital zoom, and image quality drops noticeably to a point where it’s unacceptable. You also have to watch the Auto ISO feature, as image quality drops noticeably as ISO creeps above 200. Fortunately exposure metering is consistent and copes well with a variety of lighting conditions. The flash gives good results within its range and red-eye reduction is also effective. Finally, video capture is a useful bonus, with 640p resolution giving acceptable results.