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"Form and function go well together: easy to carry point and shoot cam with zoom" on by tennapel
Pros: small size, thin, light and fast. Uses standard sd memory card. Easy menu's. Long battery life
Cons: tiny buttons and you need a dock to recharge. Not so good with low light.
Summary: Given the size of this cam it's a little miracle it works so well and it has got zoom too. Use this cam as a stowed-in-pocket carry around cam and you'll be the happiest person. Don't expect Nikon or Canon SLR results.
If you use your pics mainly oncreen (websites) this camera is excellent; if you are a fan of printed pictures you'd better look around for a 4 or 5 megapixel with a better lense. I use a Coolpix 4500 alongside, but this Casio serves my needs when strolling around cities for quick shots without having to carry a lot of equipment; I like to travel light.
The menu's are easy to understand and the built-in bestshot menu's make it easy to snap pretty good pictures without worrying too much about settings. The rechargable battery lasts an amazing long time and the cam powers up quickly and shuts down even quicker.
The body work is full metal and feels robust, although given it's small size you worry about letting it slip from your fingers a little. I guess it's zoom lense won't take too much beating, so handle with care.Updated
If you are using a Mac it works with iPhoto. Just set your USB transfers to PTP. -
"Longtime Exilim Owner... but not anymore." on by madmike23
Pros: Bought back the stainless steel, Awesome Pics from ceramic lens.
Cons: Refresh time after a flash shot is extremely long... way too long.
Summary: I've own the other 3 Exilim cameras and was so excited to get the new S100 on the first day it came out. Pictures were awesome with the ceramic lens, exellent new features, I'm glad they brought back the stainless steel and speaker.... BUT the refresh time after a Flash Shot is waaaaay too long! The red light that flashes to let you know it's still recovering from the flash is ridiculously too long, and if you press anything (like the shutter button because you NEED to take another picture) it restarts the recovery time. Even if you keep on pressing the shutter button 20 times out of frustration- the red light will keep on blinking. The red light became so annoying that I wanted to chuck this out the window. So I returned it and got a Canon- Very quick recovery time. But I do miss all the features that came with the Casio. I truely hope Casio fix this long delay time on its next Exilim.
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"WOW! looked at loads but this is great" on by bwalpole
Pros: great video quality, quick startup between shots, easy to use, screen is great, fast start-up and shut down, useful docking station
Cons: small instruction manual, basic software, no case supplied, quite quiet sound on video
Summary: i opened this with my mates around and they were amazes at how small and cool it looked. the battery worked without even charging it at now that it is charged the bar never moves. i dont use the supplied software but it works fine with kodak software from a previous camera. i read other reviews and i dont beleive sum of them like witht the long flash recharge (takes about 1.5 seconds)or it blank while saving (for a fraction of a second). this is a great little camera and didnt realise how many people had it at school. good for closeup too. best shots are goot but i cant get pre-shot to work.oveerall a great little camera and quite cheap in comparison to thers i was lookin at. looked at z-55 (discontinued); looked at z-57 expensive and dont ned that high mega pixels unless printin pout huge posters so 3.2 is fine for big 20x30 cm pictures in great quality.
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"Excellent camera for under $250 at present May 2005" on by tlechaos
Pros: Size, 2" display, 26 best shots for easy picture taking
Cons: docking cradle required for picture download.
Summary: I have both the CANON SD100 and CASIO EX-S100. I can honestly say that both are pretty comparable to each other but the EX-S100 wins over the SD100 b/c of it's size and HUGE 2" display. I've taken it travelling and on regular outings by simply slipping it into my pockets. Docking station is a major plus. It's ease of usage by simply placing it in the dock and pressing 1 button to download to PC is wonderful. Only downside is if you are travelling, you have to take along the dock so that you can download to a PC/laptop. EX-S100 inability to use a single cable for download is my only reason for not giving it an EXCELLENT score.
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"Stylish elegance in the palm of your hand" on by TikritDaniel
Pros: Extremely minute, stylish, feature-rich
Cons: Sketchy bundled software
Summary: Naturally, the first thing that needs to be said about this camera is that it is tiny. It really is only a little larger than a credit card (significantly thicker, of course- but still only about 16 milimeters at the most). It is also extremely stylish, sporting a metal casing throughout, with stainless steel screws holding everything together.
Aside from the amazing and powerful features, this camera has some other distinct advantages over others in the same class. First of note is power-on speed. It takes little more than a second from the press of the power button to full-functionality. Furthermore, there is no noticeable delay between shutter-press and capture (this seems to be a recurring trend among even some of the better digital cameras, saddly). This, of course, does not apply to low-light conditions and some manual settings. Also, the image playback speed is excellent. Almost immediately after pressing the button, it will display the last photo taken, eliminating the need to have the photo preview (which can be toggled), allowing multiple action shots. Finally, the battery lasts forever, even with the flash on!
Features include a full suite of manual settings to adjust ISO, color saturation, sharpness, backlit corrections, as well as an EV-shift histogram, which conveniently displays the RGB shift in graphic form to assist amateur photographers perfect shots in certain light conditions. Another photo assist function, called "best shot" mode adjusts all the manual settings automatically for twenty-odd tailored scenarios. One needs simply select the scenario (eg, "scenery", "portrait", "white board", et cetera), then compose the photograph. The flash comes with three modes, including a red-eye, and also has adjustable intensity. Video capture (with audio) comes in at lower-than-average resolution, so probably not the best bet if that's your bag.
Although infinitely more attractive, sleek, and sexy than comparable models from other manufacturers, there are some drawbacks. Sony's closest competitor camera is a 5.0MP, whereas the EX-S100 is capable of only 3.2. The Sony is only slightly larger, and also sports the nifty Carl Zeis lens that sounds as spiffy as it is. We must remember, however, that this is the price you pay to have the world's smallest optical-zoom camera (bragging rights worth the 1.8MP difference). It's not really a price, either, if you consider you'll be paying an average of an additional 50-70 dollars for the Sony (at press time).
All of that notwithstanding, there is one disadvantage that needs to be harped on. The bundled software was weak and uncompelling. The camera doesn't even need any driver installation, so this reviewer ended up uninstalling all the software after a brief (and disappointing) trail run. The photo editing suite is generic and the printer software was confusing and cumbersome (and, hopefully, unnecessary. Simply a copy of Photoshop Elements would have been more than satisfactory.
All-in-all, the author believes nine stars is completely justified insofar as the only disappointment hasn't anything to do with the camera itself. This product is a completely remarkable camera. Although not a revolution of technology, it still stads out against the competition with it's function-packed portability. With it's elegant styling, and attractive stainless-steel chasis, you will certainly be proud to whip it out in parties!
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