The New Pentax Optio W90 and X90

Optio W90

Pentax has announced the eleventh generation PENTAX Optio waterproof digital camera built for rugged adventure. The PENTAX Optio W90 offers enhanced waterproof, shockproof, dustproof, and coldproof performance and features an inventive Digital Microscope mode with LED lighting to capture small but intriguing subjects. Designed with the look of mountaineering equipment, the Optio W90 kit includes a woven web fabric strap complete with a carabiner to attach the camera to a backpack and other outdoor gear. The rugged 12.1 megapixel Optio W90 with a 5X optical zoom (28-140mm equivalent) offers photographic performance, innovative features and style that surpass other outdoor compact digital cameras now available on the market.

Optio W90

Waterproof to 20 feet for reliable underwater photography
Shockproof to 4 feet withstanding the rigors of extreme use
Coldproof to sub-freezing temperatures for use in wintery, snowy activities
Digital Microscope mode with LED lens lighting perfectly captures the smallest and closest macro subjects as near as 1cm from the camera
Eye-Fi wireless SD memory card connectivity
Large 2.7 inch LCD with 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio that is easy to view in strong light or underwater
Movie capture in widescreen 720p HD video at 30 frames per second
An HDMI port plays back beautiful high resolution imges and video on HDTVs

Priced at $329.95 USD, the PENTAX Optio W90 will ship in April 2010. A waterproof infared remote control (sold separately) for use with the PENTAX Optio W90 and other infrared compatible Optio models will be available at the same time for $29.95 USD.

Pentax also announced the latest model in the manufacturer’s megazoom digital camera line: the PENTAX X90. With an extra-wide zoom, longer battery life than its predecessor and an electronic viewfinder, the X90 delivers effortless picture-taking in a wide variety of situations to photographers of all levels. The key feature of the Pentax X90 is the 26X megazoom, super-telephoto lens (26-676mm equivalent) also designed with a Macro mode that focuses to less than one inch away to capture images of subjects that are near or far. Other important features Pentax of the X90 include:

12.1 megapixel sensor, ideal for large prints or cropping flexibility
2.7 inch LCD with anti-reflection coating or electronic viewfinder with new diopter adjustment for composing and playback of images and video
Triple Shake Reduction technology includes a high quality mechanical sensor-shift SR mechanism, Digital Pixel Track and high ISO SR, and Movie SR
High speed continuous shooting up to 11 frames per second
Powerful, lightweight Lithium Ion battery and improved power efficiency