User Review: Pentax EI-C90
==========================

Here's another example of what I am now calling "Digital Disappointment
Syndrome."  The Pentax EI-C90 digital camera on the outside looks to be a
great camera.  It has both an optical viewfinder and a 2" TFT color LCD
playback screen/viewfinder unit that is detachable.  The camera may be used
without the LCD monitor as both units have their own power sources. The EI-C90
camera runs on two CR-2 3v lithium batteries with a claimed life of about 700
exposures without using the flash.  The EI-L90 LCD color monitor is powered by
four standard AA-type batteries, these can be alkaline, lithium, NiCd or
NiMH rechargables, the latter being preferred for longest operating life and
the best bang for the buck.

When the LCD monitor is docked with the camera the power to run both the
camera and the monitor comes from the monitor's AA-cell batteries.  Pentax
is the only camera maker yet that has thoughtfully included the AC power
supply with the camera package instead of making it a $30-50 option - this
is indeed a nice touch.  They also include two CR-2 lithium batteries and
four alkaline AA batteries but as can be expected, the alkaline batteries
don't last very long before needing to be replaced.

The EI-C90 camera itself when undocked from the color monitor is about the
same thickness and length of a pack of cigarettes, it's about 20% wider and
fits comfortably in the palm of your hand.  It comes with 2MB of internal
flash memory that can take 18 "normal" mode or 1 "fine" mode image in a
resolution of 768x560 pixels.  The normal mode are standard JPG images with
a quality factor of 84 (according to ThumbsPlus) that can range in actual
file size from a low of about 30K up to 110K.  Fine mode are uncompressed
TIFF images that generally average about 1.3MB in size.

To extend your picture taking capabilities Pentax has designed the EI-C90
to use standard Type II ATA flash memory cards that are readily available
in sizes from 2MB to 40MB.  I used my 10MB SanDisk Compact Flash card
mounted in the full-size PCMCIA adapter and this allows the camera to take
108 normal mode or 8 fine mode images.

The EI-C90 has a fixed-focus lens that is the equivalent of a 50mm normal
lens on a 35mm camera.  It does not require any adjustments to shoot pictures
from 3 feet to infinity and has a macro setting for shooting from 3 feet down
to 0.8 inches.  When in macro mode you have to use the LCD monitor to avoid
the usual problem of parallax between the taking lens and the optical finder
which are mounted as physically close to each other as possible.  More importantly
the LCD monitor is used for critical focusing in macro mode which is accomplished
by sliding the macro/normal lever up and down.  Even though the color LCD is
fairly big at 2-inches it is still somewhat difficult to tell if the camera is
properly focused or not.  The camera's flash unit is automatically disabled as
soon as you switch it into macro mode so you need plenty of light and a tripod
is highly recommended.

The EI-C90 is rated at ISO 200 which is fairly fast for a digital camera, most
are only rated at ISO 100. It is capable of taking indoor shots without the
flash but these must be done on a tripod to avoid blurring due to camera
movement.  The lens aperture is fixed, the camera adjusts the exposure by
changing shutter speeds from 1/4 to 1/4,000 of a second.  Most of my attempts
to take non-flash pictures in a well-lit indoor environment yielded blurry
images no matter how steady I held the camera.  Flash shots tend to be
consistently 1 to 2 stops underexposed when taken within the camera's rated
flash range of up to 9 feet.  You can compensate for this by setting the EV
override to +1.5 or +2.0.  Outdoor exposures were almost always "on the money"
and the camera's white balance works very well.

The Pentax is much like my Ricoh RDC-2 and other digicams I have used with
an LCD monitor and NTSC video-out capability.  The pictures when viewed on
the camera's LCD look properly exposed and very colorful but when these same
images are viewed on a computer monitor it is a different story.  Most need
to be brightened and further color-corrected before they look the way they
are supposed to look.  The Pentax does NOT show the picture you have taken
on the LCD while it is being stored like most other cameras.  To see an
immediate playback you need to go into playback mode, press the down arrow
button to go to the last picture stored and then press the shutter button.
The LCD monitor can be used as a preview-viewfinder in both normal and
macro modes however.

(The Ricoh RDC-2 is the best camera I've used so far for anyone who needs to
snap pictures in the field and then show them later on a TV screen.  It loads
the pictures quickly and the optional infrared remote control is absolutely
wonderful for controlling playback from across the room.  More digicam makers
need to include the option of an IR remote!)

Unfortunately the bottom line with any digital camera is the final image and
I'm sorry to report that the EI-C90's image quality is not very good.  Even
though its image resolution is higher than most of the point-n-shoot 640x480
digital cameras it is not very detailed.  There is considerable compression
artifacts visible and angled lines tend to be stair-stepped.  Printing even the
uncompressed 1.3MB TIFF images on my Epson Stylus Photo printer looked pretty
pixelly and blotchy at anything bigger than 3.5 x 5 inches.  On the computer
screen the images look their best when reduced 50% and would be appropriate
for email attachments or web page use.

Strangely I saw very little difference between the normal mode JPG images
and the uncompressed TIFF images.  The big difference is the size of the
files and certainly not worth wasting the space on your memory card...

This is the first camera I have owned since my Kodak DC-40 (almost two years
ago) that uses a fixed-focus lens, unless I see another one that works as
well as the old DC-40 it will be the last.  To be completely honest, the
DC-40 takes better quality pictures than the EI-C90 and can be bought now for
about 1/3 the cost.  The Kodak DC-50 also takes a better picture, has an
auto-focusing 3:1 zoom lens and costs $150 less than the Pentax.  Neither of
these Kodak cameras have an LCD monitor but the bottom line is the picture
quality and the Pentax doesn't have it.  I wondered why they didn't have any
sample images online at their web site and now I think it is because they
are too ashamed to post them.

The camera controls are well marked and easy to operate without having to
constantly refer to the manual or do any kind of "double pushing" to
activate secondary functions.  Without the LCD monitor attached you can
easily slip the camera in your pocket and forget you even have it, it's
very small and extremely lightweight.  I have to give this digital camera
a solid "two thumbs down" and hope that Pentax can do better with their
next digital offering.  The suggested retail price is $915 but I bought
it at Camera World of Oregon for $599.  For the about the same price you
can buy the Olympus D-320L, it takes excellent quality pictures and has
both an optical viewfinder and a color TFT LCD monitor.


Steve Sanders (ssander1@tampabay.rr.com)

Visit my Digital Imaging pages at:
http://www.steves-digicams.com