In summary
Casio’s new 6-megapixel Exilim EX-Z110 is a surprisingly versatile little camera, with features to attract both novices and more experienced photographers. The former will find the proprietary ‘Anti Shake DSP’ processing, which works by combining a fast shutter speed with post-capture processing and reduces blurring due to camera or subject movement, handy. However, it’s only available in full-auto mode and doesn’t work for shooting movie clips. . . [more]
Full review
Rating (out of 10):Build: 8.0Ease of use: 8.5Image quality: 8.5Value for money: 9.0
Casio’s new 6-megapixel Exilim EX-Z110 is a surprisingly versatile little camera, with features to attract both novices and more experienced photographers. The former will appreciate the proprietary ‘Anti Shake DSP’ processing, which works by combining a fast shutter speed with post-capture processing to reduce blurring due to camera or subject movement. However, it’s only available in full-auto mode and doesn’t work for shooting movie clips.
Other functions to help beginners include an ‘Easy Mode’, 28 Best Shot scene settings, Icon Help, fast start buttons for shooting and playback, a high sensitivity mode, and auto macro and quick shutter functions to ensure that photos are properly focused. For more experienced users, the EX-Z110 offers aperture and shutter speed adjustment plus a ‘key customiser’ that lets users assign one of five functions (EV shift, white balance, ISO, self-timer or metering) to the camera’s horizontal cursor keys.
Eight white balance modes are provided, along with both exposure and flash output adjustment of +/- 2 EV and extensive auto and manual focusing options. The monitor can be set to display a histogram and/or on-screen grid lines and, although the histogram is quite small, it shows the R, G and B colour channels as well as the overall exposure values.
On the movie front, users can record VGA movies with sound or audio files to the capacity of the available memory. In-camera editing (clip trimming) is available for clips longer than five seconds. A nifty ‘Motion Print’ function lets you capture a frame from a movie clip for printing, and you can also add in eight thumbnail-sized frames for multi-shot printouts.
Several options are provided for playback of shots. As well as the standard full-screen display you can show image thumbnails on a one-month calendar that shows the first shot taken on the day or plays a slideshow of all images in memory. Sound bites up to 30 seconds long can be added to snapshots after they have been recorded. In short, there’s a lot to like in this pocketable digicam!
On test, the EX-Z110 produced punchy looking stills with good colour accuracy but slightly elevated saturation and relatively high contrast, and movies with similar qualities – although marginally higher saturation and lower contrast levels. Imatest revealed overall stills resolution to be comparatively low and showed images were somewhat under-sharpened. Both factors were especially noticeable with digital zoom shots. Chromatic aberration was generally low.
White balance performance was well above average, with acceptable colours at both auto and manual settings for both incandescent and fluorescent lighting, and excellent results with the manual control. Low-light shots were quite noisy and colour shifts occurred with long exposures. The flash required ISO 400 sensitivity to light up an average room.
We measured an average capture lag of 0.3 seconds when focusing was required but the shutter response was immediate with pre-focusing. Continuous shooting of high-resolution images was a somewhat slow one shot every 3.5 seconds with a standard SD card. [26]
Specifications
Image sensor: 5.34 x 4.01mm CCD with 6.37 million photosites (6.0 megapixels effective)
Lens: 6.3-18.9mm f3.1-5.4 zoom lens (38-114mm in 35mm format)
Zoom ratio: 3x optical, up to 4x digital
Dimensions (wxhxd): 90 x 60 x 28.7mm
Weight: 136g (without batteries and card)
Image formats: Stills – JPEG (Exif 2.2); Movies – AVI/WAV (VGA @ 30 fps)
Shutter speed range: 60-1/2000 second
Focus system/range: Contrast-detect AF; range 40cm to infinity; macro 6-50cm.
Exposure metering/control: Multi-pattern, centre-weighted, spot metering; P, A, S and M settings plus 28 BestShot scenes.
White balance: Auto, daylight, cloudy, shade, fluorescent (x2), tungsten, manual.
Flash modes/range (ISO auto): Auto, on, off, red-eye reduction; range 0.4-3.1m.
ISO range: Auto, ISO 50, 100, 200, 400; (ISO 800 available with Anti-Shake and High Sensitivity modes).
Storage Media: 9.7MB internal memory plus SD/MMC slot; internal memory holds 2 high-resolution images or up to 62 VGA shots
Viewfinder: Optical
LCD monitor: 2.0-inch TFT colour LCD with 84,960 pixels
Power supply: 2x AA batteries (alkaline, lithium, NiMH)
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