Canon Puts Efficiency On Press
Sad to say, many of these modes merit caveats from Casio in the documentation about possibly degrading image quality. That's because most of them work by either increasing ISO sensitivity--unless you set it manually, the camera never seems to drop below ISO 200--or simply not focusing. The aforementioned Keystone correction is in there because the Business Card and White Board modes need it--the the lens is so bad. Pincushioning squeezes pictures inward at the not terribly long telephoto end, and barrel distortion bloats them outward at the not terribly wide-angle end. Thankfully, these effects aren't so noticeable in typical snapshots, as long as you avoid shooting buildings and bridges.
You can't avoid soft, noisy, overprocessed photos, though. The colors aren't bad, but in shots taken using ISO 50 at the highest-quality setting, you can see halos around edges and a whitish stippling. The Exilim EX-Z60 also clips highlights, producing large, flat white areas in outdoor shots. It's hard to tell if red-eye reduction works; the lens's chronic chromatic aberration results in a blown-out catch light in people's eyes with purple fringing that overwhelms any red. The EX-Z60 prefers shooting at ISO 200 and higher--especially its Anti Shake option, which simply increases ISO sensitivity; let's just say that I wouldn't print any of its photos larger than 4x6, and I certainly wouldn't crop them.
It's too bad about the photos because the movies are pretty good. The EX-Z60 offers VGA-resolution, 30fps movies with mono audio and can record up to the capacity of the card. A 2GB SD card holds about 25 minutes of highest-quality movies. Card speed should affect the movie capture; I used a 2GB Kingston Ultimate SD card for testing the EX-Z60. You can't zoom in Movie mode, however.
The EX-Z60's performance holds up well, too. Once you turn it on, it starts shooting in about 2 seconds, with sequential shots taken about 1.8 seconds apart. That's in good light; in poor light, shutter lag bumps from 0.6 second to 1.1 seconds, and using the flash requires 5.1 seconds between photos. There are several burst modes, but the only one that lets you shoot more than three frames and reframe between shots maxes out at less than one frame per second. The 2.5-inch LCD on this viewfinder-less model turned out to be a disappointment, too. It's relatively coarse, and its shiny surface produces quite a bit of glare in bright sunlight, nor is there a way to change its brightness to compensate.
Casio's Exilim EX-Z60 makes a better fashion accessory than a camera. If you're looking for style and photographic substance in the same price range, I suggest you check out Canon's SD series or Nikon's S series of cameras.
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
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Typical shot-to-shot time | |
Time to first shot | |
Shutter lag (typical) |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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