Casio Exilim Zoom EX-Z1200

Casio is calling the Exilim Zoom EX-Z1200 its current ‘flagship model’, the reasons for which will rapidly become apparent to anyone who picks one up and has a play with it.

This sleek, small unit currently has the highest amount of available megapixels in a compact camera on the market: an impressive 12.1. To put that into context, it’s a figure that can comfortably out-do certain entry-level DSLRs.

Weighing in at a trim 152g without its proprietary Super Life rechargeable li-ion batteries or any accessories, the EX-Z1200 design itself appears pleasantly classic, with smoothly rounded corners and subtle ergonomic features. It’s a fairly slim, well-made little thing that fits comfortably into the palm of your hand, but despite that it manages to pack in a wealth of features that could put bigger and more expensive products to shame, let alone other compacts.

The power, Display mode, zoom and Playback buttons are all found on the top of the camera. The icon-based menu interface is displayed on the right-hand side of the clear, colourful 2.8-inch super-bright LCD monitor, and navigated via the camera’s small round d-pad, menu button and the tiny ‘BS’, or Best Shot, button situated next to the lusciously colourful LCD screen.

Best Shot is the EX-Z1200’s name for a scene mode, and it features an excellent range of pictorial presets, from the standard night, sunset, portrait, landscape and screaming children options to more esoteric settings such as flowing water, backlighting and even a mode optimised for eBay auctions. There are 34 still picture Best Shot settings in all, and another nine for video, maximising your ability to capture clean, optimised shots of almost anything. While the EX-Z1200’s ISO range is generally between 50 and 400 with a default of 50, certain settings in Best Shot mode can automatically crank this up to 3200 when you’re using the camera’s anti-shake or high-sensitivity functions. Exposure modes are surprisingly versatile for such a small compact, with aperture and shutter priority modes and a full manual option housed alongside Program Auto mode and a Pan mode during video footage. It’s like having a miniature studio in your pocket, only without the bulky, awkward bits.

In terms of usability, the EX-Z1200’s CCD shift technology and anti-shake DSP reduce the chances of blurred shots from shaking hands, while a start-up time of around 1.3 seconds, shutter release lag of a minimal 0.009 seconds and Burst mode with a respectable rate of three flash photographs per second ensure that you can capture those quick, ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ images with ease. The Soft Flash can prevent overexposure, meanwhile, while the High Power Flash is great for shots where your subjects are at a distance. A ‘flash assist’ routine helps to make sure that you’ll get the best from your flash photography. The 3x optical zoom isn’t fabulous in scope, even though it combines with a 4x digital zoom to produce a hybrid 12x total. Sadly some clarity is sacrificed at maximum zoom, although thanks to this camera’s overwhelming megapixel count you can forego a little physical zoom and enlarge and resize images later on.

This is primarily a family-oriented camera, designed to capture memories and make itself useful around the house. As such, it focuses on the human face. Its Auto Tracking AF function can track the faces of moving subjects, but most intriguingly, the clever little thing offers a Family First mode, in which it gives priority to the visages of those it describes as ‘recorded family members’. Whoever they happen to be, you’ll find that the EX-Z1200’s menu system is simple and intuitive for nearly all your family to use. The icons are clear and instantly meaningful, and the navigation system is simplicity itself. The only way that the EX-Z1200 lets itself down is with the fiddly size of its buttons, which your fingers can slide off of with consummate ease. Although, let’s be fair, there’s not much room on this camera to make them any bigger.

Image quality really is outstanding on the EX-Z1200, both in terms of the capture process itself and in its reproduction on the LCD. The camera offers a range of playback modes, from a menu of nine images at a time, to a slideshow, album function and favourites folder, eliminating the need for one of those cute but expensive image storage boxes. A range of very basic editing tools are built in, allowing you to perform simple operations such as trimming, resizing, reversing and rotating.

The cheap tackiness of the USB cradle is a bit of a letdown, but you can’t have everything. It’s worth remembering, while you’re being wowed by its ease of use and great design, that the EX-Z1200 is not a professional-quality camera – it’s a humble household camera. It just happens to be at the top of its range and the peak of functionality, too.