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Auto Mode (3.50)
While many cameras today feature a Program mode that automates exposure control and an idiot-proof Automatic mode that takes over virtually all of the camera’s controls, Casio makes due with a single mode it calls Auto, which is equivalent to what most manufacturers label "Program." Leave the camera set to Auto and you're still responsible for setting ISO, white balance, metering pattern and auto focus pattern, which other cameras generally handle when a user chooses the Auto mode.
Movie Mode (10.25)
The EX-F1 offers three distinct movie modes for starters, with a dazzling, perhaps dizzying array of choices within each.
Standard Movie Mode: With the Movie Mode Selector switch set to STD, movies are shot with a 4:3 aspect ratio, 640 x 480 resolution, at 30 frames per second. The maximum movie size is 4 gigabytes, which works out to nearly three hours. Best Mode presets are available, along with sensor-shift anti-shake, though face detection is turned off. The built-in stereo microphones are used, or you can plug in an external mic. The special YouTube capture mode allows lower-resolution video capture (432 x 192, 512 x 384) without audio, along with standard-resolution video with stereo soundtrack.
High Definition Movie Mode: With the Movie Mode Selector set to HS, the EX-F1 shoots in 16:9 format with resolution set at either 1280 x 720 (30 frames per second) or full HD (1920 x 1080, 60 fps). Here again, you have your choice between built-in stereo mics or an external mic.
High-Speed Movie: Flip the switch to HS and you’re ready to shoot your own personal Discovery Channel special, at speeds ranging from 30 frames per second to an astonishing 1200 fps. Of course, as you push the speed higher, the resolution creeps down to the point where you have to question the practicality of the whole thing. At 300 fps, the movie is shot at 512 x 384; at 600 fps, you’re down to 432 x 192, and at 1200 fps you’re shooting a 336 x 96 video sliver. You still have access to aperture-priority, shutter-priority or full manual exposure control, though focus remains fixed at the moment you press the movie shutter (then again, how far can your subject move in a fraction of a second?).
While shooting standard or high-def movies, you can also capture up to 20 snapshots by pressing the shutter button.
Drive / Burst Mode (9.00)
Continuous shutter modes, along with time-warped movies, are where the EX-F1 crosses over from cool tech into near-science-fiction. Grab up to 60 high-res stills per second. Capture up to 7 shots per second with the flash firing. This is technology that leaked out of Area 51 and somehow landed at Casio headquarters, ready to tantalize anyone from serious sports photographers to proud Little League parents.
Let’s look at these high-speed modes individually and explore the options in depth.
High-Speed CS: Three variations are available:
| 1 to 60 fps | Specify the number of photos to be taken per second, up to 60. The camera will stop after taking 60 shots maximum. The available frames-per-second settings are 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,10, 12, 15, 20, 30 and 60. This means you can spread out your 60-image sequence over a full minute, or take them all in a single second. |
| Auto-H | Unlike the 1 to 60 fps mode, which will squeeze off the requested number of shots even if the user-entered shutter speed will produce under-exposed images, the Auto-H mode measures the light level and shoots at up to 60 images at the maximum speed possible for properly exposed shots. |
| Auto-N | The camera continues shooting as long as the shutter is held down and memory is available. The maximum fps rate is set by the user. The camera shoots as close to that rate as possible based on light levels. |
For any of these modes, the camera ring control can be used to change the frame-per-second rate on the fly if you specify this control assignment in the set-up menu.
Flash CS: This continuous shooting mode uses either the flash or the LED light for illumination. The flash can fire up to 7 times per second; you can set Flash CS mode to take from three to 20 shots consecutively. For even faster shooting, the LED light is used to provide continuous illumination, and you can record between one and 60 shots.
Prerecord: Press the shutter button halfway down and the camera starts taking photos and storing them in a buffer (this works for both still and movie modes). When you fully depress the shutter, the camera starts shooting continuously and then, when the combination of shots taken before and after the shutter press equals sixty seconds, both are stored to the memory card. You get to decide how much of the time should be allocated to buffer and how much to shoot after pressing the shutter. The big idea: instead of worrying about catching just the right moment to press the shutter and capture an image, you do your best secure in the knowledge that, even you’re a little late, you’ll still get the shot.
