Wow! What a Camera!

The Casio Exilim EX-Z1000 has new standards that everyone will be trying to catch up too! The Exilim EX-Z1000 is a small compact point-and-shoot digital camera with 10.1 megapixels and the nicest LCD screen I have seen on any camera. The camera has a big bright and beautiful 2.8 inch color LCD.


The camera
The camera is small and light weight, 3.62 inches wide, 2.3 inches high and .88 inches deep; with the battery installed it weighs less than 7 ounces. The ergonomics of the camera are nice, it fits great in my hand and all the controls are easy to reach and use. The construction is made of a light-weight strong aluminum body all in silver.

It has built-in 8.3 megabytes of internal memory and an expansion slot for a SD (Secure digital) card. There are 34 scene shot modes for experimenting and changing the way the camera takes photos.

The camera comes with a docking cradle that charges the battery and connects to a computer through a USB 2.0 connection. There is also an audio/video output port for connection to a TV or DVD player on the cradle. The camera comes with a NP-40 1300mAh lithium battery pack made for about 360 photo shots. Charging time is approximately 3 hours. Data can be transferred to the computer through the USB cable or to any PictBridge compatible printers.


The LCD
The LCD on the back of the camera is the highlight of the camera for me with a 2.8 inch screen. The LCD covers most of the back of the camera. The LCD has 230,400 pixels, which makes using it outside in bright sun light better than most LCD screens that I have used.

The LCD is for taking the photos and movies as well as photo and movie playback, plus any adjustments that you want to make with the camera. You can display 12 thumbnail images at a time on the screen.

The downside is there is no optical viewfinder!


The lens
The incorporated lens comes out when the camera is turned on and it retracts back in the camera with an automatic cover protecting the lens when it is powered off.

It is an all-glass multicoated lens that is constructed of 7 elements in 5 groups. It has a 3x optical zoom lens (38-114mm equivalent in 35mm photography) and a 4x digital zoom lens. The maximum aperture is F2.8 to F5.4.

The auto-focus range is 15.75 inches to infinity and in macro 2.4 inches to 19.7 inches. Manual focus is from 2.4 inches to infinity.


The Flash
The built-in flash is like most flashes that are built-in; though I find that it is one of the best built-in flashes I have used to cover a room that is almost dark. The range is .33 ft. to 12 ft. in the wide-angle and 1.3 inches to 6.2 inches in telephoto. Most digital cameras fall short on their specifications for distance of the flash, but this camera is right on its specifications for distance.

Red-eye wasn’t too bad in the normal mode and it got better in the red-eye mode. Angle shots general prevented any red-eye at all in the red-eye mode.

Casio uses Rapid Flash that has 3 high speed flash photos in one second.


Photos - Movies
The Casio Exilim EX-Z1000 lets you take big brilliant photos as well as movies with sound.

Photos are from 640 pixels x 480 pixels all the way to 3648 pixels x 2736 pixels; this is a “Big Photo.” Photos are saved in the JPEG format (Exif Version 2.2), DCF standard and DPOF compliant.

The movies use the JPEG, AVI and MPEG-4 format. They can be recorded at 640 x 480 in High Quality or Normal mode and 320 x 240 mode. The MPEG-4 format is the best because the camera uses a shake reduction for a better movie. There is even an LED built-in for low light movie conditions. It takes up to 25 frames per second.


eBay!
Oh yes! eBay! Just about everyone uses eBay and many like to sell products on eBay for a profit or just to get rid of some things you don’t want to have around the house anymore. Casio presents the “eBay Best Shot” mode made for those who like to sell on eBay and have the perfect photo size.

The “eBay Best Shot” mode features the perfect size for displaying your items for sell on eBay. It is great for close-up shots that bring out the best in details. There is an Auto-Macro mode that automatically focuses small items for the best clarity. I took a photo of a dime and it came out crystal clear with perfect details.


Other Features!
Anti Shake provides higher sensitivity, faster shutter speed prevents image blurring to hand or subject movement.
High-speed start-up enables shooting approximately 1.3 seconds after power up.
Release time lag of only 0.002 seconds after the shutter is pressed.
Continuous shutter function enables photos to be taken in 1 second intervals.
Attach up to 30-second audio memos to still images at capture or later.
Record voice-only audio, approx. 25 minutes on internal memory.
Movie Best Shot, Past Movie, Short Movie and in-camera movie editing.
ISO sensitivity from 50 to 400, ISO 3200 with Anti Shake.
Built-in flash with Red Eye Reduction and Flash-assist function.
USB data transfer to PC or Mac computers.
Exposure Compensation: -2EV to +2EV (in 1/3EV steps)
Self-Timer: 10 seconds, 2 seconds, Triple Self-timer


What you get?

Rechargeable lithium ion battery
USB cradle & USB cable
AV cable
AC adaptor
Strap
CD-ROM


What I Like
My number one like is the big beautiful 2.8 inch LCD screen.
The quality of the photos are great!
The built-in flash is slightly better than most built-in flashes.
The long lasting rechargeable battery.


What I Dislike
No optical viewfinder!


My final thoughts!
I was surprised when I was given this camera to try out! A 10 mega-pixels camera, wow! The Casio Exilim EX-Z1000 has a lot to offer.

The 2.8 inch LCD is a big plus for me because I can see more and better details with this large screen. The thumbnails are fine for screening through the photos quickly, but they are small on the screen. Viewing the adjustments you may want to make is so much easier with this large LCD screen.

The quality of the photos is great! The 3648 pixels x 2736 pixels are very big and produce a great photo for small prints and enlargements; though at this large size in the fine mode, it will eat up about 4.2MB of memory per photo. I took most of my photos at the 5 meg-pixel range (Fine Mode) of 2560 pixels x 1920 pixels and it still took about 2.8MB of memory in this mode. In each pixel size you can choose, Fine, Normal or Economy, I find that the economy shows too much noise, the normal mode shows very little and that the fine is slightly better than the normal mode. Overall I recommend the fine mode no matter what pixel setting you decide on.

The movies were like on most digital cameras; really not worth using unless it is an emergency. The anti-shake that is built-in helps on a steadier shot, but the clarity of the movie is a lot to be desired.

The built-in flash is a typical flash, but it seems like it produces a stronger flash for distance than most built-in flashes, creating a brighter photo.

The battery seems to hold up well; I took 117 photos before I had to return it and I never did charge the battery with plenty of power left. My guess is it will probably get close to the 360 photo shots that Casio says it will. This may be a camera that you don’t need to carry an extra battery with you all the time.

The main disappointment for me is no optical viewfinder. The LCD does pretty well in the outside sun light, but it is not as nice as if you have an optical viewfinder. I figure on a sunny day with a snow or white sand beach background, that the LCD will be very hard to see. The LCD being larger does help in the sunny outdoor shots.

Overall this is the nicest pocket type digital camera that I have used so far!