Casio EX-FH100 10.1MP High Speed Digital Camera with 10x Ultra Wide Angle Zoom with CMOS Shift Image Stabilization and 3.0 inch LCD

by Casio

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4.1 x 1.1 x 2.4 inches ; 6.4 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 7 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0032ANBXI
• Item model number: FH100 Black
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,975 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 5, 2010

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

This 10.1 effective-megapixel high-speed digital camera boasts a wide-angle 24 mm 10x optical zoom lens in a compact body that makes it easy to carry anywhere. It also gives users a maximum burst rate of 40 shots per second for still images (maximum image size of 9.0 megapixels and maximum shooting capacity of 30 shots) that can now be used to photograph distant subjects thanks to the high-power zoom. It also enables up to 1,000 fps high-speed movie recording that captures motion that is ordinarily too fast for the human eye to see. The EX-FH100 allows users ranging from advanced amateur photographers to beginners to enjoy high-speed burst shooting. It is equipped with a mode dial that enables manual exposure burst shooting and also has a mode that makes high-speed burst shooting easy, a feature that sets the burst shooting speed to the optimal rate just by selecting the type of scene. Plus, enjoy high-quality photography even in dim indoor lighting by using a highly sensitive CMOS sensor.

Casio EX-FH100 Highlights

Wide-angle 24 mm 10x optical zoom lens in a compact body
The EX-FH100 features a high-power zoom lens in a compact body measuring just 105.0 mm wide x 63.2 mm tall x 29.9 mm thick. The lens delivers all the freedom of zoom photography--from a wide-angle 24 mm to a 10x optical zoom that brings distant subjects right up close.

Ultra-high speed burst shooting captures crucial moments at a speed of 40 shots per second
This model can take up to 30 shots of 9.0 megapixel high-resolution images with high-speed burst shooting at a maximum speed of 40 shots per second. What is more, if the camera is set to Prerecord Continuous Shutter, users will not miss those critical moments even if they press the shutter a little late, since the camera starts shooting when the shutter button is only depressed halfway.

High-speed movie recording at up to 1,000 fps
The EXILIM EX-FH100 can record high-speed movies of motion that is ordinarily too fast for the human eye to see. Users can select a recording speed of 1,000 fps, 420 fps, 240 fps, or 120 fps. This model also has a mode that lets users to switch to high-speed recording at 240 fps or 120 fps by pressing a single button during normal movie recording (30 fps). High-speed recording allows users to enjoy dramatic, ultra slow-motion playback.

Highly sensitive CMOS sensor
Casio continues the quest for ever-higher picture quality, the foundation of every camera’s performance. This model incorporates a back-illuminated CMOS sensor that boasts nearly twice the usual sensitivity. This lets users take beautiful photos outside as well as high-quality, low-noise photos indoors or in other dim lighting. And of course, the model also comes with CMOS-shift image stabilization.

Best Shot modes facilitate high-speed burst shooting and high-speed movie recording

High-speed Night Scene and Portrait
With the EX-FH100, users can take beautiful photos--even of human subjects at night--without worrying about photo blur. The camera can do this by internally combining images taken with a single press of the shutter button using highly sensitive high-speed burst shooting with the flash into a single, crystal-clear image.

High-speed Lighting
The EX-FH100 takes three images using high-speed burst shooting, adjusting the exposure for normal (standard), bright, and dim subjects, respectively, with a single press of the shutter button. These images are then combined into a single image inside the camera, enabling reproduction of full brightness throughout the photo and helping to avoid bad photos with washed out or overly dark areas when the scene is strongly backlit.

High-Speed Burst Shooting Best Shot / High-Speed Movie Best Shot
The EX-FH100 also has "High-Speed Burst Shooting Best Shot" and "High-Speed Movie Best Shot" modes that optimize the burst shooting or high-speed movie settings simply by selecting the type of scene to be photographed--such as a child, pet, or sports scene--at the critical moment or in slow motion.

High-resolution HD Movie function
The EX-FH100 also features an HD Movie function. Just press the dedicated Movie button to take beautiful movies at 1280x720 pixels. The camera is equipped with an HDMI terminal and stereo microphone, which enable users to enjoy a beautiful picture and realistic sound by connecting the camera to a large display TV.

