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01 DEC 2004 |
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Casio Exilim Z-50 Digital Camera |
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When people
think of digital camera brands,
most immediately think of well
known and popular brand names
such as Canon, Nikon, Olympus,
etc. How many people
consider the name 'Casio' when
it comes to digital cameras?
When I think of Casio, I usually
think of their quality and
unique electronic watches.
Casio has been in the digital
camera market for quite a number
of years now. The main
focus of Casio's product line is
the Exilim series which is
composed of cameras both for the
consumer or for an amateur or
professional photographer.
The upscale cameras are part of
the 'Pro' line and the snapshot
consumer cameras are their
"Zoom" line. Today, I will
be reviewing Casio's latest
Exilim Z-50 digital camera.
This camera is meant for quick
snapshots. This camera
sports a large 2 inch LCD screen
on the back of the screen and an
outstanding 5 mega pixels in an
extremely small package. |
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I was surprised at
how small a box the camera came in.
Usually, when people purchase a digital
camera, it comes in a package about the
size of a shoe box. The package
includes the camera itself, a wrist
strap, a docking cradle, AC adapter,
instructions, and a software
installation CD. Overall the
package is fairly complete because it
has most of the stuff you would expect
when purchasing a digital camera.
The only thing I did not find in the
package that was expected was a carrying
case for the camera. The camera
was just wrapped in a very thin foam
pocket. Be prepared to purchase a
carrying case for the camera if you
don't have one already.
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Overall, the camera
has a very stylish look with its
polished aluminium casing. This
makes the camera rather durable to
unnecessary scratches to the occasional
bump to the camera. The beauty of
this camera is how incredibly small this
is. When I first used Canon's
PowerShot S400 digital camera, I thought
that was very small for a digital
camera. When you look at Casio's
Z-50, it will make the S400 seem much
bigger and bulkier.
The front
of the camera looks well refined.
It has a 3x optical zoom using a SMC Pentax zoom lens. The flash is
located at the top middle of the camera,
but leaning a bit to the left.
The top of the
camera only contains two buttons.
There is an on/off switch and there is
the snapshot button. The on/off
button is very small and can be easily
pressed with the tip of one's finger.
I was surprised at how comfortable and
soft the snapshot button was. With
just a light press, it allows you to
auto focus on an object. Then when
you press the button a bit further, a
picture is taken.
The back of the
camera contains all the important
features of the camera. Again, all
the buttons and features were placed
with user comfort in mind. On the
left side of the camera contains the
viewfinder and the large 2 inch LCD
screen. Since the viewfinder on
the camera is quite small, it is ok to
use for general shots, but it can become
difficult sometimes to see what you're
trying to take. Therefore, I
suspect most people to use the LCD
screen instead to help take their
snapshots. For such a compact camera,
the LCD screen is proportionately
satisfying. If the LCD screen
still doesn't satisfy you (which I would
find hard to believe), you can opt for
Casio's Z-55 Exilim camera which almost
virtually identical to the Z-50 except it has an even
larger 2.5" LCD screen and a slightly
longer battery life. When I placed
my finger firmly right in the middle of
the LCD screen, I was surprised at how
well the screen didn't easily show dirt
and fingerprints. The screen has
been designed well so it will stay and
look clean.
Buttons on the back
of the camera include two zoom buttons:
one is to zoom in and the other to zoom
out. Right above the LCD screen
are another two buttons: one is to put
the camera in 'record' mode, the other
to view recorded pictures. To the
right of the LCD screen is a directional
pad with a button in the middle.
In addition there is a 'menu' and
'display' button above and below the
directional pad. The buttons match
well with the aluminium casing of the
camera and are very easy to push.
Lastly, the bottom of the camera is
where rechargeable battery is held and
has a plug which makes the connection
with the cradle. If for some
reason, you would like to use the camera
on a tripod, there is an open screw hole
at the bottom.
To open the battery
compartment, you just slide the cover to
the right and the lid will spring
lightly to the side. Inside is
where you place the provided lithium ion
battery as well as an expansion Secure
Digital (SD) card if you have one
available. The lithium ion battery
is also quite small and snaps into place
once it is placed into the camera.
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Installing
the camera is very easy to do.
