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Casio Digital Cameras
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Casio EXILIM EX-F1 Digital Camera Reviewby Steve MorgensternPublished on July 23, 2008
LCD Screen (6.25)
The 2.8-inch LCD screen, with 959 x 240 resolution (230,160-dots total) provides an accurate view when it comes to image framing and color reproduction. It does get the grainy jitters when working in low light, but not enough to interfere with framing your shot. The screen can be set to four different brightness levels, either automatically (the camera senses ambient light and adjusts accordingly) or manually. We found the +1 setting was a good indoor/outdoor choice. It does become difficult to judge colors on screen when shooting in bright light, but seeing what you’re shooting is possible even in the summer glare. ![]() Clear legible type with good color highlighting make the LCD easy to read. The flash pops up automatically when settings require it. There is no physical button you can press to pop up the flash, or engage flash mode. This is unfortunate, since having to go through the on-screen menu is slower than simply pushing a flash button or lifting the flash into position, the systems used in most consumer-level SLRs with built-in flash. The height of the flash when engaged, at a full two inches above the camera body, is a big plus when it comes to avoiding red-eye when shooting in darkened rooms. While the flash pops up automatically, you’ll have to lower it by hand.
Casio gives the flash range as 1.6 to 22 feet (0.5 m to 6.7 m) at the widest angle setting, and 3.6 to 12.8 feet (1.1 m to 3.9 m) at the furthest telephoto. As expected, the flash can’t achieve the same range when shooting in continuous mode, at up to 7 frames per second. During continuous shooting the flash range is cut roughly in half, which is still impressive performance compared to the built-in flash in any other camera we’ve tested. The red lamp next to the viewfinder flashes when the flash is recharging. If you’re shooting with flash, you’re locked out of taking a photo until the charge is complete. According to Casio, recharging the flash can take up to 9 seconds with a fully charged battery depending on temperature, but during our testing we never waited more than a second or two. There are five flash settings: Auto flash, Flash off, Flash on, Red Eye Reduction and External Flash. Flash intensity can be set to 13 different levels, from -2.0EV to +2.0EV, in 1/3EV increments. For shooting movies, or stills at faster than 7 frames per second, the LED light can be turned on as a source of constant illumination. Pressing the bottom of the four-way controller turns the LED on and off while in movie mode, though this won’t work while shooting high-speed movies. Flash assist can be turned on when a subject is not receiving adequate illumination in a dark setting. This feature uses an image processing algorithm to boost the brightness of the areas that are bright, but not as bright as they would be in a properly exposed image. Of course, this kind of processing noticeably increases image noise. We prefer tweaking the exposure in an image editing program, though point-and-shooters may be satisfied capturing an acceptable photo in difficult conditions with flash assist. There is also an industry-standard hot shoe on top of the camera for connecting an external flash. You have to manually select External Flash (by pushing the four-way controller to the right) to avoid having the built-in flash pop up automatically, which is inconvenient.
Zoom Lens (7.00)
The EX-F1 doesn’t have that long snout up front for looks alone – it incorporates a powerful 12x optical zoom lens that ranges from 7.3mm to 87.6mm (equivalent to 36mm-432mm for a 35mm camera). At f/2.7 the lens is reasonably fast at the wide setting, though the maximum aperture plunges to f/7.3 at the full zoom setting, requiring plenty of illumination to take a sharp photo. The lens consists of 12 elements in 9 groups, including one aspherical lens. Image stabilization is handled through shifting the internal light sensor rather than optical lens elements. ![]() The EX-F1 zoom is equivalent to a 36-432mm lens on a 35mm camera. ![]() Three shots of the statue atop Grand Central Station, taken from precisely the same spot.
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