Casio Exilim EX-Z200 review

Wide-angle and anti-shake in a stylish and tiny camera

The Exilim EX-Z200 is the first ever Casio ultra-compact camera to feature a 28mm, wide-angle lens. The 4x zoom on the EX-Z200 offers a focal length of 28-112mm in 35mm terms, providing enough versatility to cover every photographic subject from landscapes and indoor group shots through to head and shoulder portraits. Zooming from one extreme of the lens to the other is very quick, but unfortunately the same can’t be said of the maximum aperture at full telephoto, which is a disappointingly dim f/5.8, limiting use in low-light conditions. On a more positive note, Casio have also implemented a CCD-shift anti-shake system, again for the first time on a compact Casio camera. When turned on, this system automatically compensates for blur by moving the sensor inside the camera, different to the lens-shift system that most other manufacturers use, but no less effective. It’s a very welcome addition to the EX-Z200, as all previous Casio cameras have relied on raising the ISO speed to combat camera-shake (with all the attendant issues of noisier images). The CCD sensor is a newly developed 10-megapixel, 1/2.3 inch unit, which is about par for the course in terms of the megapixel count for the asking price. In turn, the new sensors have allowed Casio’s engineers to make the EX-Z200 even thinner and smaller than previous models, but this hasn’t stopped them from incorporating a 2.7-inch wide and bright LCD screen on the back. Dubbed the “Super Clear LCD”, it’s an excellent screen that can truly be viewed from all kinds of extreme angles, useful for showing off your photos to a group of friends, or holding the camera above your head to take a picture. The EX-Z200 is particularly well-suited to beginners, with no less than 39 different scene modes on offer to cover virtually very photographic situation that you’ll ever encounter. If you don’t want to bother with the hassle of finding the right scene mode, then the new Auto Best Shot mode will automatically analyze the scene in front of you and choose the appropriate shooting mode from 6 common modes. Casio’s system isn’t quite as clever or effective as Panasonic’s more advanced Intelligent Auto Mode, but it still provides an easy way for the novice user to simply point and shoot and still get excellent results. This bias towards automation continues with the Auto Shutter function. The EX-Z200 will automatically take a picture when the subject smiles or stops still, or the instant when the person holds the camera still enough to avoid camera-shake. It will even fire the shutter when your own face fills the frame for a self-portrait shot! All very clever stuff that ultimately helps the beginner take better pictures. The EX-Z200 doubles up as quite an effective video camera. It utilises the H.264 video standard, which uses the latest high-compression technology to help ensure that you don’t quickly fill the memory card with just a few minutes of moving footage. The EX-Z200 can also record wide format movies in a 16:9 aspect ratio, at the highest quality setting of UHQ Wide (848x480 pixels). There’s even a dedicated, easy-to-access Movie Button on the back for instant movie recording, providing a much quicker solution than having to scroll through the menu system, as on most other cameras. In terms of performance, this camera is something of a let-down. Casio cameras are renowned for their snappy operation, but unfortunately the EX-Z200 doesn’t follow suit, taking around 3 seconds to start-up and over 2 seconds to record an image at the highest quality setting in the single-shot mode. The continuous shooting speed of 1.7fps is only about average for this class of camera. Thankfully it’s not all bad news, as the autofocus system quickly locks onto the subject, even in low-light, and the battery life is excellent, allowing you to take over 350 pictures before needing to be recharged. Unfortunately, we now have to turn to another area where the Casio EX-Z200 is well below-par – image quality. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen images as bad as this. There’s very obvious noise and smearing of fine detail throughout the ISO range, becoming especially evident at the relatively slow speed of ISO 200 and getting continually worse until the almost unusable ISO 800 and 1600 settings. Even the slowest setting of ISO 50 exhibits noise in the shadow areas in scenes with a wide dynamic range. Unwanted purple fringing is also obvious in high-contrast scenes, although some software programs can mostly remove this for you. Photos from the EX-Z200 aren't very sharp at the default setting, although this can be increased in-camera, and the longest shutter speed of 4 seconds and macro mode of 15cms are frankly very disappointing on a camera from 2008. Only the understated, natural colours and accurate white balance in most lighting conditions save the day for the EX-Z200 in terms of the photos that it produces. Which leaves us with a stylish, well-made, feature-rich and affordable compact camera that’s let down significantly by sluggish performance and very poor image quality.