All you need to do is to
assemble the cradle by placing
it on your desk or table.
Then you need to plug in the
provided AC adapter and plug it
into the cradle to allow the
camera to recharge itself while
sitting in the cradle.
Then you place the provided
lithium ion battery into the
camera and close the cover.
Place the camera in the cradle
to begin charging the camera.
After charging the camera for
about 5 hours, I was ready to
go. Casio has provided a
software CD which contains
drivers if you happen to be
using a much older version of
Windows. The software does
have PhotoLoader and PhotoHands
which is software used to manage
and touch up your pictures if
necessary. To demonstrate
how easy this camera was to use,
I was able to use the camera
without the software at all.
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Click to enlarge
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When using the camera in record
mode, there is information displayed on the LCD screen
such as the number of pictures remaining, battery life,
time and date, and the quality level you are taking your
pictures.
When using the camera, quick
settings can be made either by using the buttons on the
back of the camera or you can use their simple menu
based system to access other snapshot settings. By
pressing the directional 'up' key when in record mode,
you can switch between the different focus modes, Auto
focus allows the camera to automatically focus the
picture itself, manual focus allows you to focus
on your own, infinity focus is used to take pictures of
scenery and for overall long distance coverage, macro
focus allows you to take close-up pictures, and pan
focus is used when you want both the background and
foreground to be in focus. When pressing the
directional 'down' button, you can immediately disable
or enable the flash on the camera.
The actual menu of the camera is
where you can adjust settings such as a the size and
quality of the pictures, EV shift, white balance, ISO
speed, AF area, sharpness, saturation, contrast, etc.
You can tell the camera which settings to have when the
camera is turned off and on. The last setup menu
allows you to change basic settings such as the time and
date, power settings, language, and sounds. With
all the settings, the menus are easy to navigate through
making it easy to fine tune the settings to your needs.
What's unique about this camera is
the 'Bestshot' mode. The Bestshot mode can be
accessed through the menu button. In this mode,
there are a variety of common snapshot situations such
as scenery, text, night scenes, natural green, food,
etc. These describe common situations that people
usually take pictures of. When selecting one of
them, the camera will automatically be tuned to the
specific type of picture you are going to take.
Although I found the Bestshot mode to work rather well,
the only downside is that you might have to constantly
go through the menu to select a snapshot situation.
I was able to take a nice sunset picture with one of
provided 'Bestshot' modes. If I didn't use the 'Bestshot'
mode and just took the picture with auto-focus, there
was a strange blue line that showed up in the picture.
Overall, the camera has great
functionality. The functionality of this camera
suggests that this is intended mostly for beginner to
intermediate snapshot users. The menu system works
great, but amateur to advanced photographers who like to
constantly fiddle with manual settings may find the menu
system a bit tedious when trying to make extremely quick
adjustments.
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When
turning on the camera, the
camera was very responsive being able to extend the
lens in a very low 1.5 seconds.
This allows the user to quickly
initiate the camera in
situations where you might need
to take a very quick picture.
The quick start-up of the camera
makes it appropriate for those
who travel a lot.
For a
camera in such a small package,
I was generally impressed with
the picture quality of this
camera. In addition, the
compact size of the camera made
it a joy to use. I was
able to carry the camera in my
pocket. Before I talk
about picture quality, I just
have to mention that although
the LCD screen is quite large, I
found that the LCD screen
sometimes didn't justify the
picture quality of the
snapshots. For instance,
after viewing the pictures I
took on the LCD screen of the
camera, the pictures sometimes
looked slightly blurry and
awkward on the
LCD. I looked at the
specifications of the LCD and it
has an odd resolution of 354 x
240. When comparing this
resolution to the resolutions of
the pictures taken at different
megapixels, the aspect ratio of
the LCD screen doesn't conform
well to the resolutions of the
different megapixels.
Therefore, I suspect that is the
cause of the pictures showing up
a bit awkward on the 2 inch LCD. After transferring
the pictures and viewing the
pictures on my computer, they
were in fact not blurry at all.
Because of this, I am
occasionally unsure sometimes if
I have taken a good picture or
not.
