Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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60 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sell your camcorder... BTW, nice picture quality too!, June 9, 2008
This is my first Casio digital camera. I've mostly used canon compacts and and the pentax tiny optios in the last years. What I have always looked for in a digicam is, in order of importance:
A. Must be small enough to fit in my jeans pocket without adding too much bulk.
B. Must be cheap (around US$200, better if it is at US$150 like this one, though I would pay up to US$250 for something with mega-great reviews).
B. Must offer decent image quality. I don't care if it is not the best, and I don't care about megapixels (for me, 4 MP is enough), but it must be better than a cell phone, and reliable (90% of the shots should come out crisp, not blurry/crappy)
C. Must have decent video, at least 640x480 at 30 fps. I don't care about the format (avi, mov, etc.), though I appreciate it more if it offers a compression format like divx or h264, for optimizing storage card space (so I don't have to buy more expensive memory cards).
D. Must be fast. Okay, obviously I'm not expecting SLR-quick-operation, because no P&S can offer that, but I DO expect a quick turn-on. I totally hate those slow-shutter-lag cameras that take a lot to turn on. What's the point if you want to capture spontaneous fun moments?
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Okay, this camera filled all my requisites and I'm very satisfied. I've had it for a few weeks and I'm falling in love with Casio. I bought this small and sleek camera (about the same size as a credit card, even thinner than the canon SD1000) because of the great reputation of Casio with video mode, and I use a mac (supported by this camera), so I can edit the clips with my iMac at home.
This camera has many many features, like all that popular stuff typical of these days (auto-shutter, face detection, shake reduction, etc.), and many "Best Shot" modes (they make it easier for you to take a pic, so you don't really need manual adjustments), but in my opinion, the absolute BEST thing this camera offers is an EXCELLENT VIDEO MODE. In a 2GB card you can fit 45 mins of super high quality movies (even better quality than some digital camcorders), and the camera has a "movie button" that you just press and it just starts recording, so you don't have to go through the menu and lose time looking for the REC icon.
You can use the shake reduction mode with the video, and there's an option for youtube uploading that I don't really care about. Youtube mode lowers the resolution, limits the recording to youtube requirements (10 mins max for file, smaller file size) and uploads the clip directly to your youtube account without needing to use the web browser, as a software (that only works with windows) detects the clips when you connect the camera to the PC.
Picture quality... well I can't complain. I've seen better quality in other digigams, but don't worry, the colors are very natural, the quality is very sharp, and the best thing: pics don't come blurred like with more expensive cameras from other brands. A bonus: if you use the "dim light mode" Best Shot scene, pictures taken with very low light come very very nice! even if you move your hand a bit, thanks to the nice shake reduction. And you won't see many "grains", really. This is something worthy to appreciate.
Overall operation is fast, the camera is very 'intelligent' and selects the ISO according to the light with great exactitude, so it rarely uses flash like other small cams (very good to me, because I'm not a flash guy when indoors). However, if you want to use flash for snapshots it does it too, and with a very powerful light, so dont worry.
Now, let me add that something I liked about this little machine is it's sturdiness. WOW. I have already dropped it 2 times, one from 4 feets into concrete inside a pouch, and the other time into the sink in a bathroom, with the lens out. I though this camera would not survive these kinds of hits, but I was wrong! It still works like a charm! ZERO damage, just a small scratch when it wasn't protected by it's case.
As always in my reviews, I will tell you why I removed one star from this product:
- Seems like lens just loves dust! Don't laugh, I'm serious, I've had other cameras for much longer time and they didn't really have dust problems, but this thing attracts many white small spots that are very hard to remove. They still have no effect on the images, and I hope it doesn't happen soon. Anyway, when it happens I will replace it, as I tend to use these cheap digicams as semi-disposable gadgets (I guess the cost of the lens-cleaning will be too much).
- Sucks at macro. Really. I don't care about this feature because I just use my cameras to capture great moments in my life instantly, but if you are one of those persons who love to take very detailed close-ups of small insects and that kind of stuff, it may disappoint you. There are more advanced casio cameras out there (costing a few $$$s more), more suited for the "professional" that will satisfy those kinds of needs. This z-80 casio is geared towards the "casual-shooter".
- Battery life dissapointed me. I had the idea that casio cameras were the best at battery life, but this one is not. The canon SD1000 I gave to my girlfriend lasted longer with one single battery. And it's not the video that drains the energy, the pictures are the ones to blame. I will try lowering the flash intensity to see if it reduces the consumption. Anyway, I'm buying another battery because it is always recommended to do it with any ultra-compact camera.
Bottom line: If you use the video function A LOT in your digital cameras, and you want the best video mode in a very affordable (cheap) digicam right now, combined with a solid-as-a-rock ultra-compact body that shouts elegance and decent image quality, this is the one to get.
