Casio's EX-Z57 digital camera is Casio's latest 5 mega pixel camera.  If you aren't aware already, Casio is known for making slim cameras which are packed full of features.  The EX-Z57 falls into that category.  It is slim and offers more or less the same features as EX-Z55 which was reviewed previously.  In fact, they both look very similar.  What makes these slim cameras so attractive is their portability and style.  These cameras can be easily placed in your pocket wherever you go without the need having to carry the bulk of much larger cameras.  For the beginner or novice, these cameras provide the features which make it easy to use.  As a versatile, easy-to-use camera, a user can simply take the camera out, take a picture, and put it away.
 

I will be referring to Casio's EX-Z55 camera frequently in this review.  If you aren't already familiar with the camera, I suggest taking a look at the previous review on our website.  The main attraction on the EX-Z57 is the large 2.7 inch LCD screen, as opposed to the smaller 2.5 inch LCD screen on the EX-Z55.  A large LCD screen translates to better viewing and readability, especially for older users.  Also, a larger screen may help you to frame and take pictures better.  Since the large LCD screen takes up a lot of the room on the back of the camera, Casio had to sacrifice the small optical viewfinder.  A viewfinder is useful in taking shots in very low-light areas where it may be already difficult using the LCD screen.  The viewfinder on the EX-Z55 was incredibly small anyways, therefore, the sacrifice of the viewfinder on the EX-Z57 is justifiable.
 

The controls of the camera have been thought out thoroughly and are appropriately placed on the camera.  At the right hand side of the back of the camera, you have your zoom buttons, record and playback modes, and a directional pad.  As a clarification, the record and playback modes allow to switch modes when you want to take pictures or view the pictures you have taken.  The zoom buttons are small, but easy to press.  The directional pad is also very useful. With the use of the directional pad, you can easily switch the flash mode, or change the focus mode easily.  The directional pad also serves as an intuitive way of navigating through the menus of the camera.  The power on/off and snapshot buttons are located directly on top of the camera.  The power button is small to help prevent accidental presses, but it very accessible when it needs to be used.  The snapshot button is a joy to use, it is firm, yet sensitive to presses.   You can easily take a picture with a light touch with either hand.  Press the button gently half-way, and it will auto-focus your picture.  Press it a little more and it will take the picture.
 

At the bottom of the camera, there is a screw-in hole if you ever need to place the camera on a tripod.  Access to the battery compartment is also at the bottom.  The camera includes a Lithium ion battery which advertises up to 400 snapshots.
 

In order to view your pictures, you can either place the camera in the nice-fitting cradle, or you can take the SD card out of the camera and place it in a card reader.  The cradle makes it to transfer your pictures.  Just place the camera on the cradle and press the USB button in order to allow your computer to recognize the camera and transfer the pictures.  Windows XP was able to immediately recognize the camera without any additional software.  The pictures can then be transferred to your computer's hard drive with the use of File Explorer.  I typically take a mix of both flash and non-flash shots.  I was surprised when I was able to take more than the advertised 400 snapshots.  The battery compartment also houses an SD card slot.  The camera comes with a built-in 9.3 Megabytes of flash memory, which allows you to take only several full 5 mega pixel shots, but that is certainly not enough.  You will definitely need to invest in an SD card in order to take more pictures.
 

The camera's menu provides quite a bit of functionality.  You navigate the menu by using the directional pad.  You can access specific features such as adjusting the white balance.  If you are the kind of person who likes to adjust these minor settings frequently, it may take a few more button pressed compared with cameras with manual features.  The camera does offer preset camera settings for different scenes.  I found that these presets generally worked well and quite a few are offered to help you with unique shots.

The picture quality is more or less the same as the EX-Z55 digital camera.  The picture quality is good.  Most people say that the picture quality of a Canon-brand digital camera is better than these kinds of camera, but most people will not notice the difference at all unless they look extremely close at the pictures.  The picture quality of the EX-Z57 will satisfy the majority of the users.  I have been using the EX-Z55 with most of these reviews lately and I am more and more impressed with the picture quality as I use it more.  In other words, the picture quality is also influenced by the user.  Just keep the camera on automatic mode and it will do just fine for most users.

The camera does contain additional features such as voice and video recording, but users might not use these features as much since they are only mediocre.  The video is recorded at a low 320 x 240 resolution.  This needs to be bumped up to 640 x 480 in order to make this feature more attractive.
 

The Casio EX-Z57 is nice addition to the Exilim series.  Although there were very minor changes, they are still certainly welcome.  At the price range of $400, this camera is priced the same as the EX-Z55, however, you may find the EX-Z55 for less since it has been out for a while already.  This makes the EX-Z55 a great value.  The EX-Z57 is a good camera that takes good pictures.  The larger screen is a nice feature, but it still contains the same number of pixels as the smaller number of screens.  I would like Casio to increase the number of pixels on the screen so that the pictures on the LCD screen will become clearer and sharper.

Reviewed by ronald@digitalreviews.net