Product Description

This 10.1 effective-megapixel high-speed digital camera boasts a wide-angle 24 mm 10x optical zoom lens in a compact body that makes it easy to carry anywhere. It also gives users a maximum burst rate of 40 shots per second for still images (maximum image size of 9.0 megapixels and maximum shooting capacity of 30 shots) that can now be used to photograph distant subjects thanks to the high-power zoom. It also enables up to 1,000 fps high-speed movie recording that captures motion that is ordinarily too fast for the human eye to see. The EX-FH100 allows users ranging from advanced amateur photographers to beginners to enjoy high-speed burst shooting. It is equipped with a mode dial that enables manual exposure burst shooting and also has a mode that makes high-speed burst shooting easy, a feature that sets the burst shooting speed to the optimal rate just by selecting the type of scene. Plus, enjoy high-quality photography even in dim indoor lighting by using a highly sensitive CMOS sensor.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

104 of 110 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Low-Light performance!, April 5, 2010

By 

Black Lemon (NY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Casio EX-FH100 10.1MP High Speed Digital Camera with 10x Ultra Wide Angle Zoom with CMOS Shift Image Stabilization and 3.0 inch LCD (Electronics)

The Casio Exilim EX-FH100's four main draws over other cameras are it's low-light capability, its high speed burst photography, it's slow motion video, and it's loooong battery life.

The excellent low-light performance comes (mostly) from the back-illuminated CMOS sensor which allows for more light gathering than traditional sensors. The camera takes a better shot in low-light situations than similarly sized cameras (small sensor cameras) without the backlit sensor (Sony however has a similar sensor called EXMOR on some of its newest models).

The high speed features include both a high speed shutter that allows amazing action shots (30 shots at a rate of 40fps in burst mode), and high speed video filming for gorgeous slow-motion video (can slow 1 second down to 14 seconds at the max setting of 1,000fps).

The camera further leverages the above features for some neat tricks in difficult lighting situations, which are unusual abilities for this compact form-factor. The sensor and high speed shutter are used together for several preset modes that help in low light. "Lighting Mode" is suggested for situations where parts of the frame are bright and other parts are dim -- it takes several high speed shots at various settings, then combines them for a more evenly lit image. There's a similar mode for night shots. The combination helps keep noise unnoticeable even at high ISOs.

The stereo mic is a nice plus over most other cameras (though also present on the only current competitor to this product, Sony's Cyber Shot DSC-HX5V). Other notable features are the wide angle lens, and the availability of a mode that combines mechanical image stabilization with the continuous shutter mode to reduce blur. There are also modes that use the continuous shutter to record both before and after the shutter is fully depressed, to allow you to choose a different moment if for example the person you are photographing closes their eyes or changes their expression.

Spec for spec, The Casio Exilim EX-FH100 and Sony's Cyber Shot DSC-HX5V are nearly identical. However, the Casio has a few advantages - a larger aperture, longer battery life (520 shots vs. 310 shots), a faster continuous shutter mode (40fps vs. 10 fps), slow motion video, the option of RAW format (useful if you like to manipulate images with professional photo tools), and priority modes (aperture, shutter - which are common but Sony omits them on the HX5V). On the other hand, the Sony allows use of the optical zoom while filming video (in movie mode the Casio only does digital zoom), has a panorama stitching mode, and has GPS capabilities with position & direction metadata.

While the basic functions are easy to use - even switching from HD video to slow motion is just a toggle switch -- I suggest reading the full manual on the accompanying CD. Certain things are not obvious, such as how to find the two particular video modes that allows switching on-the-fly from HD video to VGA slow-motion video (you don't use the Regular vs. HS video toggle switch for this because doing so stops the recording. For a seamless transition, you actually set the toggle switch to HS mode, and then choose a setting in the menu for on-the-fly transitions, which are then operated via the left & right keys).

Thankfully, Casio has eliminated the pointless video length limit they had put on the previous model, the FH10.

Note that while 30fps video can be up to 720p HD, and slow-motion video at 120fps is VGA quality, increasing the slow-motion beyond this (max is 1,000fps) results in decreasing the screen area displayed as a trade-off to maintain video quality at that data transfer rate. Worth mentioning here is that video can be output via the mini-HDMI out port. A composite A/V cable is included, but if you want mini-HDMI to regular HDMI, you'll have to buy your own cable.

For still shots in continuous shutter mode, it will take 30 shots (or fewer if you release the shutter button) at a rate that is selectable from a scale of 1fps over the duration of 30s, up to 40fps within 1s (yes, you are limited to 30 shots, but the rate goes up to 40fps).

