The Casio Exilim EX-Z300 is a 10.1-megapixel point-and-shoot with a zoom range of 28-112mm (35mm equivalent). The thin metal body easily slips into a shirt pocket, but getting a good grip can be an issue. The new image processor enables you to shoot at higher ISOs (range is 64-3200) with relatively low noise levels. I shot at night and indoors at ISO 1600 and, although there was noise and loss of detail, I was impressed with overall dynamic range and image quality of Casio’s new Exilim EX-Z300. Camera movement is minimized by mechanically shifting the sensor or raising the ISO to allow faster shutter speeds.

The Exilim EX-Z300 really takes auto exposure to a whole new level, with a limited selection of shooting modes. Auto: A limited auto shoot mode, with metering, white balance, and various other adjustments. Best Shot: Casio’s general preset mode. Best Shot Auto: A fully auto scene selection tool, where the Exilim EX-Z300 selects from one of the Best Shot mode’s 39 presets. And finally Movie: The movies are captured by the Exilim EX-Z300 at an astounding 1280X720 at 24 frames per second.

Sadly, the zoom becomes disabled in movie mode on the Exilim EX-Z300 which is a bit of a drawback. Face recognition stores up to six faces as references for future shots. Press the dedicated Make-up Shot button before taking a shot, and the Exilim EX-Z300 applies 12 degrees of airbrushing to smooth blemishes, wrinkles, and remove harsh shadows without over softening. The Exilim EX-Z300 uses SD cards and records JPEG, MOV, and WAV formats. The 3″, 230,400-pixel LCD screen holds up well in bright outdoor light. To the right of the LCD is an intuitive five-button control panel and a four-way navigational pad whose right- and left-navigational arrows can be programmed to adjust ISO, EV compensation, etc.

Pressing the Set button on the Exilim EX-Z300 brings up a panel of frequently used features on the LCD that can be adjusted quickly, sparing a trip through the menus. This is a totally automatic camera with no aperture or shutter priority modes. On the Exilim EX-Z300 there are 38 Best Shot preset scene modes that can be used as a workaround: Landscape gives you maximum depth of field; Sports gives you a fast shutter speed; etc.

Image quality on the Exilim EX-Z300 is very good up to ISO 400, but general performance suffers with a 3-sec. lag between shots. Overall, Casio has created a decent beginner level camera at a decent cost.

by Haley Hutzel

By now I am quite familiar with what to look for in a digital camera. Therefore when I tried out the Casio EXILIM S10, I wasted little time in looking for the features one would expect and want in a digital camera. This is my review on the camera.

The EXILIM series of digital cameras by Casio, as its name says, are meant to be compact. True to its name, the S10 is extremely small and compact. At a mere 94mm x 55mm x 15mm, it is one of the thinnest cameras I have ever seen, and I am not exaggerating even a little. The camera was so small that it fit easily into my pocket without causing a bulge. On top of that, the camera weighs only 113 grams. In my opinion, that is the ideal weight any digital camera should have. Not too light as to go unnoticed and not too heavy to cause any inconvenience.

The S10 takes pictures of up to 10.1 megapixels. That is more than the average resolution of digital cameras in the market nowadays. The pictures taken are clear, detailed and colorful. It also has a 3x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom value. 3x digital zoom is way too little for a camera such as this. 5x would have been just nice. There is a slight occurrence of image noise when the pictures are digitally zoomed or when pictures are taken at night.

Next, we come to the camera’s video taking capabilities. The videos taken are clear and colorful. However, it is a little too large and memory is taken up too quickly. There also appears to be a little bit of lagging when video is taken. In one video, the sound and the images in the video were not in proper timing, so to speak. It happened only once but this is something I felt must be mentioned. Other than that, the audio/video quality itself was good.

Here some are other things about the camera that I think should be mentioned. The camera comes with 12MB of internal memory, which is never enough. The memory can be expanded with SD or MMC cards. The battery life of this camera is above average, which is good. I could take a few hundred pictures before having to charge the camera. The red eye reduction function works perfectly fine and never did I red a picture that has red eyes in it. Lastly, the camera does not have a proper image stabilization function. Therefore, if you have shaky hands, try not to zoom and take pictures because the pictures will definitely turn out blur.

This is a good camera actually. Too bad it is lacking some important features that would make this camera great.