Casio has proved me that they can make GREAT digital cameras. Possibly my next buy will be one of their exilim "S" (card) series, because of their very slim build (more than this one!). I hope this reviews helps you decide.
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29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
...the best digital point-and-shoot I ever had, July 3, 2008
I owned several cameras, film and digital, and this is by far the best digital point-and-shoot I ever had. I have to admit that it took me a long time to decide on buying a Casio as opposed to Cannon, Nikon, or Pentax, as I had very good experience with those.
However my wife was supposed to be the main user of this new camera, so when she saw it in a store, she was sold on it, as the camera is very small and very good looking. She loved the green one (which is actually a greenish yellow) so we paid $10 more than the black one and got it.
To me it took a lot more to be convinced, so here is my point of view on it:
Pros:
- Very good quality of the pictures (the auto focus works great and the multi point metering system takes care nicely of most situations, including some more difficult shots (like high contrast, back lit subjects, moving subjects, etc)
- I love that you can easily switch between standard format (1.33 ratio), film format (3:2 ratio), or wide screen (16:9 format).
- Metal body, makes the camera fill solid and you can have a good grip and stability.
- Easy to switch between different menus like changing formats, flash modes, ISO sensitivity, different self timer settings, shooting modes (like single, continuous, etc), auto shutter, and face recognition modes.
- Although I consider face recognition a gimmick and I never use it in real life, I did try it and surprisingly works very well! Not only the camera will find and focus on the face, but you can set also the Auto-Shutter to take the picture only when the subject smiles. There is even more: you can record several faces in the camera's internal memory, and when those people are in a larger group, the camera will find their faces and focus on them, so they come out the best! I tried the freakish feature and it works!!!
Also, it has other many Auto-Shooting features, that some people might want, I tried them, they work but, I don't normally need most of them.
- The movie recording quality is very good. I set it to wide screen and the highest quality and it is exceptionally good, I say at least like a DVD (also it does record sound very well, with no significant camera's own noise).
- It has its own movie recording button, so you do not need to go though any settings in order to start filming. You push the trigger on top, you take pictures, or if you push the trigger on the back side, you are filming (push again to stop). It can not get any simpler or faster.
- If you don't like to mingle with settings, you may find the "Best Shot" setting very simple and useful. You click the "BS" button (funny name... ;-), and you get a bunch of sample photos. Use the left-right-up-down buttons to navigate to the picture that is similar to what you are shooting, push OK, and the camera sets itself up for that type of picture (like flowers, portrait, self portrait, sports, night scenes etc, etc).
- I love the burst shooting mode (aka CS - Continuous Shooting), which has several settings:
CS - shoots pictures at the quality you set as fast as possible;
CS-FAST shoots lower resolution pictures and saves them to the internal memory. I got about 4 to 5 pictures per second in this mode, and the quality is good enough to print 5x7" pictures. This is a life saver when your kid shakes hands with the principal of the school, when they make a karate jump, or when they throw that ball. Normally you push the trigger and hope the camera takes the picture at the right time. With this, you push the trigger a little earlier, hold it until the kid is through, and before you know it you have a series of pictures taken at short intervals of each other, so your chances are a lot better to find one that shows what you want to see.
- Used with a 4GB SDHC memory card, my wife took literary hundreds of pictures and filmed many minutes of movie during a recent trip before she had to transfer them to the computer. She did that only several times during the 3 weeks trip.
- Also, one charge of the battery lasted for several days. In fact she did not charge it until, into the four or fifth day of the trip, the low battery message came on.
Negatives:
None so important to give anything lower than a five star rating.
- I would have liked a "shorter" focal length on the close end, so that you can have a wider view as sometimes there is not enough room to get away from larger groups of people. However most of the cameras have this focal lengths, so this is just a wish with small point and shoot cameras.
All being said, I love this little camera.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Impressive, November 2, 2008
This is a very nice little camera, it takes great photos and great videos. It would be better if the battery had a longer life, it will go for 1.5 hours taking straight video on a fresh battery, so it's not miserable.
However, you will need to buy at least a 2 GB memory card. There is a small built in memory, but that is for the face recognition feature, it will only allow you to take 4 or 5 high quality photos, so you actually need to buy a memory card.
It's easy to use and if you spend a few minutes reading the instructions that are included on the disc as a .pdf file, you will learn that this camera has lots of features to enhance your experience and all the features are relatively easy to use and incorporate. Of course, this camera performs great without going through the instructions.
The one thing to make note of, there is software included but it is NOT compatible with MAC, fortunately I have iMovie that came with my iMac and it's all I need to edit video. Don't worry though Mac users, the video this camera creates can be viewed without the help of any editing software, it will open using QuickTime.
I hope this helps.
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