I suggest you set the image quality to Fine and up the sharpness to +2 if you're going to be cropping or printing to large sizes. You'll also want to use a SDHC card that is rated "Class 6" or higher to ensure the memory can achieve the necessary sustained write rate to record HD video or high speed shots.

78 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars There's a reason for the mediocre average rating on this one..., August 18, 2010

By 

O. Greene (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Casio EX-FH100 10.1MP High Speed Digital Camera with 10x Ultra Wide Angle Zoom with CMOS Shift Image Stabilization and 3.0 inch LCD (Electronics)

I purchased this as a compact camera, with an emphasis on HD video, for an upcoming road trip. I had an older Panasonic TZ3 and wanted a similarly sized camera with better video (HD) and preferably more manual control.

I spent a while researching the purchase both in Amazon reviews and elsewhere. While the Amazon reviews were luke warm, the feature set seemed good, and I'd always wanted to try a Casio camera. I also paid particular attention to a DPReview comparison of "Compact Travel Zoom" cameras since it included this Casio as well as the descendant of the TZ3 the Panasonic ZS7, and many others. It seemed like a perfect reference since in theory it was comparing all the cameras in this category side-by-side: [...]

In that review this Casio earns a high recommendation, with relatively minor reservations, and is one of 2 top picks. Unfortunately I have to disagree with DPReview this time, since I have now tested both the Casio (their top pick) and the Panasonic ZS7 (not among their top picks), and I much prefer the Panasonic for reasons I'll explain.

First and most important is photo quality. To put it succinctly, it is really pretty mediocre. The DPReview tests showed it to be inferior at night shots, which I was ready for and didn't mind so much since I have a decent dSLR. Unfortunately I found that even the photos in daylight are not as good as I expected, or as good as the DPReview samples led me to believe. I was using the default settings (as I believe was DPR), with a mix of auto and manual controls. Yet I struggled to get anything better than mediocre (at best) shots.

I found I got the best results on manual since the auto settings would often choose slower shutter speeds than were needed to freeze movement (presumably in an effort to keep ISO and noise down). What disappointed me more was, even when I got a sharp shot, there was noticeable noise reduction, even for fairly bright pictures. The remarkable clarity shown in the DPR shots vs. other cameras (for daytime scenes at least) wasn't really evident, even testing against my several generations old Panasonic TZ3. And I don't believe there is any control over noise reduction either. With RAW support being basically unusable with 15 second wait times, and anyway limited to 200ISO (useless), you really have less control than may be needed to get great results.

Something else that contributed to worse than desired photo quality was the poor image stabilization. I realize this camera's zoom has a fairly long reach, especially for such a light and small camera, but I also have the ZS7 to compare it against, and I can tell you this Casio does not have a good IS system next to the ZS7. DPR's test show this as well, but again I didn't really expect it to be quite as bad. Unfortunately this affects video too, making low-light video especially jumpy (unnecessarily so, as my ZS7 videos later showed me).

Additionally, while DPReview does mention the slow startup time, it was definitely more annoying than I expected. It's funny how the little things can compound issues like this, and in the case of the Casio the fact that it does not respond to the zoom lever once startup is finished unless you depress it *after* startup is complete was what made it extra annoying. Imagine this: you see a distant subject you want to capture, you press the power button and while you're waiting you turn the zoom dial so that as soon as the camera is ready, it will start zooming. Makes sense, right? But it doesn't work that way. Other cameras, including the ZS7, do.

I found no really quick and easy way to tell when exactly it had finished startup, since even the display being on and splash screen gone doesn't indicate it's totally done yet. It probably sounds like I'm exaggerating the point, but I truly found that the lack of "buffering" of inputs created uncertainty that would delay actual use of the camera sometimes even beyond the 3 second startup time. And when you're trying to grab a shot of a bird or other moving subject, 3 seconds is a long, long time. So if you imagine yourself ever wanting to catch anything in motion, consider the slow startup time heavily in your decision. I know I personally did not give it enough weight when I decided on this purchase.

As for video quality, in daylight it's pretty decent, no doubt. It's high definition (720p) and fairly clear. You can get relatively long recordings out of it with a large memory card. But the poor image stabilization is an issue, as I said. I also didn't think I would miss the lack of zooming that much, but I ultimately found it really was frustrating not to have it. The ZS7 does zooming while filming just fine. One nice thing about the Casio with video is it lets you zoom in on video in playback, a feature I liked a lot for HD videos on such a small screen, but it's a minor benefit. You also appear to have some manual control (shutter speed, aperture?) over videos, which I will admit seems better than the ZS7 which can sometimes overexpose bright portions of scenes with tricky lighting (think concerts, with a main performer lit with a bright spot against a dark stage - the main performer will be almost white, losing a lot of detail).

