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Casio EXILIM EX-Z450 review
DATE REVIEWED: 10th Dec 2009 Add Camera To Comparison Chart

Casio EXILIM EX-Z450 Specs

Camera TypeCompact Shutter Speeds4 - 1/1000 sec
RRP£199 ISO Range64 - 3200
Megapixels12 Focal Length28 - 112mm
Weight130g Aperturef2.6 - 5.8
Dimensions97 x 58 x 21mm (WxHxD) Focus Distance 10cm - inf
LCD Size3 inches Zoom (Opt)4x
Zoom (Dig)4x StorageSD / SDHC
Max Resolution4000 x 3000 Battery TypeLi-Ion

Casio EXILIM EX-Z450 Review

Casio joins the compact 12.1 mega pixel party

On paper Casio's latest compact zoom is highly competitive in its intended marketplace. Compacts in the £200 region have all but made the move to 12 mega pixels and many feature HD video (1280x720) and intelligent auto focus as their main selling points. The EX-Z450 boasts all of this and to compliment its 4x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom (16x effective) it even features CCD Shift Stabilization intended to keep your images steady even when you're not. Like many of its kin the EX-Z450 also features a massive three-inch screen taking up a good 90% of the rear face of the camera. As is often the case this leaves very little room for control, giving just six buttons and a directional pad over to control on the entire rear-face. On the top bezel you'll find the usual zoom arm and shutter combination, a power button, and also a further button on the left edge of the top bezel for operation by the left index finger. This is a dedicated toggle to switch between two of the most common shooting modes in modern digital photography – portrait and landscapes. The latter introduces saturation for extra-vivid colours and the former softens up the focus to offer smoothes, more kindly skin tones. Oddly, it's even possible to toggle both modes simultaneously, though we're hard-pressed to think of a suitable usage scenario.

Despite opting for a toggle-button for this feature, Casio have sadly fudged the all-important operational buttons elsewhere on the camera. For example, instead of using another toggle button to switch between shooting-mode and image playback, two buttons are used – there's also a further button dedicated to shooting video, when in reality it could be toggled together with the aforementioned shooting and playback modes allowing Casio to put the other two buttons to better use.
 
The reason we're nitpicking the control layout is simple. Firstly, the macro mode is buried under two layers of OSD (On Screen Display) menus, while in itself is a heinous crime, what’s worse is there's no short-cut button for it. It's usually placed front and centre on the directional pad on cameras of this ilk, but that's where Casio made their single biggest usability mistake; the left and right directional buttons aren't even assigned to a dedicated task by default at all.
 
Sadly this poor level of control continues in the menu system. Discovering that these directional buttons can be assigned to a specific task at all takes a great deal of rummaging through the 191 page manual, or if you’re lucky you’ll stumble across it as you pass through the options menus. While it's kind enough to offer you a number of assigning options once you finally do find it (ISO, metering, EV shift and white balance among others), it doesn't let you select between the various focusing modes (macro, auto focus and manual focus), which is quite a huge usability issue in our book. We wonder if it could have been a conscious decision on Casio's part since the macro mode on the Z450 is clearly not its strongest point thanks to a terrible minimal focal distance of 10 centimetres. We certainly struggled to get the macro shots we wanted and we were far from inspired to persevere.
 
While some key options are buried quite painfully deep in the OSD from the Menu button, there is thankfully a clearer and more concise menu reachable by pressing the Set button in the centre of the d-pad. Here it's possible to scroll up and down through the core features from picture size to flash, AF, ISO and continuous shooting modes among other things.
 
The final button of the rear-face caters for the BS (Best Shot) shooting modes of which there are a whopping 38 scene modes for photo and video shooting. These are quite clearly demonstrated by thumbnail images and would certainly appease an absolute beginner. There's also an Auto BS function from which the camera intelligently evaluates the scene to decide the best scene mode, though we weren't particularly confident in its abilities and eventually decided to leave it well alone.
 
Ultimately Casio might have known it wasn't onto a winner with the EX-Z450 by the very fact its strongest selling point is its impressive battery life. With a good 500-plus shots attainable from a single charge there's little chance you'll run dry over an entire day's shoot, but with so much time spent fighting with the controls, there's little doubt the EX-Z450 needs it.
Final Verdict
We were thoroughly disappointed with handling, the OSD and ultimately the results, particularly in low light and macro modes. The EX-Z450 simply isn't a contender in the highly comparative £200 compact zoom market.
Overall
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We were thoroughly disappointed with handling, the OSD and ultimately the results, particularly in low light and macro modes. The EX-Z450 simply isn't a contender in the highly comparative £200 compact zoom market.
OVERALL

Reviewer Profile



Russell Barnes

Russell is a technology expert, editor of Total PC Gaming and a keen amateur photographer who can build a computer from scratch with little effort, making him the perfect candidate for tackling the more innovative features present on both DSLRs and compacts.

Total Camera Reviews 6
Average Camera Rating 3.2
Russell's Last 5 Reviews
Olympus FE-5030 3 / 5
Canon Powershot A495 4 / 5
Olympus FE-5020 3 / 5
Samsung PL55 3 / 5
Casio EXILIM EX-Z450 2 / 5
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