Casio Exilim EX-Z800 review

Get creative in camera for a compact price.

The Exilim Z800 is the latest compact camera from Casio. Released alongside the Exilim EX S200 both cameras share notable similarities in spec, design and affordable pricing but what does the Z800 offer that makes it a worthy purchase?

A thicker build than the S200 but in no way bulky, the Z800 is lightweight and compact making it perfectly proportioned for small pockets and purses. The attractive sleek finish comes in six vibrant eye-catching colours. With a 2.7” LCD screen and easy to navigate button layout, it is the simple design of this camera that makes its easy to use and get to grips with quickly. The only disappointment in the looks department is the menu interface, the design layout feels a little outdated and doesn’t quite match up to the same design standard of its body.

You will find that the Z800 is packed full of optional shooting programmes with 35 available scene modes all located within the Best Shot menu. Developing on the already popular Dynamic Photo feature you can continue composing still images within camera and now apply the same technique to the HD videos you shoot, giving you the option to add a multiple of moving still images as well as over 100 downloadable animations to produce creative and fun videos without the postproduction stress. This feature wont appeal to everyone but is a quirky addition that can be enjoyed and played with along with family and friends.

Some of the available scene modes have the potential to be great features, however with all the added futile modes such as nail and fashion accessories you find yourself distracted from what is great about this compact, its ease of use.

The popular Premium Auto setting is back letting the camera make all the technical decisions for your shot, the only downside to this is the extended length of time it takes for the camera to process each image, making it difficult for continuous shooting unless specifically setting the camera to do so. The makeup effect for portrait shots has a cleverly built in adjustment feature giving you some control on the effect and its strength helping to prevent blurry facial features.

The 720p HD video works well and has a dedicated film button featured on the back of the camera making it easy to switch from still shooting to video instantly. Impressively and in addition the camera also features a YouTube shooting programme. This innovative feature does allow you to shoot and share your videos easily online without having to downsize the video on the computer first.

Taking out for a test run the Z800 worked well and proved easy to use. Although 14.1MPs image quality was good but not overly impressive. The 4x ultra-wide zoom lens performed without any distortion and it glides nicely in and out of zoom. Macro shooting can only be achieved 8cm from the subject but has fairly sharp results and chromatic aberration is kept to a minimum. The ISO range is great but the camera does struggle over 800 ISO with apparent noise and image quality reduction, which isn’t too great for low lighting. The auto white balance makes good colour representations under a range of different lighting.

Some of the artier effects lack any creative flare giving you basic examples of what could potentially be a great added feature, the Retro mode simply turns your photos a standard sepia tone and the watercolour effect bleaches out any detail from your image. It is unfortunate that the same attention detail on the cameras body design hasn’t been applied here. With less modes and more development on the good ones this camera would make a great compact companion.