riversreviews's Full Review: Casio EXILIM ZOOM EX-Z70 Digital Camera
I'm one of those picky 35mm SLR only photographers. I'm a fine arts painter and use photography a lot. My 14 year old daughter wanted a digital camera for her birthday. As she is artistic and ready to take on the responsibility of a finer camera I was willing to spend a bit extra to get what I was looking for. My experience with encouraging children to explore their passions is it's never a good idea to give them substandard equipment. I was looking for a quality, slim , digital camera with a good zoom lens and user friendly format. After researching all over the internet I found the newly released Casio Exilim EX-Z70 gave the most bang for your buck. It was also important to me that the camera take the cheaper sd memory card and had a long life , rechargeable lithium battery, this camera has both.
This camera is easy to use. I had a lot of fun with it; before I gave it to my daughter I spent about an hour going through the manual , setting up the date, adjusting default settings, etc so that she was able to use it right out of the box. It works easily in auto format but also can be adjusted manualy for different conditions. It even has a super simple format for younger children. I recommend the Anti Shake DSP for reducing photo blur due to shaky hands or moving subjects. There is also the "Best Shot" function for getting optimal photo results simply by selecting a sample image of the type of scene the user wants to shoot.
This black and silver model is a sleek looking camera that is only 2.5 X 3.75 X.75. It powers on quickly. There's virtually no shutter lag , a big pet pieve of mine with digital cameras.. and I especially like the Large 2.5-inch LCD for great visibility. 7.2 megapixels for even more detailed, beautiful photographs than my old 2meg Sony digital. The 3x optical zoom is good whereas the additional digital zoom can get blurry as is the case with all digital zoom.
My daughter now uses the camera a lot and has no problem drag and dropping photos in windows with a direct usb cable. I used it to take fall photos that came out beautifully. The colors are widely represented and true. I also plan to use it to sell things on Ebay, as it even has an Ebay "best shot" setting. There are many fun features that my daughter thinks are "cool" such as selecting the sound the camera makes when it powers on/off , shutter click etc. There are so many features that I recommend checking them out at any sales site of the product.
My main issues with this camera are; I worry about the LCD screen being scratched, it doesn't come with a case so you will have that added expense. It seems that a camera in this category should come with a simple cover at least. I've used an older leather cell phone holder that has a belt clip. Also, though this has a rechargeable battery, you can't just "dock" the camera, you have to remove the battery and put it into the charger provided. The camera does have a long battery life, though I'm not prepared to say exactly how long.
The other draw back to this camera is that it doesn't have an eye viewfinder so that in high light outdoors it can be hard to see the LCD screen to take a picture, though the LCD screen is very good compared to most it's difficult to do any manual settings when you can't see the true scene (which is why I would want an SLR digital sometime down the road). Over all this a great purchase and I'm considering getting one for my self so that I don't need to borrow my daughters as much!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 249.99 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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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