Thumbs Up:

Inexpensive and ultra-compact camera featured with sensor-shift image stabilization and one-button video capture.

Thumbs Down:

The shooting performance is slow. The battery life is short. The camera does not give good photos of moving objects.

Inside the Trunk:

Software and drivers, carrying strap, USB cable and battery charger.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Casio Exilim EX-Z33 is 10.1-megapixel camera, which has CCD optical sensor. The light sensitivity levels are ISO auto, ISO 1600, ISO 800, ISO 400, ISO 200, ISO 100 and ISO 64.

2.5-inch LCD display supports 230,400 pixel resolution. The white balance is of three types: Automatic, Presets and Custom. Its presets include (cool white) Fluorescent light, (daylight) Fluorescent light, Tungsten light, Overcast, Daylight and Shade. The camera has a built-in flash with four modes: Red-eye detection, Flash OFF mode, Fill-in Mode and Auto mode. The effective flash range is 4-inch to 10 ft.

The maximum shutter speed is 1/2000 seconds and minimum shutter speed is 4 seconds. There are two exposure modes: Program and Automatic. The exposure metering is of three types: center-weighed, multi-segment and spot. And, the exposure compensation is ±2EV range in 1/3 EV steps.

Casio Exilim EX-Z33 stores the image in JPEG format. The image storage resolution options are JPEG 640×480, JPEG 1600×1200, JPEG 2304×1728, JPEG 3072×2304, JPEG 3648×2048, JPEG 3648×2432 and JPEG 3648×2736. The camera stores videos in AVI and MJPEG formats. The video capture resolution options are AVI 320×240, AVI 640×480 and AVI 848×480.

The zoom lens has a focal length of 6.3mm to 18.9 mm and aperture of F/3 1-5.6. The lens has both Manual and Automatic focus adjustment. There are nine auto focus points.  The minimum focus range is 3.9-inch and macro focus range of 10-50 cm. The lens has 3x optical zoom with motorized drive zoom-adjustment. The lens is aspherical and has built-in lens shield.

The other features of the Casio Exilim EX-Z33 are 4x digital zoom, built-in mono mode microphone, Frame movie mode and face detection. The self-timer is available with delay of 2 seconds and 10 seconds. The additional features are digital image rotation, YouTube capture Mode, face detection AF/AE, PictBridge support, cropping an image, built-in speaker, date/time stamp, audio recording, DPOF support and AF lock.

Casio Exilim EX-Z33 has two connectors: 1xComposite video/audio output and 1xUSB. The internal flash memory is of 16.9MB and the camera has a SD memory card slot. The camera has a lithium ion battery.

Razzle Dazzle:

Casio Exilim EX-Z33 costs around $99.99 and it comes in pink, purple, black, blue and silver colors. The metal-and-plastic body is attractive. The EX-Z33 measures 2.2-inch tall, 3.7-inch wide and 0.7-inch deep and it weighs around 3.6 OZ. Our test model came in black color. The camera is light, small and easily fits in pants pockets.

Inside Dope:

Casio Exilim EX-Z33 is not a compromising device like other cameras in the same range. It is an automatic one and provides more controls than other manufacturers give. The maximum video resolution is 640×480 and the Exilim EX-Z33 has one touch button to start/stop video recording. Its long shutter lags in bright conditions. If the objects are not moving, then the resulting photo quality will be better. We recommend the Casio Exilim EX-Z33 for the users who need a low price range camera for basic photo and video shoot in portraits and landscape modes.

The Casio Exilim EX-Z33 has a big LCD screen to view and frame your shots easily.
Your thumb naturally rests between the right edge of LCD and Movie mode button. You can capture a still picture in the middle of recording video. The playback, camera mode, Best Shot (BS), Menu, a Set button and circular pad button are located beneath the Movie mode button.

The camera’s settings are accessed through the Menu button. A press of Set button will open the panel of settings button on the screen’s right side. You can use this panel for faster access to shooting options. You can program the left and right directional buttons to change settings of exposure compensation, ISO and white balance. There is no option to change the focus modes, so you manually have to change the manual focus or need a macro to go into full menu system. It is easy to navigate through various settings, which include unique adjustments like set the camera to remember each time you turn it off and on. There are adjustments for adding color filters, contrast, saturation and sharpness. You will also get the inbuilt support for Eye-Fi SD cards to transfer photos from the camera via wireless network connection.

Casio Exilim EX-Z33 has 22 reliable scene modes including Night Scene, Landscape, Portrait, for YouTube, for eBay and Soft Flowing Water. Easy Mode locks down the advanced settings and gives you a simple shooting mode. It is located in the regular menu options.  The Auto mode is actually an AE Program mode that allows adjusting all of the settings except shutter speed or aperture. The Movie mode records the VGA quality video. The recorded video quality is good and is suitable for online sharing. You can not use optical zoom while video recording. The continuous shooting option inherits the settings and focus for all successive pictures from first shot.

The shooting performance is the weakest part of the Casio Exilim EX-Z33. The camera takes 2.5 seconds to power on and to capture the first shot. The shot-to-shot time is 3 seconds and 3.3 seconds with flash. It takes 0.8 seconds from pressing the shutter to capture in bright conditions, whereas it takes 1 second in dim light. Continuous shooting has a good speed of 1.2 frames per second which better than that of Nikon Coolpix S220. However, Canon PowerShot A480 and Pentax Option E70 has better continuous shooting rate.

Being an inexpensive camera, we expected the photo quality to be a bit low. Instead of that, Casio Exilim EX-Z33 takes nice photos at and below ISO 200. If you closely examine captured pictures, the image noise is visible all ISO levels. At ISO 400, you will get some yellow blotching on the photos. However, the mixture of reduction and noise keeps the finest detail. At ISO 800 and above levels, the objects are really soft and smeary, and the yellowish becomes more visible. You will get the best pictures at ISO 400 and below with either bright light or flash.

Casio Exilim EX-Z33 does not have a wide-angle lens and it has noticeable barrel distortion at widest position of camera lens. At 3x, the long end of zoom does not display any pincushion distortion. In our test shots, there was a visible purple fringe in high contrast. However, it is normal for this range of cameras.

Colors are natural and nice but not accurate completely. White balance is good. The captured photos were underexposed occasionally but it can be corrected easily either by adjusting the camera to Best Shot Mode before the shoot or by basic photo editing software after the shoot.

Nitty Gritty:

Casio Exilim EX-Z33 is an inexpensive, ultra-compact and attractive camera that captures good photos and record videos capable of online sharing. The camera is not perfect to capture the moving subjects. We would recommend to not to move camera while capturing the photo.

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