Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera, 6.0 MP, with 60fps High Speed Burst Mode, Full HD Movies, 12x Optical, 4x Digital Zoom, 2.8" HP LCD Screen

by Casio

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 5 x 3.1 inches ; 6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B00155WX90
• Item model number: EX - F1 High Speed
• Batteries: 1 Lithium ion batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,814 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 27, 2008

Product Description

Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera, 6.0 MP, with 60fps High Speed Burst Mode, Full HD Movies, 12x Optical, 4x Digital Zoom, 2.8" HP LCD Screen

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent slow motion camera, ok photos, November 27, 2008

By 

Adam D. Shomsky (Detroit, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera, 6.0 MP, with 60fps High Speed Burst Mode, Full HD Movies, 12x Optical, 4x Digital Zoom, 2.8" HP LCD Screen (Electronics)

Length:: 1:46 Mins

I bought this camera mainly for the high speed video capability, and I have not been disappointed. This camera's high speed video capabilities are far and away the best you can buy in this price range. In fact, I don't think there is anything on the market right now that can match these abilities even if you were willing to pay 2 or 3 times the price of the EX-F1.

High speed video
The closest competitors to the EX-F1 (besides Casio's other high speed video camera, the EX-FH20) are Sony's HD camcorders that can record 240 frames per second (although not in HD) for a whopping three seconds. I've never used one of these cameras, but I have to imagine the 3-second clip length limitation is quite cumbersome to work with. The EX-F1, by contrast, is limited only by a 4 GB file size cap. High speed video (at all three speeds) takes up about 2MB/sec of recording, meaning you can record for about 30 minutes in high speed mode before you reach that 4GB file size limit. Of course, it would take 300 minutes, or 5 hours, to watch back the whole clip if you were shooting 300 fps. That's a limitation I can live with.

The 1200 fps resolution is pretty small and pixilated, but I'm still glad to see that speed is available. I use it sometimes and the results can be quite interesting even if they are thumbnail-size.

One thing you may or may not be aware of is the amount of light required to shoot high speed video. High speed video, by definition, requires very fast shutter speeds. You must use at least 1/300th, 1/600th, or 1/1200th shutter speed to shoot 300, 600, or 1200 frames per second, respectively. Basically that means you need very bright lights or daylight. I can shoot 300 fps indoors with the aperture wide open at ISO 400 using 600W of light pointed directly on the subject. Anything less than that and your video will come out dark and/or grainy. See my youtube video on the subject called "Casio EX-F1 noise level test": [...]

High speed video downsides
I use this camera to shoot high speed video of things like skateboarding. I'll set up the camera on a tripod, start recording, and go try a trick. Often it takes lots of tries to land it, and if it takes me five minutes to land my trick, then I want to play it back to see how it looks. But the only way to get to the end of a video clip is to fast forward through the whole thing, and when you shoot at 300 fps, "fast forward" means about half real speed. That means I'd have to literally sit for ten minutes waiting for the camera to fast forward to the end of the clip so I can see what I just recorded. It would be really handy if there was some way to quickly skip to the part of the video you want to see, like if you could roll the dial and each click would jump 2.5% of the way though the clip, so 40 clicks would get you to the end of a video of any length. But there is no feature like that. Is someone from Casio reading this? Please add this feature or something like it.

Overall, though, I'd say this is an outstanding camera for high speed video and you won't find anything even close to it in a consumer level price range.

HD video
The high definition video looks great, but the problem is I can't edit the highest resolution (1080P) video. Sony Vegas will read 1080P AVCHD files from Sony and Panasonic cameras, but not Casio. I just discovered today that Sony Vegas 6.0a will, however, read 720P HD video from this camera. Since before today I didn't know of any way to edit my HD videos, I have shot very few. I have noticed that the focusing tends to "hunt" a little bit even when shooting in broad daylight. For me, HD video is a bonus because my primary usage of the camera is for high speed video.

