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Details at a glance
Megapixels: 7.2
Optical Zoom: 3x
LCD: 2.6 inch
Storage: SD/MMC
Internal: 8mb
Size: 95 X 61 X 19 mm
Weight: 122g
We clicked with:
Huge screen.
Great design.
Useful Best Shot modes
Shots in the dark:
Awkward four-way controller.
"Easy mode".
Soft images.
Links
www.casio.co.uk
Price Comparison: Casio EX-Z75
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Not so long ago, Casio was associated with calculators and synthesisers. It came as a surprise when they entered the digital camera market - more so because they were rather good at it.
Several generations later Casio have released the pocket-sized EX-Z75 camera, follow-up to the EX-Z70. But how much can you really fit in a small box? I found out...
Design
There's an obvious design philosophy behind the Casio EX-Z75: take the largest LCD screen that will comfortably fit in the pocket, put some tiny buttons beside it and bolt a lens to the front. Finish off with a brushed-metal case.
First impressions are, “Wow, that's a small camera.” This is followed by, “Wow, that's a big screen.” The EX-Z75 has a bright, sharp 2.6 inch screen in an unusual wide-aspect format - the main change from the EX-Z70. The pictures it takes are standard VGA ratio with the extra display width for quick-access to major functions.
Next to the screen are the usual controls for controlling zoom and reviewing images. The zoom is a reasonable 3x optical, coupled to a 7.2MP sensor that can also capture VGA size video. The camera has a small amount of slow storage onboard - enough for one full-res image - but you'd be best adding an SD card. All credit to Casio though, it's amazing they fit it all in.
Ergonomics
There are some compromises. The battery doesn't have shaping to prevent it being inserted incorrectly, which is annoying. And once you do power it up, you'll start to notice just how small those buttons really are. The four-way controller is a struggle; a joystick, as seen on other cameras such as the Kodak V803, is a more thumb-friendly solution.
That aside, the camera is pleasing to use. It has a nice weight and feel, with the lithium rechargeable battery mounted in the handgrip. The handgrip itself is a little problematic - the size of the camera suggests it should be used single-handed, but the brushed-metal surface doesn't offer much to hold on to. A rubberised grip would be a bonus, even if it did spoil the styling. That said, the layout of the flash, controls and lens is good and makes the camera easy to wield single or double handed without accidentally obscuring any working components.
Features
The camera powers up fast, coming online in around 1.5 seconds - certainly swift enough that you can leave it in a pocket until a shot appears. The wide display has a side-panel that allows quick setting of resolution, flash, self-timer, anti-shake, ISO, white-balance, exposure compensation and “easy mode”. The flash settings include a nice “soft flash” mode so you can add punch to your photos without spoiling the ambient light.
The ISO and anti-shake modes together control camera sensitivity. ISO can be directly set from 50 to 400, or left on Auto. Activating the anti-shake will allow the camera to additionally auto-select ISO 800 in low light, and at the same time it will restrict the shutter speed to no lower than 1/15. It's unusual that you cannot explicitly set ISO 800, but it is a high-noise shooting mode and Casio's decision to restrict it is fairly reasonable.
In the main menu, you'll discover a vast range of other controls for every aspect of the final image, including sharpness, contrast and coloured filters. Various focusing and metering modes are available. The only feature missing is manual control of shutter speed and aperture.
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Manual control isn't required though, as Casio provide 31 different “Best Shot” scene modes, not including Auto, Video and Audio-only. Having seen the huge scene mode list on the Kodak V803, you could be forgiven for thinking that Casio and Kodak send their engineers to the same school; however, Casio have a better implementation. The EX-Z75 presents its scene modes with small photographs of a typical scene and a more detailed text description if you press the telephoto key. Despite the extra modes, the purposes and differences between the modes are generally more obvious than on the Kodak.
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Selecting a Best Shot mode affects all aspects of camera operation, from focusing mode to colour filter choices. There's even a high-sensitivity mode that will let the camera auto-select ISO 800 without restricting the shutter speed. The modes do make a real difference to the camera performance and significantly improve your ability to get good results.
Easy Mode
The one feature that doesn't help is “Easy Mode”. Aimed at digital photography newcomers, this mode allegedly uses preset optimum values for all settings. In a strange move from Casio, even their Best Shot settings are disabled in this mode, leaving the camera guessing in full-auto the entire time. Video recording is accessed via a Best Shot setting, so Easy Mode also restricts you to still images.
The loss of Best Shot settings is a huge shame, as very little is easier than picking the correct Best Shot mode. “Easy Mode” renders your digital camera little more capable than a disposable film camera, which is ludicrous.
Taking Photos
When it comes to taking photos, the EX-Z75 puts up a good performance. Focusing is quick and makes good choices in multi-point mode. The trigger is swift and the resulting exposure is good. The LCD is rather bright which is good for use in sunlight but can be misleading for checking exposure. Fortunately there's a histogram display to judge exposure accurately. Outside of easy mode, the camera will even warn you about potential under or over exposure through helpful text bubbles - well done Casio for using text, rather than obscure icons.
Switching between shooting and review modes is fast, and moving between captured images is quick. One point to note, the camera has a “wide screen” review mode. This expands the picture to the width of the screen but chops a small amount off the top and bottom. If you zoom in you can see the extra image data is still there. Switching to 4:3 mode keeps the entire picture in view and makes reviewing much easier.
Sadly, reviewed images appear soft, especially compared to the pre-trigger display. The EX-Z75 doesn't produce the sharpest images in the world, but the display seems to exaggerate the problem.
Image Quality
Given the size of the sensor and lens, the EX-Z75 puts up a good effort to produce quality images, though it misses the mark a bit. The centre of the lens tends to reasonably sharp, but it rapidly gets very soft towards the edges.
When you do get a sharp image, the camera is prone to halo effects in areas of hard contrast, and the edges of the picture suffer from colour fringing.
Put the camera in macro mode though and suddenly you're in a different world, with crisper and sharper images and high detail. This really is seeing the camera in its best light.
Image noise isn't bad - at ISO 50 the camera delivers a pleasing image with only a little texture to smooth areas like sky. ISO 100 and 200 are also very clean, but ISO 400 starts getting noticeable noise in shadows. Images are still very usable though. ISO 800 opens up a lot more noise - on bright parts of a picture it's usable, but in dark parts it does become ugly and costs you edge sharpness.
ISO comparison:
ISO 50,
ISO 100,
ISO 200,
ISO 400,
ISO 800
Conclusion
The Casio EX-Z75 is a beautiful, well-designed camera - fiddly buttons aside. It's very easy to take good pictures using the Best Shot modes and avoiding the Easy Mode. The enormous screen, 7.2MP sensor and 3x zoom gives the EX-Z75 a spec to be proud of.
If only it was as easy to get really sharp pictures, the camera could be recommended without hesitation. As it stands, the image quality towards the edge of the frame can be troubling and lets down the otherwise high quality images.
That aside, the EX-Z75 is great to use and makes the ideal in-the-pocket, go-anywhere camera. You need never miss a shot again.
