Casio Exilim EX-S12 12MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom and 2.7 inch LCD (Black)

by Casio

Product Details

• Item Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 7 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001OTZQUU
• Item model number: S12 Black
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,681 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 8, 2009

Product Description

Color: Black

From the Manufacturer

Taking advantage of the high-speed image processing abilities of Casio’s state-of-the-art Exilim Engine 4.0, which is built into the Exilim EX-S12, the new Dynamic Photo function allows the photographer to cut out the main subject of interest in an image that has just been captured and then combine it with another image to form the background. You can also cut and paste several rapid-succession images to create a moving subject on a still background. This function makes it easy to create composite scenes from an image juxtaposition that exists only in virtual reality, or they can create a composite image that conveys a certain message. Casio technologies like these are creating whole new avenues of enjoyment that go far beyond mere picture-taking, delivering greater creative and viewing pleasure.

The EX-S12 has a stylish body measuring just 3.7 inches wide, 2.1 inches high and .6 inches thin (.5 inches at the thinnest part). It boasts a 3x optical zoom and a super clear, 2.7-inch widescreen LCD monitor and has an effective 12.1-megapixel resolution. It is finished in a design with both the high-class feel and beauty of stainless steel.

Casio Exilim EX-S12 Highlights

Newly-developed Exilim Engine 4.0
Representing a significant upgrade from the Exilim Engine 3.0, the Exilim Engine 4.0 is a powerful electronic package comprised of an ordinary CPU and a high-speed dedicated image processing CPU. It delivers outstanding color reproduction and a rich tonal range that guarantees superior visual expression. Noise reduction at high-sensitivity levels also helps to produce high-quality, beautiful images. Even better, despite the new image combination functionality and other functions that entail complex processing, energy consumption is about 30 percent lower than before, which means longer battery life. The new engine successfully combines the pursuit of radical new functionality with improvements to many conventional camera features.

Dynamic Photo function
Thanks to the high-speed image processing capability of the new engine, a moving subject can be cut out of a number of images that have been shot and combined with a different still shot that forms the background. A unique digital camera image where only the main subject in the photo is moving can be created using just the camera, with no editing on a computer.

Tracking AF
Using the image analysis technology in the new engine, the ability of the auto focus function to automatically follow a moving subject has been refined. In addition to improvements to the accuracy of auto focus tracking, when a subject leaves the frame the camera makes a record of it, and when the same subject once again enters the frame it is recognized by the camera, and auto focusing is resumed.

Makeup function
In addition to recognizing faces and adjusting focus and exposure accordingly, the EX-S12 can make adjustments to smooth skin in images and soften facial shadows caused by sunlight, creating beautiful photographs of people’s faces. The photographer can choose from one of twelve levels of skin beauty using different strengths of image processing, and can shoot after viewing the results in the LCD monitor.

HD Movie function
Just by pressing the dedicated movie button, the EX-S12 will record beautiful HD movies at a size of 1280x720 pixels.

Product Description

The EX-S12 has a stylish body measuring just .6" thin (.5" at the thinnest part). It boasts an effective 12.1 megapixel resolution with up to 3X optical zoom and 4X Digital zoom and a super clear 2.7" LCD monitor.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

107 of 108 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Neat Little Camera! Does what it needs to do!, May 12, 2009

By 

Happy in Russia "Vero A." (Originally from Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Casio Exilim EX-S12 12MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom and 2.7 inch LCD (Black) (Electronics)

Ok, I don't know why others are giving this camera a low review. Perhaps they haven't played with it enough. I have only had this camera for about two weeks. I gave it to myself for a birthday present cause it was time to get rid of my old Nikon 3.2 mp camera and I am about to spend a semester in France and throughout Europe doing some field work for my Master's thesis.
First of all, the sheer size of this camera is amazing (its smaller than my ipod video). I was originally going to get the s10 but was unable to find it (I guess they're not selling it anymore), but quite honestly 2 mp difference is no big deal. 12mp is more than enough. I have gotten so many compliments on this camera so far just because of its size and the fact that it has 12mp rather than 10 or even 8.
I think the picture quality is outstanding! I have been playing with it practically everyday taking pictures of anything and everything to get a good test out of it. So far, all these pictures look very very nice. One thing I like to do with cameras is play around with its settings. This camera, although it has a Best Shot Feature (pre-programmed settings for certain situations), I'm the type of person who likes to experiment with those settings anyway. This camera allows you to do that with the best shot feature and it has a manual feature so that you can adjust everything! I hate cameras that won't let you mess with its pre-programmed settings cause let's face it they don't always get it right! Then the best part is, you can save these settings that you've created and the camera will remember them for you.
One thing I see in these reviews is that the picture quality is bad. The s12 (as I'm sure with other casios) has a "quick shutter" setting. This setting will immediately take the picture before it has a chance to focus (why you would do that I'm not sure). You can turn this off! That was one of the first things I changed when I started playing with it.
The HD videos this camera takes are very impressive! I have posted a couple of them on Youtube (look under my name: vsa23). They look fantastic on our 52" HDTV! Have not run into any problems like the sound not being in sync with the video.
My ONLY complaint about this camera is that when the camera is on "Best Shot Auto Focus" (the lowest, easiest, setting for grandma), the focus makes very loud almost scratching noises because it is constantly focusing. I took the camera back, exchanged it for a new one, and even tried the store's two displays and they all seem to do that. Perhaps this is something that will change with the later s12s that come out. But in all honesty, I don't use that setting anyway (not that I'm a pro or anything), so it doesn't bother me too much.
All in all, I am very happy with this little camera! It does everything I need it to do (which is really to primarily take pictures) and it offers so much more than I need at the same time (make up setting, dynamic photo, smile shutter, face detection, youtube capture, and more!). If you're looking for a very nice camera with lots of features in a small compact travel-friendly camera then this one is a very good choice. I will be posting some of my sample photos on Amazon's customer images thing. Hope you all find this review useful!