Photos:
It may sound strange, but I have taken very few photos with this camera. I have a Canon 350D DSLR and also a Canon 5D DSLR, so I didn't buy the Casio for photos. And it's a good thing, because if your primary interest is photos, you can do better for $1,000 (try a Canon digital rebel). Of course, if you think you will have a lot of usage for the rapid-fire full resolution stills, you won't find another camera that can match that. It looks like a pretty cool feature, and I've tried it out just to see how it works, but I haven't had any real usage for that feature yet.

The macro capability is decent, but it captures the closest photos when the zoom is at its widest angle and you put the camera about an inch from your subject. Needless to say, it is quite difficult to light the subject when the camera lens is looming an inch away. You can move back a bit and zoom in, but the closest focus distance quickly increases as you zoom in, meaning you can't get as close of a macro shot.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great versatility, a bit compromised quality, September 16, 2008

By 

Skaven252 (Finland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera, 6.0 MP, with 60fps High Speed Burst Mode, Full HD Movies, 12x Optical, 4x Digital Zoom, 2.8" HP LCD Screen (Electronics)

The key features in this camera are its overall versatility and its much touted high speed video. In fact, at the time of writing this article, this is the only consumer level digital camera that can do this (some HD video cameras, such as Samsung VP-HMX20C also have this feature, but with take length limitations). Mind you, the high speed video can only be done in limited resolution. At top speed of 1200 frames per second, the resolution drops to 336 × 96, which looks like viewing the action through a half-closed letterbox. As the shutter speed is high, you will also need plenty of light. Indoor lighting won't do at 1200fps, you will need daylight. At 300 fps the resolution is 512 × 384, which is OK for Youtube. Actually, if you're looking for sample videos, try searching Youtube for "EX F1".

About its versatility; this camera can do almost everything. It can go from macro to 12x - both of which also work in high speed, it can take both pictures and shoot full HD video with stereo sound. You can even take still snapshots while shooting video (not available during high speed). It has a 60fps burst shoot capacity which makes it easier to find the perfect moment. The burst shoot can also be used for "digital anti shake" which is handy for shooting distant objects at maximum zoom. I was looking for an automated time lapse feature though.

Handily, the EX-F1 saves its videos directly in H.264 QuickTime format. These pack quite well and are easy to scrub and edit. As a downside, the videos are quite heavily packed, which becomes very evident especially at 1200fps, when pixel motion gets so slow the motion estimation algorithms go overboard and cause warping.

However, whereas the high speed capacity is a nice extra the camera's designer obviously focused on, this technology comes at a price - compromises have been made to keep the price tag reasonable. The image stabilizer doesn't do its job quite as well as you would expect. The optics are not of as high quality as you would expect from a camera in this price range. The image and video packing introduces a lot of artifacts even at highest quality. The CCD is quite noisy, resulting grainy photos even in indoor lighting (considering this, a 60fps burst "digital noise reduction" mode would have been nice).

I can recommend this camera if you are primarily interested in the cool high speed video shooting ability. However, if your top priority is high quality photos, another camera may do a better job at the same price.

Make sure you get a high capacity SDHC memory card with this camera. It doesn't come with one, and HD video requires plenty (720p video fills your card at 1 Mb / second).

REVIEW REVISION, additional comment: There appears to be a lot of crosstalk between the Left and Right channels of the external microphone connector. I tried using the camera with ear-mounted binaural microphones (Soundman OKM Classik), and if I rub only the left microphone, the right channel also gets signal because of the crosstalk. This is usually not a problem, but it hampers the immersion of any binaural recordings. Casio customer support confirmed the crosstalk, but said there's nothing that can be done about it.

