DIY Surf Photography With The Pentax W90

By
drexnefex
– April 30, 2010

A few years back i got a big ol waterproof case for my Canon SD450. The camera was good and the case worked great. The only lame thing was how big and bulky the waterproof case was. It was a pain to deal with surfing–difficult to tuck into your wetsuit between sets.

So a couple days ago i picked up the Pentax Optio W90.  IT IS THE SHIZ.

The W90 is a waterproof, 12 mega-pixel, HD video, point-and-shoot digital camera. At full resolution the pictures are 4000×3000 and the HD video runs at 1280×1024/30fps with a 5x optical zoom. It’s waterproof, shock proof, dirt/dust/sand proof, cold proof, and beer proof. It’s small and lightweight. Best of all it’s super easy to tuck into your wetsuit. I comes with a little carrybeaner lanyard that you can clip onto your zipper or elasto cord thingy. The on/off and shutter button are plenty big to use with gloves on.  The menu buttons aren’t super big so if you have to use gloves, it’s best to get your cam settings dialed pre-paddle.

If you have a wetsuit with a little chest pocket/flap zone (i have and Xcel suit) this camera tucks in there perfectly.  I doesn’t get in the way paddling, or create a gap where water can get in.

Additionally the W90 has a pretty fast burst shutter mode.  You can shoot 6 frames in about 1.1 seconds.  Plenty for getting that sweet handrail sequence.  It also has a super macro.  You can snap shots of stuff up to 1cm away.  And it has little LED lights that you can turn on for extra lighting on close up shots.

Navigating the cameras operating system/firmware wasn’t the most intuitive at first–i’m used to Canon.  Setting up manual settings was a bit tricky but they have pre-configured shooting modes for just about every scenario you could imagine.

Here’s a few shots from the other weekend:

In addition to being an excellent camera for water related activities…this could also be a good camera for someone who’s prone to breaking small electronic devices.  Need to bring your camera to the bar to get those rad drunk party pics for Facebook?  Ever drop your camera to the floor and watched it explode into smithereens?  Have a hard time holding your camera AND double fisting? Get the Pentax W90.  It’s drunk proof.

The camera run about $3hundo with tax/shipping on Amazon. I got mine in a couple days via USPS. More info here.

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