Pentax Optio H90

For its 2010 range, Pentax seems to have sought inspiration in the past with cameras that are reminiscent of the brand's past successes. The Optio H90 has an attractive two-tone retro design that looks similar to a 35 mm compact. It may look good, but is the H90 more than just a pretty camera? Time to find out.

Handling

Although the camera looks like a throwback of the 'ultra-compact' 35 mm cameras of the 1980s (that would seem huge today), it's actually pretty stylish. It certainly looks good, but once you pick up the H90 and start using it, it's a different story entirely. The plastic looks like something straight off a Mini Metro dashboard, the screen lacks definition with viewing angles that are quite simply awful. The lens also wobbles noticeably.


Thankfully the controls are simple and, although the menus aren't particularly stylish, they are clear and easy to read. On the whole, the design and handling isn't disastrous, but feels a little sub-standard compared with many of the better-made, better-finished and more pleasant to handle cameras currently on the market. Promotional pictures of the H90 had us hoping for something much better than this.

Responsiveness

The H90 has a decent enough start-up time that's within average for a compact camera. The autofocus does the job fine and, although it's not lightning fast, it doesn't lose too much speed in low light. You can, however, bypass the autofocus by switching to PF mode, blocking the camera at the hyperfocal distance and ensuring sharpness over average distances (the manual doesn't give exact distances but it's probably around 2 metres) to the horizon. Unfortunately though, you will notice a slight lag between pressing the shutter release and the H90 taking a photo.


You'll also have to wait a whole 3 seconds between two shots, which is a little long.

Picture Quality

Given that this is an entry-level camera with no optical or mechanical stabilisation, we tried not to get our hopes up too much. In wide-angle (28 mm), pictures are very good in the middle but sharpness and overall quality quickly deteriorate towards the edges. In fact, the loss in quality is even visible on an 8" x 10" photo print. Things are even more problematic in telephoto too, as the picture isn't particularly sharp anywhere over the frame.


The H90 doesn't handle ISO sensitivity very well at all, with strong image smoothing already visible at 400 ISO in an attempt to contain digital noise. The 400 ISO setting is still perfectly useable, but we wouldn't recommend 800 ISO, let alone 6400 ISO, when noise is visible even on a 2" x 3" picture!

Video

Pentax seems to be particularly proud of the fact that in spite of its budget price tag, the H90 can still film in 720p HD. Let's not get overexcited though, as video is recorded in M-Jpeg, sound is recorded in mono, the optical zoom is out of action and there's noticeable fuzz on the screen. Nice try!