Pros:
+ Rather unique high speed super slow motion and burst shooting features
+ Very versatile general purpose camera for both videos and stills
+ Long optical zoom range
+ Fast to use, easy to switch from videos to stills and even take stills during video shooting
+ External microphone jack (with reservations, see above)
+ The menus are sensible and quick to access

Cons:
- No time lapse shot automation (would have been cool if the "time warp" worked both ways)
- The fast and sensitive CCD is rather noisy, resulting grainy photos
- Poor performance in low light conditions, even when shooting normal video or taking still photos
- The image stabilizer could work better
- Occasionally very slow auto focus when shooting video

19 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The most usable hybrid camera money can buy?, July 22, 2008

By 

Timothy Takemoto (Yamaguchi-shi, Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera, 6.0 MP, with 60fps High Speed Burst Mode, Full HD Movies, 12x Optical, 4x Digital Zoom, 2.8" HP LCD Screen (Electronics)

I owned the predecessor, not this camera, but the Casio EX-F1 looks like the hybrid camera of my dreams, *if only the viewfinder flipped out to face the front*.

This looks like an excellent hybrid camera that will fit in the palm of the hand. Though the obsession with pixels that no one uses may never fade, 6M pixels is enough for large prints and should satisfy all non pros. (And some Pros for that matter. I have sold images from my Canon EOS 6.3MP.)

The ability to take a second or two of 6M pictures and choose the frame you want to save is superb for nature, sports and news photography. I heard of a US newspaper company getting their staff to use the Panasonic AG-HVX200 in order to be able to take photo-quality video and then choose the best frame. The Panasonic Pro AG-HVX200 costs 5300 USD.

One reviewer was right to call it "Casio's Time Machine," because

You can leave this camera running all the time, taking photos all the time, and then pressing the shoot button tells it to let you select a frame from x seconds before you pressed the button!

The slow motion at 300FPS is usuable and dreamy. It will brighten up anyones sports videos or just family pictures - see that expression, that toddler walking, that splash in slow motion.

And make no mistake, Video to SD card is the business. SD cards beat the pants off tape, and mini-DVD because you can access any video you have taken in any order like files on a HD. And SD cards are becoming so cheap (now < 30USD for 8GB SD cards which will shoot 2 hours of HD movie) that soon people will purchase a new SD for each shoot to keep as backup like in the days of tape. SD video is P2 for the masses, at a realistic price.

Important for me is the fact that this camera has an external microphone input so you can take good sound and allow you to do reportage and interviews. So many Japanese cameras do not have a microphone input. The comparable Panasonic Panasonic HDC-SD9 does not have a microphone so when you shoot video you pick up all the sounds in the room. Speech and language are not so important in Japan. With this camera anone can vlog an interview of reportage to vimeo or (way surpassing the quality of) YouTube from location.

The only drawbacks I see are
1) The viewfinder no longer (as did the Casio Exilim EXP505) swings around so that one can video oneself and oneself with others. I feel that this is a major drawback in a hybrid. There are few video cameras that do not allow the viewfinder to be pointed forwards.

2) For me there is too much glass. 12 telephoto lense is nice very occasionally, but how often do non-bird watchers use them? How often can we keep the camera that still? I think that "12 X Zoom" is a lot like "12M pixels," both are numbers that people obsess on, but thave have little use. So, I wish that this camera had a shorter zoom and were a bit more pocketable, with a screw on telephoto for those that need it when they need it.

3) At the other end 36mm is a bit long to be able to video oneself I suspect. That probably means that a wide angle adapter will be needed when taking video, even not of oneself, because wide means less shakey.

I almost wish that hey had kept the previos Casio Exilim EXP505 super-light, pocketable, 5x zoom body and put the extra functionality inside. That would have been the ultimate in usability for me.

I have a Sanyo Xacti HD1A 5.1MP which is a reasonable competitor. I would prefer the Casio standard-SLR (non-gun) format, build quality, picture quality and all the time-machine features of this beast. But the Sanyo Xacti HD1A 5.1MP, and its latest incarnation the Sanyo Xacti HD1010, has a swivel front facing view-finder, so I will be staying with Sanyo at least until the next Casio comes out.

If you are looking for a good quality digital still and video camera all in one, and you don't video yourself, I recommend you purchase this Casio.