Casio EXILIM EX-H20G review

Casio Exilim H20G: Say hello to your new photographic tour guide

Casio’s EX-H20G joins its EXILIM Hi-Zoom range. Boasting 14-megapixel images and a 24mm wide-angle lens offering up to 10x optical zoom, it is also the first compact to incorporate its new Hybrid GPS system, which enables geotagging of images anywhere. You can also view your current location on a map in relation to where you have taken photos and videos on the move.

The EX-H20G’s 10x optical zoom makes the camera body quite bulky, but it can still fit into a pocket or bag, and the body feels weighty and solid with a smart finish. The buttons on the back sit cleanly to the right of the 3-inch screen, but they prove to be a bit of a challenge for people with bigger fingers. Despite the buttons being cramped, the rest of the body is left empty, making it comfortable to hold with plenty of space to rest fingers.

Casio’s Best Shot system gives a one-touch menu for automatic and various pre-defined scene settings. You can make tweaks to shot settings but there aren’t any manual modes, making this aimed at the beginner-to-intermediate market. Its premium auto feature will detect surroundings and use the appropriate settings. Casio’s Best Shot system is well refined and performs well to offer great-looking photos with relative ease.

However, the lens can be a bit noisy, constantly trying to focus, so you may find automatic focusing is impractical for long periods. Startup and processing of higher quality images can be slow at times. Low light can also be a hindrance on this model, with soft edges and visible noise in the higher end of the ISO setting. Still, this is forgivable as that was never its intention, and it is a joy to use in strong, natural lighting conditions.

Pre-loaded information on 10,000 photography locations are stored on the camera. This enables you to plan trips with the camera and even let it direct you to your next destination. All images taken can be uploaded to popular photo-sharing websites and the software utilising the geotagging information.      

The Hybrid GPS system works even when the GPS signal is covered and out of range. When indoors it uses 3 accelerometers and a three-way direction sensor to record the information and relays it back when the GPS comes back online. This may seem unnecessary, but it stops multiple points stacking up when viewing the geotagging map later.  

One-touch 720p HD video recording is also readily available at 30fps in the popular H.264 format. It is hard to gauge battery life on this camera with the GPS, map features and HD video as widely usable additional features, as it’s affected if you choose to unnecessarily leave GPS on while the camera is not in use. It checks location details at ten-minute intervals when idle, so the power consumption is considerable if you don’t plan to charge it over a few days for light to medium use.

This is a traveller and adventurer’s ideal camera with its solid build, long zoom, powerful battery and GPS features, and you can easily share your travels on the move using a laptop via various geotagging sites. The camera even supports Eye-Fi cards, so potentially you will never need to use cables.

The clincher for this camera is whether you will use the GPS features; if not, then it may be worth looking further. There are better all-rounders out there, but as a travel compact this ticks all the boxes.