Pentax W90 for Street Photography

Is the Pentax W90 good for Street Photography?

Pentax W90 Street Photography Score

POOR

Pentax W90 has a score of 36 for Street Photography which makes it a POOR candidate for this type of photography. If Street Photography is important for you, we strongly recommend you to consider the Alternative cameras listed at the bottom of this page.
Read our detailed Pentax W90 Review

Pentax W90 Street Photography Detailed Analysis

Manual Focus Mode

You can use the manual focus mode of your camera to Zone Focus which is a popular technique used in street photography.

Live-view

Live view lets you take photos without using the viewfinder which makes you less obstrusive and this works very well during street photography where you don't want to get people's attention.

28 mm - Good Wide Angle Coverage

Having a good wide angle coverage becomes very important in street photography.

Small Body

Small body of Pentax W90 will get less attention from the people in streets and give you an amateur look, which is indeed an advantage for street photography.

No Built-in Viewfinder

In the lack of a a viewfinder, holding the camera away from the body while using live view is not very stable, especially with heavy camera bodies and lenses. Besides, LCD screens are very hard to read under bright sunlight.

No Image Stabilization

An articulated screen gives you the flexibility to shoot in non traditional positions such as waist level, which helps you to be more creative and unobtrusive in the streets.

No RAW shooting capability

Lack of Image stabilization may result in blurry photos especially in long exposures and at long focal lengths

Small 1/2.3" (6.17 x 4.55 mm) sensor

JPEG files are generally more attractive direct out of the camera but RAW files contains much more color information compared to JPEGs, and gives you more room for post processing without significant quality loss. They provide wider dynamic range and option to recover shadow and highlight clipping to some degree.

You may also be interested in these reviews:

Pentax W90 for Portrait Photography
Pentax W90 for Sports Photography
Pentax W90 for Carrying Everywhere
Pentax W90 for Landscape Photography

Pentax W90 Alternatives in Compact cameras for Street Photography

Olympus XZ-2 iHS Compare W90 vs XZ-2 iHS	12 MP \| 1/1.7-inch CMOS Sensor 28-112 mm Lens	Rank in All Cameras: #314 Rank in Compact Cameras: #12
	Imaging Features Value for Money Portability 90 Overall Score	Portrait Street Sports Daily Landscape

Casio EX-10 Compare W90 vs EX-10	12 MP \| 1/1.7-inch CMOS Sensor 28-112 mm Lens	Rank in All Cameras: #322 Rank in Compact Cameras: #10
	Imaging Features Value for Money Portability Overall Score	Portrait Street Sports Daily Landscape

Nikon P7800 Compare W90 vs P7800	12 MP \| 1/1.7-inch BSI-CMOS Sensor 28-200 mm Lens	Rank in All Cameras: #248 Rank in Compact Cameras: #1
	Imaging Features Value for Money Portability Overall Score	Portrait Street Sports Daily Landscape

Pentax MX-1 Compare W90 vs MX-1	12 MP \| 1/1.7-inch CMOS Sensor 28-112 mm Lens	Rank in All Cameras: #411 Rank in Compact Cameras: #25
	Imaging Features Value for Money Portability Overall Score	Portrait Street Sports Daily Landscape

Samsung EX2F Compare W90 vs EX2F	12 MP \| 1/1.7-inch BSI-CMOS Sensor 24-80 mm Lens	Rank in All Cameras: #380 Rank in Compact Cameras: #23
	Imaging Features Value for Money Portability 93 Overall Score	Portrait Street Sports Daily Landscape

Olympus XZ-2 iHS

Casio EX-10

Nikon P7800

Pentax MX-1

Samsung EX2F