Bad Support, Fragile Camera
Written: Apr 15 '05 (Updated Apr 17 '05)
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Pros: Easy to use, good quality pictures
Cons: had six months, didn't drop, lens locked, not covered under warranty
The Bottom Line: Get the extended warranty!!!
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| macjohn's Full Review: Casio Exilim EX-Z40 Digital Camera |
Basics about the Camera:
This Camera is extremely small and lightweight (weight 4.27 oz and dimensions are: 3.43”W x 2.24”H x .91”D). Therefore, it is extremely convenient to have with you when the photographic need arises (fits easily in a small purse or even your pocket).
It is a 4.0 megapixel camera with more than enough simple presets to take action, portrait, night, fireworks, etc. There's even a cool function that allows you to 'couple' two shots (take a picture of your wife, then have her get behind the camera and take a picture of you... end result, one picture of the two of you). This 'coupling' feature takes a little practice (you have to line the scene up exactly and the people obviously can't be touching or overlapping or you'll cut off an arm or a leg... but I digress).
Other functions (besides being a camera) included are movie and sound capturing. The movie quality is 320x240 so don't expect to get it home and play it on the TV with the crisp quality of your camcorder. It's more than enough to capture an priceless moment and email it to your friends or family though. Sound recording is higher in quality... I just didn't have many reasons to use it.
Memory and Battery:
The camera uses the SD memory format which is thin and light and relatively inexpensive. I found that a 512mb card would take well over 100 pictures (in the highest quality) before I'd have to dump it to my PC. I take a lot of pictures and the only time I ever filled it up on an outing was at the Grand Canyon. You can reduce the quality of your pictures and get more on a card... but why buy a 4 megapixel camera if you only want 2 megapixel output?
The battery life seemed good. I never ran the battery out before running out of memory on the 512mb card. I liked the fact that it recharges when you hook it up to the base (which also communicates with your PC via USB to read from the SD card if you don't have a separate reader).
All that being said, I loved this camera, then it broke.
I Bought the camera at Sharper Image in August of 2004. My wife took the camera and wanted to take pictures one day, turned it on, the lens came out, it beeped a few times, and it never did anything else. Casio support says they'll look at it and see if it's covered under warranty (lens damage isn't, but manufacturing defects are). A week later I got an invoice for $207.95. Even though I called their support number (1.800.706.2534 option 1,1,then 2) several times (while the letter was in the mail) asking for a status they told me nothing and let the letter surprise me. They even said I'd have to pay to have it sent back to me after originally telling me I wouldn't have to. The support people were short and gave the impression they could care less.
I'd love to give this camera a great review, but since I no longer have a working camera, I can't.
This was a birthday present for my wife and it lasted 6 months. Be wary of any of these small cameras as they say they have a 1 year warranty but most of the complaints I've read online deal with this same issue (and none are covered). Sharper Image offered a 'no questions asked warranty' for additional $$ that, in hindsight, I should have bought... if you're going to get one of these small cameras, don't make the same mistake.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 350
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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Epinions.com ID:
macjohn
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Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
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