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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. |
Packaging/Contents
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.
A Closer Look at the Z-50
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.
Installation
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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Functionality
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.
Picture Quality/Performance
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.
*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.
Battery Life/Picture Capacity
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.
Conclusion
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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