Ricoh has announced its newest waterproof, digital, compact camera! The PENTAX WG-90 is coming in early 2024, boasting the best features of WG series all-weather adventure cameras, including their rugged chassis, waterproof and shock-resistance, all under the renowned Pentax brand, known for dustproof, waterproof and weather-resistant products. The PENTAX WG-90 adventure camera just needs an adventure to go on!
The PENTAX WG-90 is a compact, waterproof digital compact camera with a lightweight body that features a high-performance, five-times optical zoom lens with a focal-length coverage from 5mm to 25mm (equivalent to approx. 28mm to 140mm in the 35mm format). Its back-illuminated, 16-megapixel CMOS image sensor and high-performance imaging engine ensures excellent high-sensitivity and low-noise characteristics and high-speed readout of image data signals. Coupled with a high-performance imaging engine, this image sensor delivers a top sensitivity of ISO 6400 and super-high-resolution images with approximately 16.0 effective megapixels. It also provides advanced image processing functions, made possible by super-resolution technology, to deliver sharper, clearer, higher-resolution images. It even offers such innovative shooting features as Handheld Night Snap mode, which automatically produces a single, blur-free composite image using several images of the same nighttime scene.
Offered in either an attractive blue or classic black body finish, the WG-90 assures outstanding reliability and operability even under harsh conditions where ordinary compact cameras and smartphones may be unusable. Its outdoor-friendly monitor swiftly optimizes the image brightness level to improve the visibility of a scene in bright outdoor locations. It also features a built-in ring light with six LED Macro Lights with adjustable illumination levels that powers the PENTAX-original Digital Microscope mode, allowing the user to capture clear, vivid images of a microscopic world normally undetectable to the naked eye. The WG-90 can be used for a wide range of scenes and subjects, ranging from casual snapshots to outdoor and underwater photography, and even in specialized worksite applications.
The WG-90 provides Full HD movie recording using the H.264 recording format, letting the user capture high-quality, extended movie clips (1920 X 1080 pixels, 16:9 proportions) at a frame rate of 30 frames per second. To add some creative touches to movie recording, it also features a high-speed camera function for slow-motion playback of captured movie clips and an interval movie function. Underwater and Underwater Movie shooting modes are programmed to effectively compensate for the loss of contrast caused by the diffusion of light in the water while enhancing the reddish hues which fade away in the water. These underwater-exclusive modes capture sharp, clear images of underwater scenes. In the Underwater mode, the Flash Off + Flash On option allows the user to consecutively capture two images with a single shutter release, one without flash and another with flash.
The WG-90 provides other user-friendly shooting functions such as the Intelligent Zoom function that extends the zoom range by approximately 36 times (equivalent to 1008mm in the 35mm format) for super-high-magnification telephotography without compromising image quality. As well, as an interval shooting mode that comes in handy for fixed-point photography. The WG-90 also boasts triple anti-shake protection to prevent blurred images in all applications.
- Pixel Track SR mechanism: When recording still images, this advanced shake-reduction mechanism effectively compensates for camera shake by digitally processing affected images.
- Digital SR mode: When the camera detects low-light conditions in still-image shooting, this mode automatically raises the sensitivity to as high as ISO 6400, making it possible to use a higher shutter speed and effectively minimize the adverse effect of camera shake and subject shake in poor lighting conditions.
- Movie SR mode: During movie recording, this mode effectively compensates for the misalignment of images caused by camera shake through the use of exclusive software to produce beautiful, blur-free movie clips.
The WG-90 comes equipped with a 2.7-inch LCD monitor with horizontally expanded 16:9 proportions and approximately 230,000 dots. Thanks to the AR (Anti-Reflection) coating applied to its surface, the monitor minimizes annoying glare and reflections to ensure a sharp, clear on-screen image, even in the harsh sunshine often encountered during outdoor shooting. It also provides the Outdoor View Setting mode, which automatically optimizes the monitor’s brightness level for a given lighting condition to improve the visibility of the on-screen image.
Thanks to its heavy-duty construction, the WG-90 performs superbly and dependably even in harsh, demanding outdoor conditions. It is designed to be waterproof down to a depth of 14 meters (46 feet for up to two hours of continuous operation (equivalent to IPX 8 or JIS Class 8). As well, it is shockproof against a fall from a height of five feet (1.6 meters), freeze-proof against temperatures as low as -10°C (14°F) and crushproof against weights up to 100 kgf (kilogram-force).
The PENTAX WG-90 will be available in early 2024. To stay up to date on this release, sign up for our Newsletter!