The high-speed videos were a brief novelty, but as others (and DPR) have said, the low resolution and high light levels needed to capture anything definitely keep it as a novelty and ultimately seldom used. Worse than that I found the video switch would often get moved from HD to HS (high speed), so I would end up taking a low resolution, high speed shot (without audio!) of a scene I wanted to take an HD video of (with sound!). This obviously only happens when you're in a hurry and not paying attention, but the point of a point and shoot pocket camera is it's supposed to not require as much thought and planning, and ultimately I didn't find that to be the case with this Casio.

I suppose in summary perhaps the DPReview did tell me most of what I needed it know: it's slow to start up, has noise reduction issues in image quality, doesn't zoom while filming video, etc. I just didn't think it would be that bad in practice, especially since they ultimately gave it high marks and a top pick. If you actually read their review and experiences, ignoring the numeric ratings and top pick, you probably wouldn't pick this camera up though, it's just that the scores throw you off. So I know I'll be sure to consider the review text a lot more heavily than scores in the future (though I certainly read the reviews in-full many times before buying in this case, and still got caught out). Also pay attention to the Amazon reviews (I usually do), and don't assume that lack of experience or different requirements can entirely explain someone's dissatisfaction. I made this mistake once and won't do it again.

So as I indicated several times in this review, I ultimately went with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3.0-Inch LCD (Black), and am much happier with that. Review to come soon.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best High-Speed Photo and Video for the Money, June 26, 2010

By 

Nathaniel Wolf (Union, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Casio EX-FH100 10.1MP High Speed Digital Camera with 10x Ultra Wide Angle Zoom with CMOS Shift Image Stabilization and 3.0 inch LCD (Electronics)

I purchased this camera to be a compact point-and-shoot that I could take with me everywhere. The main purpose, for me, was to photograph and video my newborn daughter.

With those expectations set, I was extremely pleased with the camera! It certainly won't compare to a DSLR in terms of photo quality, or a dedicated video camera in terms of movie quality- but for the size and price,it's great.

When I started shopping, I had a few important criteria. Note that these criteria immediately rule out any sort of DSLR (mainly due to size and price)

Must Have features:

- Portability: I needed a pocket-ish-sized camera, one that I could take everywhere.

- Affordability: I was on a relatively strict budget of under $400.

- HD Video: I wanted to be able to record at least 720p.

Desireable features:

- High-speed photo: This is an incredible feature for photographing action (and babies, children, animals, etc).

- High-speed video: I have always loved high-speed (slow-motion) video.

- * Shockproof / waterproof: I plan to do a lot of outdoor photography, so this would be nice.

Ultimately, the Casio ticked off all the boxes save for that last one- it is not waterproof, nor (I imagine) very shockproof. My wife also owned an older Casio Exilim model, and we've been very happy with it, in terms of size versus image quality. So I made my decision, and went with the fh-100.

So far, I've been quite pleased with the camera. It takes fairly nice-looking photos and HD video, and the high-speed features are tremendously fun.

If you are interested, you can check out my YouTube channel for examples of HD and high-speed video, and my picasa albums for examples of photo quality:

[...]

My main complaints, after a few months' usage, largely boil down to missing "wishlist" features, and other "hey, it's a point-and-shoot" type of issues:

- Limited aperture range:. It's a beefy camera, but it's still a point-and-shoot.

- No intervalometer: This has forced me to use other cameras for time lapse photography.

- No zoom or autofocus (or manual focus, for that matter) while recording video.

- No A/C power: Not uncommon with cameras, but worth mentioning.

- 4GB video limit: It does not continue to shoot video once the 4GB file size limit is reached, without manual intervention.

Those last two complaints make it difficult to take long video, even with a large memory card.

Clearly these are all minor issues. I would love to see an intervalometer added via some sort of software update, but otherwise I am quite happy with the camera.

The battery life is great, but it's still worth buying an extra battery in my opinion, so you're never waiting for it to charge. (Also, I have an Eye-Fi card- which is like a battery vampire)

GTMax Replacement Standard Lithium-Ion Battery for Casio Exilim High Speed EX-FH100