Digital cameras today can mainly be found in two of three groups. At one end you have tiny pocket-sized compacts that seem to have an enormous amount of camera technology but limited lens capability, and at the other you have the much larger SLRs which are more professional and give greater control at the cost of increased price and bulk. Sitting somewhat uncertainly in the middle are bridge cameras, which give the best and the worst of both. On the one hand you can pick up a camera with a much better lens than a compact cheaper than an SLR but it comes with all the bulk and you can't change lenses for different situations. At Photokina a lot of the manufacturers we talked to were suggesting the end of the bridge camera is near and today Casio have brought it even closer with the Casio Exilim Hi-Zoom EX-V7.
The idea of a 7x zoom on a compact is unusual to begin with but it becomes even more so when you see that the lens doesn't protrude. Thanks to lens folding techniques the whole system can be kept inside the camera keeping it only 25.5mm wide. The EX-V7 also has the newest version of Casio's image processor (the EXILIM Engine 2) that gives better tonal control over photos, noise elimination and advanced AF for moving subjects. A total of four blur reduction technologies also feature, including high ISO, faster shutter speeds and motion analysis technology that selects the correct settings for moving subjects. Unfortunately there still isn't physical image stabilisation so camera shake could still be an issue. Add to all this a 7.2MP sensor and you have a camera that can perform just as well as a bridge camera.
For the first time in a compact, the camera supports recording video in Apple's H.264 video encoder which gives smaller files than equivalents (over half as much again as the common MPEG-4 format). Because the lens has a folded design it is also silent so you can zoom while recording and it supports widescreen as well as 4:3 format.
The only real issue I can see with the EX-V7 is the dated design, which looks more like one of the early compacts of the 1990s than the elegant shapes we have come to expect from Casio. Thankfully it looks better in black than silver, and a sliding on-off switch covers up the ugly lens area when not in use. Since you will spend more time looking at the back than the front anyway, this isn't the biggest issue in the world and the buttons do look sensibly set out. Other than that the folding lens design could be a problem, similar cameras like the Pentax W20 lack in lens quality because everything is compressed in together - only a review can tell.
The Casio EX-V7 will be on sale in the UK from April 2007, with a RRP of £299.99.
Pentax E30 specification
| Mega-pixels: | 7.41 |
Photo: | JPEG |
| Optical Zoom: | 7x |
RAW: | No |
| Digital Zoom: | 4x |
Aperture: | F3.4-5.3 |
| LCD: | 2.5 inch |
Focal Length: | equiv. 38-226mm |
| Dimensions: | 95.5 x 59.8 x 25.5mm |
Shutter: | 60 sec to 1/800 |
| Weight: | 149g |
Exposure: | ISO 64 to 800 |
| Storage: | SD, SDHC, MMC |
Movie: | 848x480@30fps |
| Int. Mem: | 11.6mb |
Battery: | NP-50 |
| Interface: | USB 2.0, AV |
PictBridge: | No |
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