2.2Unquestionably the most futuristic camera of 2008, the Casio EXILIM EX-F1 offers unparalleled capabilities. It can take 60 full-res pictures in a second, It shoots both standard- and high-def video and, for its most jaw-dropping trick, offers super-slow-motion shooting at up to 1200 frames per second. The EX-F1 looks like an SLR, but it’s actually a rocket-powered point-and-shoot with a 12x optical zoom lens, priced at $999. The killer feature turns out to be rapid-fire still photography, though image quality is good, not great. For more details, read the full review that follows.
Picture Quality / Size Options (6.00) Stills can be shot in seven sizes plus RAW:
RAW+JPEG
Saves RAW data in DNG (digital negative) format plus a 6-megapixel JPEG.
6M
2816x2112
3:2
2816x1872
16:9
2816x1584, formatted to fit a widescreen HDTV screen
4M
2304x1728
3M
2048x1536
2M
1600x1200
VGA
640x480
RAW shooting is only permitted in single-shot mode, is only available paired with a JPEG file, and that file must be at maximum resolution.
There are three image compression settings, Fine, Normal and Economy.
Higher-res images can be resized in the camera to 3M, 2M and VGA sizes. In-camera cropping is also available.
Picture Effects Mode (5.00) The EX-F1 offers eight color filter options: B/W, sepia, red, green, blue, yellow, pink and (for you Prince fans), purple. There is no option to increase or decrease the intensity of the effect, though.
Image sharpness, color saturation and image contrast can also be adjusted during shooting. Each supports a range of five settings.
Several parameters can also adjusted in-camera for a shot you’ve already saved to memory card. The full selection of white balance settings is available as an image adjustment in playback mode. Image brightness can also be fine-tuned (five settings are available). In-camera image resizing is supported, saving to either 3MP, 2MP or VGA (640 x 480) size, along with in-camera image cropping. The good news for all these editing options is that both the original and the altered image are automatically saved as separate files.