The
picture quality of the camera is
generally good. I took a
variety of both indoor and
outdoor shots. For outdoor
snapshots, the pictures revealed
a lot of detail. For
instance, the pictures of the
beach, parking lot, and the car
all reveal fine detail and
quality. I did notice that
it did have slight trouble
capturing faster movement.
For instance, I took a picture
of my roommate in his raincoat
while it was raining outside.
Probably because of the pouring
rain, noise showed up in the
picture, but it was still
controlled noise. On the
other hand, I happened to take a
picture of an unusual large
group of birds flying over a
random building. I was
amazed at how well the picture
turned out, you can practically
see very single bird flying in
the air with clarity.
Indoor shots seemed to have
better quality than outdoor
shots.
Even when taking a picture in
low light to almost complete
darkness, I was amazed at how
well focused the pictures turned
out with the use of the flash.
I did notice that the pictures
taken indoors had the tendency
to have more vivid colors since
the sunlight didn't saturate
the colors.
Let's not forget to mention that
this camera does have a macro
mode. Since this camera is
ideal for travel, macro mode is
very appropriate because it
allows you to take close up
pictures of things such as bugs,
rocks, and other small objects. You can get as close
as 6 cm to your subject.
The macro mode worked well
without a hitch. When
taking a macro picture of a
plant, the camera was able to
still capture the detail.
In the picture, I was able to
see the veins and texture of the
plant.
As an extra feature, this camera
does have a movie record mode.
In this mode, you are able to
use the camera almost like a
camcorder to capture those
moments where pictures alone are
not enough. All you have
to do is to go to the menu and
indicate that you want to
capture video. Yes, you
will also be able to capture
sound with the built in
microphone. Since this
camera has a microphone, Casio
took advantage of it and also
offered a voice recording mode.
With a 256MB SD card that I put
in the camera, I was able to
capture about less than half an
hour of video with sound.
The video recording feature
should be considered an 'extra'
feature of the camera, and
should not be used as a
dedicated camcorder. Since
the recorded video is only 320 x
240, the video is mediocre
because it's about the same
quality and resolution that a
typical webcam can capture.
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*Due to limited bandwidth
issues, the pictures have been
resized to fit properly in this
review. If you would like
to see larger or full size
pictures, please email me.
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If you aren't aware already, there hasn't
been a standard for a long time when measuring the battery life
of a camera. Therefore, the battery life that companies
report may vary from one manufacturer to another. The
Exilim Z-50 has a reported battery life of 390 pictures on a
single charge based on the CIPA standards. If you are
interested in learning more about the standards used, you may go
to the website
http://www.cipa.jp/english. There, they have extensive
documents on their established standards for cameras.
The
reason that this camera is able to take that many pictures on a
single charge is because of it's power saving features.
When you are in the recording mode and you leave the camera
inactive for a short while, the camera will automatically turn
off the LCD screen. If you wait even further, the camera
will retract the lens and turn off. When viewing your
pictures in playback mode, the camera will leave the lens
retracted and you will be able to view your pictures
instantaneously. Switching between pictures is also
instantaneous with just a press of the left or right buttons on
the directional pad of the camera.
I was
able to get nearly the full 390 picture battery life by doing a
continuous shooting of 376 pictures. With a 256MB
Simpletech high-speed Pro X Secure Digital card, you can easily
take well over 100 pictures at a full 5 megapixel quality.
Considering that SD cards are cheap these days, I would
recommend buying at least 256MB's worth.
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Casio has created a unique camera that is
stylish, compact, and powerful all at the same. If the
camera were any smaller, you'd probably have to start
sacrificing those megapixels. The picture quality of this
camera was good, but not the best in our tests. Having used the camera for
several weeks now, this camera has been a joy to work with and
very easy to carry around. Being mobile allows you to
capture those shots that you might have not taken with a larger
camera. Although the camera has a nice, easy to read,
large 2 inch LCD screen, I was sometimes unsure whether I had
taken an absolutely clear snapshot because of the odd
discrepancies between the resolution of the screen and the
resolution of the pictures. In addition, for such a small
camera, it would have been better if Casio provided a case for
this camera. Overall, I have to admit that Casio has done
their homework. Every feature of this camera has been well
thought out with the consumer in mind.
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Reviewed by
ronald@digitalreviews.net
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