For as inexpensive as this camera is, I was expecting the photo quality to be much worse. Instead the Z33 actually takes very good photos at and below ISO 200. There's visible noise at all but the lowest ISO if you closely examine your photos, but it doesn't become much of an issue until ISO 400, where you pick up some yellow blotching. The mix of noise and reduction is good enough to keep most fine detail, though. It isn't until ISO 800 and above that subjects get really soft and smeary and the yellowing becomes more noticeable. Your best bet is to stay at ISO 400 and below, so you'll either need a lot of light or to use the flash.
Though it's not a wide-angle lens, there's visible barrel distortion at the camera's widest position. At just 3x, the long end of the zoom doesn't display any pincushion distortion. There is noticeable purple fringing in high-contrast areas on some of my test shots, but it is within a normal range for this class of camera.
Colors are nice and natural-looking, if not terribly accurate. White balance is quite good, too. Photos were occasionally underexposed, but it's easily remedied by either adjusting prior to shooting in camera, using one of the Best Shot modes, or with basic photo editing software after.
The final rating on this camera doesn't really tell the whole story. In all, the Casio Exilim EX-Z33 is a very good camera for the money. It's an attractive, uncomplicated ultracompact that takes a decent snapshot. You just have to remember not to move until the camera captures your photo; the same goes for your subjects.
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
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(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
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