Pentax Service Dept?

[anacrime]

Anyone have to send their cameras in for repair / warranty replacement? Just wondering as to what kind of turn around time to expect.

I some how banged my W90 a little too hard on my last trip and the inner LCD busted. Sent it in a few days ago, anxiously waiting its return.

[johnnhoj]

I'm looking for a good all weather camera, how do you like yors?

[rkfiske]

Shane let me know your experience, got the same camera.

[anacrime]

I'm looking for a good all weather camera, how do you like yors?

IMO it is best in its class.

But I've only had experience with Olympus waterproof cameras. I've had about a handful of em over the years. The Olympus has a slightly better macro, but the Pentax takes muchhhh better landscapes.

[atomicfly]

i bought a W90 almost a year ago. first time in the water (swimming pool) i think it leaked or picked up some condensation because ever since then aiming at any strong light source (sun/lightbulbs) shows a terrible purple flaring which shows on both the screen and in the final picture. even a year later. i should have sent it back or in for repair (so this thread has me interested in pentax' turnaround time). my boss bought one too but did not have that problem. and i was very careful about closing the bottom hatch to form a good seal. and being new i can't imagine anything got in there to cause a seal problem.

it's grainy on 400asa or higher. usable but more grain than i like.

you cannot zoom while shooting video. have to stop, zoom, start again. i think most are like that but not sure.

battery orientation takes some attention when inserting. you have to look inside and find the sensors, and make sure the battery goes in the right way. it CAN be inserted incorrectly. hopefully they've corrected that.

battery life sucks. 3/4 day on the water and it can die on you. i carry a power inverter in the car and the charger. a spare battery would help.

good things? the macro ROCKS. very high quality, sharp images. it continues to amaze friends.

very fast startup from off. but then i have very little experience with current P&S cameras. i'm just judging from my experience with a 5-8 year old nikon P&S.

wide angle is fantastic.

presumably you can drop it and it'll act like a timex. i have yet to test that. water resistance, if that's my original problem, is questionable on select versions of the camera, like mine. which i still dunk every so often but at least it's not getting worse.

i work as a newspaper photographer and the still image quality at 200asa in daylight is very good (if you choose the bigger file sizes). i've had shots from that camera run 4 columns wide and you could not tell it was from a sub $5,000 camera. of course we're talking newsprint but even on the computer monitor they looked good.

the three-frame panoramic is cool. i just had a shot of mine run 5 columns wide in color on A1 and it looked just fine. it's kind of difficult to superimpose what you need to in bright sunlight but it can be done. i imagine it'll start breaking up if you make 16x20s prints but smaller like 8x10 should be fine.

and you can shoot in widescreen for both still and video. i've incorporated the 16:9 video in final cut pro with standard HD video camera stuff and you couldn't really tell the difference. unless you had it aimed at a light source. for my camera at least. those videos were done for internet size so the overall final frame size wasn't huge, i think 486 pixels wide though when working on it the frame size was larger.

the front lens element is exposed but i have yet to have a problem with fingerprints let alone scratches. still clear as day one. and i carry it in my pocket most of the time without a case. and i haven't really experimented with all of the modes available yet.

hope that helps. i don't think there's any camera out there in this price field that is perfect. you'll find pros and cons to all models. for a take-along fishing camera shooting scenics and fish outdoors i think it's a good option. personally i'd prefer some manual options but that's not the niche this camera fits. and those that do off manual controls, shouldn't be trusted around water or doing outdoor fun stuffs too much.

eric
fresno, ca.

[anacrime]

Received back today. Itemized list of what they looked at / replaced. Perfect working condition. Covered under warranty

[atomicfly]

so about a 2 week turnaround?

eric
fresno, ca.

[anacrime]

Ya about. Totally reasonable. 2-3 days there and 2-3 days back.

[johnnhoj]

I just bought the Olympus tough 8020. I haven't used it to much yet, just a few shots from my kids' ball games. I was really considering the Pentax wg-1 but I found this one for a realy smokin deal. We shall see how it works. So far so good. Thanks for your review though.