Review Of The Casio Exilim EX-S5 Digital Camera

Digicam — on September 9, 2009 at 5:06 am | Comment Now

Sum ‘n’ Substance:

Thumbs up: Great svelte design; outstanding picture quality; loads of features; reasonably priced.

Thumbs down: Issues with shutter lag, performance is lethargic.

Inside the trunk: Resolution 10.1 mega pixels ;Color Support; CCD Optical Sensor; Total Pixels:10,340,000; Effective Sensor Resolution: 10,100,000 pixels; 4 x Digital Zoom; Shooting Modes: Frame movie mode; Maximum Shutter Speed: 1/2000 sec; Minimum Shutter Speed: 60 sec; Face Detection; White Balance: Custom , Presets, Automatic; Digital Video Format AVI , MJPEG; Still Image Format JPEG; Video Capture AVI – 848 x 480 , AVI – 640 x 480 , AVI – 320 x 240; Supported Flash Memory SD Memory Card; • Integrated Memory 17.8 MB; in built flash; 2.7 inch colour LCD display with TFT active matrix.

The whiz-kid speaks: Casio have launched a very impressive camera , with plenty of features at a modest rate. Pictures are way above the average line, but threes a catch, although picture quality is great, the camera lacks in a performance and the shutter lag does not help it either.

Razzle-dazzle: The EX-S5 has an outstanding design, draped in a smooth black coating, the Exilim is also available in a wide range of colours such as silver, pink, blue and purple. It is sleek, doesn’t weigh much and has a great feel to it. The only problem is the front end is prone to scratches and finger-prints.

Inside dope:
The LCD screen takes up most of the space on the back; one press on the Movie mode button and you start recording and a second press stops the recording and puts you back to shooting still images. Below this, there are the Playback and Camera Mode buttons; a round directional pad and a Set button; plus the Menu and Best Shot buttons.

Most of the cameras settings are accessed by the Menu buttons. For faster access to shooting options, a strip of settings can be set to appear on the right side of the screen. You can also program the left and right directionals to change things like ISO, white balance, and exposure compensation. The left and right directionals can be programmed to change things like white balance, ISO, and exposure compensation. Some other features include unique adjustments like choosing focus frames to look like hearts, stars or butterflies as well as menu color schemes. There also is an in built support for Eye-Fi SD cards for transferring photos from the camera to other devices by a wireless network connection.

With the press of the Best Shot button, you gain access to a bank of scene modes. The S5 has 22 scene types to shoot with including the basic options like Landscape, Portrait and Night Scene all the way to the strange options of Fashion Accessories, Soft Flowing Water, etc. There also is the Easy mode in the regular menu options that locks most of the settings but keeps a couple of basic settings active, the camera handles everything else automatically. The real Auto mode is more like a Program AE mode allowing you to adjust all of the settings of the S5. The Movie mode is shot in VGA-quality the only screw up is you don’t get to make use of the zoom lens while recording. Also the EX-S5′s continuous shoot mode uses the settings from the first shot that includes the focus.

The Casio Exilim EX-S5 Digital Camera

The Exilim EX S5 does what it has to do in its class. There was not outstanding, as a matter of fact it was slow. From a cold start to your first shot, it takes a 2.5 secs which is alright but the EX-S5′s 1-second shutter lag in bright light and 1.2 seconds in low-light is a real damper.
The EX-S5 has an astoundingly good photo quality considering its low price tag. Like most point-and-shoot cameras, it succumbs at ISO 200 with the increase of grey-like noise. The light touch may have made pictures taken at higher ISO’s look noisy with a grainy effect, but it left the details intact. The conclusion: usable pictures up to ISO 1,600 Colors are natural, vivid and detailed.

Nitty-gritty: Casio have done well with the Exilim EX-S5. So what if the performance is a tad slow and the shutter speed is at a crawling speed when compared to other cameras, this one offers loads of features and a superior sound quality and all for $ 130. This is a great camera to have and a must buy especially if your planning to use it for family portraits and other such occasions because for moving targets, the shutter lag won’t be able to cope with it.