Dynamic range controls are starting to become more popular, although mostly on higher end cameras. The S10 has a Dynamic Range expander (+1, +2 or Off) that does a pretty good job of lightening shadows and retaining detail in those areas but is less adept at holding onto highlight details. Still, it's useful when shooting high-contrast scenes. There are also extras not often found in cameras of this class--and price--such as control over contrast, saturation, and sharpness.
One feature that kind of stumped me is the S10's shutter sensitivity setting, which has a three-step adjustment. The camera has little shutter lag so this just seems like an afterthought. And I could barely tell the difference between the three settings.
Casio does a good job of providing a lot of Best Shot (scene) modes, with everything from two-person self-portrait to fireworks, eBay, and YouTube. Now the S10 records movies in H.264 MOV with AAC audio so Mac users can simply drag and drop their videos into iTunes and then transfer them to iPods or iPhones.
Overall, the S10 is pretty peppy with a fast 1.5-second start-up time and relatively little shutter lag of 0.4 second in high-contrast scenes and 0.8 second in low. Shot-to-shot time is good at 1 second and slows only to 2.3 seconds when using flash. The flash isn't very powerful, though, even when adjusted up one or two steps in the main menu, so don't expect this camera to light up a room. Equipped with three continuous shooting modes, the S10 offers a slow rate of less than one frame per second at full resolution; you can also take three quick consecutive high-resolution shots with flash. If you want more speed, the S10 can deliver at almost 4 fps but you'll end up with low-resolution 1MB files.
ISO starts at 50 and extends only to 1,600 manually; you have to go into the Best Shot mode for High Sensitivity but it's best that you stick with the lowest ISO possible to keep image noise to a minimum. Going above ISO 400 really isn't recommended unless you plan to make snapshot-size prints.
Fussy photographers might not be satisfied with the S10's image quality, and upon close examination, photos are a little soft, especially around the edges where there's significant lens distortion. Colors are reproduced naturally, albeit without much detail. Purple fringing appeared along some high-contrast edges, but not all of them. The S10 is far from being perfect but it looks cool, has some useful features for point-and-shooters who want a little more control, and, frankly, I was pretty happy with most of my snapshots.
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
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Time to first shot | |
Typical shot-to-shot time (flash) | |
Typical shot-to-shot time | |
Shutter lag (dim) | |
Shutter lag (typical) |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Where to buy
Casio Exilim EX-S10 (red):
$399.99
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$399.99 | See Site |
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