89 of 100 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Hard to recommend this camera..., July 4, 2009

By 

Brian K. Martin "diggio" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Casio Exilim EX-S12 12MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom and 2.7 inch LCD (Black) (Electronics)

I usually shoot with a DSLR and wanted to get a new small camera to carry around and replace my 5 year old Pentax Optio S4i. My main criteria for picking the camera were weight, HD video capture, image quality, and ease of use. I've since updated this list to include image stabilization.

The casio s12 is one of the smallest cameras you can get. Reviews also said the camera was snappy. Looking at reviewer's test shots showed it had very good image quality, so I picked one up.

I wanted to like this camera. I tried to like this camera. But in the end the camera is just too unreliable to be used as a point and shoot. The images typically look very good on the camera's screen, but on a large monitor they were often under saturated, auto white balance was off, and most importantly they were frequently out of focus. With this camera, you need to pre-focus with a 1/2 shutter press before taking a picture. Far too often, the camera would never focus - even in sunlight. The only time there was reliable focus was when the subject was relatively close to the camera (a couple yards or less away) and cooperative. When the focus worked correctly, the picture quality was still not perfect (harsh chromatic aberration) but was admittedly much better than average. I cannot figure out why the focus is so hit or miss. Perhaps it is operator error or lack of image stabilization. It may even be that the camera defaults to focus a few feet away when its autofocus algorithm fails. This would be fine for taking a picture of your friends sitting at a table with you, but it does not work if you are zoomed-in on your kids playing in the yard.

The HD video quality was fairly good for nearby subjects. It did suffer from lack of any image stabilization technology and it is doubtful anyone would be using this camera for shooting video with a tripod. With a camera this small I really think you need some form of image stabilization.

I will return the Casio and try one of the new Canon's or the Lumix FX-35/37/48 (or even the new Pentax w80). I would only recommend the Casio for someone who primarily shoots nearby, cooperative subjects. Those images seem to come out OK most of the time and even excellent once in a while. This camera would not be my recommendation if you want to capture your kids candidly. If you like the Casio style or feature set, perhaps the Casio Z400 will be better since it has image stabilization, a longer zoom, and perhaps some updated firmware.

Positives:
* Easy to use
* Great feature set
* Small (but not too small) size
* Great set of 'best shot' modes, including a unique whiteboard and business card mode which can replace your scanner
* Unlimited length HD video capture in AVI format (good for Windows) at 24fps. The lack of 30fps in HD mode wasn't noticeable.
* Good build quality with excellent LCD screen
* Good low-light focus lamp
* Potential to take some very good pictures


Negatives:
* Very unreliable focus and sometimes unreliable white balance
* Terrible printed user manual (but the online manual is very good)
* No standard cable connections on camera for USB
* No digital video out from the camera
* Some of the in-camera features just did not work reliably. Most notable is the feature where you can subtract the background from around your subject and place the subject in another image.
* Lens not very wide (~36mm)

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad, but you'll need to get a bigger capacity SD card, May 5, 2009

By 

Kenneth Young (California, US) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Casio Exilim EX-S12 12MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom and 2.7 inch LCD (Black) (Electronics)

This Casio EX-S12 was chosen over other compact cameras in the US market, due to its tiny size and price. My intention is to find a super compact but decent camera for my wife to travel with, where a full size DSLR is not desirable.

The camera started up quickly but does take about 2-3 seconds between shots (not bad considering that I had the automatic flash on and it'll take time to charge up the capacitor). The buttons and the menu are intuitive and easy to figure out. The camera is packed with features that I'll never use, such as BestShot, Youtube, Dynamic Photo, smile recognition, etc. On the other hand, I do find the historgram and the tripod mount highly benficial.

Battery life seems to be good. Although it didn't make sense to have a compact camera, but the battery charger is as big as the camera itself, with a long power cable to the outlet. It's a generic detachable cable so I'll replace it with a shorter one (or shorten the one provided). I've not tried if I can charge the battery by using the USB cable only.

As for the resulting photos, it does a great job with portraits as I'm impressed with the smooth and natural skin tone that it produces. I had no problem with noise with the normal ISO setting. It produces beautiful, peaceful pastile color for landscape photos as well. I did not play with any camera setting to adjust the internal processing, but you'll probably need to do so if you want photos with more contrast and more punch. It's not an issue with me, since I can always post-process the files later via Photoshop. As with most point-n-shoot, too bad it doesn't create RAW file format.

I tend to use the wide side rather than telephoto with my photography style. Thus, I hardly use the zoom feature. This camera has the 36mm equivalent, which is about the normal human's view point so images aren't distorted much. Not an ultra-wide, but not bad.

The on camera flash is okay for a tiny camera, and the output is adjustable. I do rather see a PC port added with the future model, so I can shoot with an off-camera flash.

As for the HD video, it works fine. Originally, I tested it with an old SD card and was suspicious if audio and video were in sync. Later, I put in a better SDHC card and had no issue with the video. The video in HD mode started up quickly, but it's limited to 10 minute clips (due to size limitation of FAT32 file format as with other point-and-shoot?). You'll have to remember to find a break to stop-and-restart quickly before the 10 minute is up.

Be sure to get the biggest and fast SDHC card that you can get. My old 1GB SD card was filled quickly with about 7 minutes of HD video and few 12MP photos. Also, due to its tiny dimension, be sure to use the hand strap.

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