Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1

At first sight, the EX-F1 looks like any other superzoom camera, thanks to its SLR-style design and 12x optical zoom. But where other superzoom cameras struggle to shoot continuously at more than two to three frames per second, the Casio can shoot at an astonishing 60fps and at full resolution.

That’s not all it can do. It also boasts a high-speed movie mode with frame rates of 300 frames per second, 600fps or 1,200fps for dramatic slow-motion footage of events that normally happen too quickly for the eye to follow, such as water splashing into a glass.

On top of that, there is a high-definition movie mode with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. That’s easily higher than any other digital camera and you can expect footage of amazing clarity when it’s plugged into your HDTV, though this does require an additional cable.

The Casio’s amazing feats are achieved using a continuous shutter, high-speed image processing and a six-megapixel CMOS sensor. The sensor resolution might raise a few eyebrows, of course, because it’s not very high by today’s standards. But in reality there’s not a great deal of difference in outright picture size between a six-megapixel image and a seven to eight megapixel image, and quality depends at least as much on the sensor size as it does the number of pixels. The Casio’s sensor is a 1/1.8-inch device, which is larger than the average compact camera’s. Overall, then, the apparently limited resolution is not a critical drawback by any means.

While the high-speed shooting capability is this camera’s main selling point, of course, it can also be used as an everyday camera. The 12x optical zoom makes it ideal for all kinds of photography, especially wildlife and sports. There’s a sensor-shift anti-shake system, too, for helping to keep those long-range shots sharp.

It has quite sophisticated photographic controls, too, which will enhance its appeal for more experienced photographers. Casio’s included its usual array of Best Shot (scene) modes, but these are all clustered under a single BS setting on the Mode dial. The dial also offers Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and Manual modes as well as Program Auto. In principle then, this camera should appeal to both beginners and more advanced users.

The Casio’s unique technology and sophisticated controls don’t come cheap, though. For the same money as this camera, you could buy a decent digital SLR with kit lens and a telephoto zoom to go with it. A lot depends on the Casio’s high-speed shooting then. Just how useful and effective is it?
 
First impressions
The Casio’s not quite as big as a digital SLR, but it’s not far off. It’s a fairly hefty, well-made camera that sits well in your hand, and the clearly labelled controls have a nice feel to them, too.

But it’s not good in every respect. Like other superzoom cameras, the Casio uses an electronic viewfinder and these aren’t a patch on the optical viewfinders of digital SLRs. The image is smaller and much less sharp – the definition is limited by the pixel grid of the display – and the screen’s reaction to sudden movement can be sluggish, especially in poor light.

You can, of course, use the LCD on the back of the camera to compose pictures instead. There’s a button for switching between the EVF and LCD on the back of the camera. But what the Casio really needs is an eye sensor so that you don’t have to do this. Ideally, simply putting the camera to your eye should activate the EVF, and moving the camera away from your eye should switch the display to the LCD.

The need to switch manually is annoying because, typically, you’ll want to shoot using the viewfinder and then check your photos on the LCD afterwards. And it’s possible to get in a bit of a mess because the shooting/playback buttons are right alongside too. If you’re not concentrating, you can end up switching between modes when you wanted to switch displays and vice versa.

Limitations
More serious is the fact that the Casio’s high-speed shooting mode has certain limitations that aren’t immediately apparent. It can indeed shoot at 60 frames per second, but it can only shoot 60 frames in total. This means that your high-speed sequences can only last one second.

Now with some sports, for example, this isn’t a problem. You can predict pretty easily when a high jumper’s going to clear the bar. But with other sports it’s far less easy. At a football match, for example, it really is difficult to predict exactly when a striker’s going to attack the goal, and if you fire too soon (when they simply feint around a defender, for example, or pass to another player), you’ve missed the opportunity.

This is the other thing. When the Casio’s recorded a high-speed sequence, it first checks with you that you do want to save it (though you can disable this) and then spends 15 seconds transferring all 60 frames from the camera’s buffer to the memory card (and that was with a high-speed card).

