smc1377's Full Review: Casio EXILIM ZOOM EX-Z70 Digital Camera
Last year when I was going on an extended road trip, I had purchased the lesser Casio Exilim EX-Z40 and fell in love with it. Earlier this year, based on my experience with the Z40, I then purchased the Casio EX-P600 off of eBay and gave away the Z40. This was a mistake, for the P600 is larger than the Z40 and not quite as pocketable. So I then went on eBay again and purchased the Z50. To give you some perspective, I will compare the 3.
The Z50 is in the middle between the three cameras. It's very much just like the Z40, except for better resolution and a couple more BESTSHOT settings, otherwise, it's identical in size, shape, feel, etc. The P600 on the other hand is more of a Prosumer camera that can be fully manual with many more settings while still maintaining the same general feel as far as the menus and operations go.
If I haven't owned the P600, I would give the Z50 all perfect marks, but having owned the P600, I can see what the camera is capable of doing, just that it's been limited by Casio (since the engine is all the same). The Z50's outdoor pictures are decent. The colors aren't all that vibrant, even when you set the saturation to +2. When taking pictures indoors in lower light settings (not darkness), there is a lot of noise (grainy pics) that I wish weren't there. The P600 doesn't nearly have the amount of noise the Z50 does (again, same engine).
Having already owned the Z40 and the P600, I already knew how durable these cameras were so I was not afraid at all to purchase a used one from eBay. I like to buy most of my things brand new, but I felt confident in the build quality of the Casio's in that I saved a couple hundred dollars by waiting for that perfect deal on eBay.
One of the most important things to me when it comes to cameras (still and video) is it's wide angle picture taking ability. I hate having to back up to take a pics. The lens should offer a wide enough setting that I can just take a pic from a reasonable distance. This camera serves that purpose.
Another is the camera's ability to take a close-up picture. Amazingly, the Z50's macro mode is able to focus on objects much closer than the more expensive P600. The lens of the Z50 can almost be touching an object and be able to focus on it, while the P600 has to be like at least 6-8 inches away at a minimum. The detail of the Z50's macro pics are also much better in quality than the P600's. The details are real sharp while the P600's details looks like they are blended in together, so this is a huge plus for the Z50.
For those of you with kids, the most important feature of this camera will probably be its ability to startup and take pics very quickly. As anyone who has ever used an average digital camera will know, the startup time can cause you to miss shots. Also, some cameras out there can take 2-3 seconds to focus before it'll let you take a picture. The Casio Exilim line allows the camera to boot up in less than 2 seconds and take a pic in less than half second after that. Casio claims that the shutter lag (time inbetween when you first press the button and when it actually takes a picture) is only .02 seconds (or something like that). That means you will be able to take that shot of the candles being blown out, the ball being kicked, the bat hitting the ball, the expression on their face while in mid-air when tripping. These are the priceless shots that make this camera worth it's weight in gold. With other cameras, even more expensive cameras, all you will see is the smoke leftover from the birthday candles, the soccor ball already in the net, an empty frame cause your kid has already ran outside of the frame of your shot after hitting the baseball and the back of someone who had fell, but from looking at the pic, it looks like they are just laying down.
Some of the things that annoy me about the Z50 is the lack of manual controls when it comes to aperture, length of exposure, etc. As you can see in the BestShot settings, the camera is capable of overriding the controls and setting them at a certain setting, however it doesn't allow the user to control them manually. For example, in the fireworks setting, the lens will stay open for exactly 2 seconds. Other settings can change this up to 4 seconds, so the camera is capable of controlling it, but it doesn't allow the user to control it. The P600 allows the user to select this manually for up to 60 seconds. This is very useful for very low lighting shots and for eliminating the chance for noise that the Z50 is plagued with.
Another complaint is the lack of ability to delete a photo right after you take it. You have to go into the review screen then delete it (The Z40 is the same way, but the P600 can be deleted immediately after the shot). This is fine for those who have larger memory cards and can afford to keep snapping away and review later, but for those with smaller memory cards, every bit of space is precious.
Others have complained about the lack of an individual charger and link to the computer without having to use the dock. I also found this to be annoying on my road trip to lug around the cradle dock. But when I bought the P600, it came with a travel charger and a USB cable. Travel chargers can be found on eBay to eliminate the recharging problem.
As far as a USB cable, even if there was one, you DON'T want to use it nor the cradle especially if you have a large memory card. The Z50 (and the Z40 and P600 for that matter) still uses the old USB 1.1 standard. If you don't know what that means, all you need to know is that it's super slow at transferring photos to you computer. I timed a 1GB card to take about 30 minutes to transfer all the pics to the computer. Buy a USB 2.0 card reader (provided you computer has USB 2.0 ports). That same 1GB memory card transfers over at about a couple minutes. If you're concerned about the compatability of the bundled software with the card reader, it'll work just fine with a card reader. Meaning, it'll still automatically transfer over the pics from the memory card just like as if it was reading it from the camera, only at a much much faster rate.
Also, word of warning for those with Macs. The videos taken with the camera are not readily compatible with Macs but can be made so with codecs or additional programs. But if you just want to plug and play, it won't do that without the user having to configure their computer to read the video files.
Another little bit if info, the camera will work just fine in a zip-lock bag when white-water rafting. The videos turned out great and the microphone was able to pick up all the outside noises without being too muffled. I know they sell a $150 plastic shell just for this reason, but my 10 cent zip-lock bag worked just fine.
Overall, this camera works for just about every situation provided that you aren't looking for professional photos. No pocketable camera can do the job of a professional camera. Just expect that your indoor, low light photos will be grainy, but no more grainy than using the old 35mm cameras at night.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 125 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
7.2-megapixel CCD captures enough detail for photo-quality 15 x 20-inch prints 3x optical zoom with Anti Shake technology; 2.5-inch LCD display Featur...More at Amazon Marketplace
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