Clearly, a one-second burst is no good for sports or other action subjects where you can’t predict precisely when the action will take place. And the fact that the camera is tied up for so long afterwards processing the images does rule it out for subjects of this kind.

You can lower the frame rate, though. In fact, the Casio can shoot at any frame rate between 1fps and 60fps. The maximum number of shots remains the same, so that you can shoot a two-second burst at 30fps, for example, or a four-second burst at 15fps. But while this gives you a longer burst (at a lower frame rate), the time taken to process the images is still the same and the risk of missing an even better moment is always there.

And here’s another thing. If you lower the frame rate to allow longer bursts, there comes a point where you’re not really shooting a lot faster than a good digital SLR. Canon’s EOS 40D, for example, can run at 6.5fps. The Casio is at its best only when you really do need those super-high frame rates and where the subject is either static or behaves in a predictable fashion.

It will help if your subject is at reasonably close range, too. The Casio’s 12x zoom is great for pulling in distant detail, but the autofocus just isn’t quick enough or positive enough to keep up with fast-moving subjects. There is a manual focus option, which could be used for prefocusing on the action, but even though the image is magnified in manual focus mode, it’s just not sharp enough and the focus action isn’t quick enough for accurate manual focusing to be practical – not unless the subject is stationary and you’ve got time to focus carefully.

It’s important to understand these limitations when making your mind up about this camera. It might appear perfectly suited to sports photography, but there are situtations where it’s going to be out of its depth and where an SLR, despite the far slower frame rate, will be better at capturing the action. Football, rugby, ice hockey or any other ‘pitch’ sports will leave it struggling because the players move quickly and erratically. Golf, athletics and perhaps certain motorsports will be fine because you can usually work out where the action’s going to take place and be ready for it when it does.

We haven’t even discussed the high-speed movie mode yet. The Casio website has examples of the kind of spectacular slow-motion captures you can make at these frame rates, and it proves easy to replicate these in real life, though you may have to set up the shot fairly carefully to get the lighting and composition right. And you’ll need to mount the camera on a tripod so that the only movement comes from the subject, not the camera. At 300fps, the splashes and bubbles created by pouring water into a glass are quite spectacular and mesmerising when played back in slow motion, and the same technique could be used to reveal fascinating slow-motion detail in a multitude of other subjects.

Everyday usefulness
Only a few photographers would buy the Casio for its high-speed shooting alone. Most of us would want it to be good at everyday photography too. And it is. Its pictures are well exposed, colourful and sharp, and despite its modest resolution, in reality its results are very much on a par with those from any other compact digital camera or superzoom. It’s not of the same standard as a digital SLR, but then you wouldn’t expect that.

Shots taken in its burst mode, though, are more of a mixed bag. Things are fine at normal or medium focal lengths where there’s good depth of field, but at full zoom the focusing just isn’t fast enough or accurate enough for reliable results. One of our test sequences was of a gull taking off from a beach. It was in focus on the ground, but quickly moved out of focus as it flew away. We shot other sequences from a football match where the direction of play was towards or away from the camera, and the same problem occurred here. It’s the shallow depth of field at long focal lengths that’s the problem.

There’s no doubt that the Casio’s high-speed shooting modes work, and that they produce results that would be impossible to achieve with any other camera. And with a little patience it’s possible to set up slow-motion movies, which, until now, might have required the specialised and fantastically expensive equipment of a physics lab or a natural history film unit.

But it has limitations. In controlled environments it’s excellent, but with fast-moving, unpredictable subjects it’s out of its depth. And if these are the things you want to shoot, you are going to be better off with a digital SLR. The frame rate will be positively pedestrian by comparison, but an SLR will have much faster autofocus, much more precise manual focus and faster responses generally. You’ll be able to concentrate far more on the action, and you’re much less likely to miss key moments while you’re waiting for the camera to finish processing images.