Slow Motion View: Conceptually complex but potentially interesting, this view stores images into the buffer when the shutter is halfway depressed, and plays them back at slow speed (up to two seconds worth of images are in the buffer at any given time). When the photo you want to capture appears on screen, press the shutter completely and all the images in the buffer are stored to the memory card.
All of these continuous shooting modes require setting the camera to Auto mode.
Bracket: Three different types of automatic bracketing are provided: exposure, white balance and focal distance. Each bracketing option provides the choice of 3 or 5 shots. For exposure bracketing, you set the bracketing amount in 1/3EV increments. White balance and focus bracketing each offer two increment ranges, though unfortunately there’s no indication of the degree of change being implemented. Flash isn’t supported during bracketed shooting.
Playback Mode (8.75)
Still images can be displayed in four ways, toggling between them using the DISP button.
- Full-screen image with basic shooting information (file name, image size, date and time taken, plus battery charge indicator)
- Same as above, but with overexposed areas highlighted
- Additional overlay with focal distance, exposure compensation and white balance settings, flash mode, focus area, ISO, aperture, shutter speed and a histogram to display the distribution of exposure values in the image. While better than nothing, the tiny size of the histogram limits its practical benefit.
- Clean screen showing image alone.
When shooting using Continuous Shutter mode, the camera compiles the captured images into a group for playback purposes. This allows you to delete single images or an entire group of images at once if you choose. Alternatively, you can divide up the group into individual images through the playback menu.
Pressing the zoom control toward the telephoto side displays up to 8x magnification during playback. Pressing the zoom control in the opposite direction brings up a 12-image thumbnail display which can be navigated using the four-way control or control wheel, hitting the Set button to choose a photo for full-screen display.
The slideshow utility, accessed via the Play menu, provides user-selected interval timing, total playback time, and five combinations of between-image effects and background music.
Movie playback offers forward and backward playback at multiple speeds, zoomed-in viewing and audio volume adjustment. The information display toggles between a clean full-screen display and an overlay with file name, movie length, shooting mode (standard, high-def of high-speed), date and time plus battery charge indicator.
It’s possible to capture stills from stored movie files in playback mode. This function, called Motion Print, will either save a single movie frame of your choosing as a full-screen image, or create a nine-frame montage with your selected frame in the center and additional frames before and after that one in strips at the top and bottom of the image.
Basic in-camera movie trimming is also supported. During movie playback, use the four-way controller or control dial to find the spot where you want to edit. You then have three choices: trim away everything from the beginning of the movie to your current location, delete everything after the current location, or remove everything between two points (you’ll be prompted to find the second point after selecting this option). It isn’t possible to re-order sections of a movie or combine pieces from different files – this is strictly a trimming feature. And there’s an important caveat before using this option: only the edited result is saved, not the original file. There’s a kludgy workaround: you can create a second copy of the file to the camera’s built-in 31.9-megabyte memory if your movie fits. It would have been much more logical to save both the original and the edited version in the first place, though, a procedure the camera follows automatically for in-camera still image editing operations.
Custom Image Presets (12.00)
Casio calls its preset system Best Shot, labeled BS on the mode dial. There are 26 already programmed, most of which apply to both still and movie shooting, from the expected portrait, sports and scenic vista settings to some more esoteric choices including “eBay” for shooting items for auction and “Food” (high-saturation macro). For each Best Shot mode, pushing the zoom control brings up a short text block explaining how the settings work, a nice touch.
The Digital Anti Shake mode is unusual. It records multiple images and automatically combines the sharpest sections to correct for image blur. Digital panning is another technologically sophisticated choice, again shooting and combining several images to create a photo with the foreground subject in sharp focus against a motion-blurred background. There’s a Move Out CS mode that automatically starts shooting multiple frames when the subject moves out of a user-defined on-screen frame, and Move In CS which starts shooting when the subjects enters an on-screen frame. There’s also a preset mode optimized for shooting YouTube videos, which are stored in a separate folder on your memory card to make them easier to find.
Finally, if there is a set of adjustments you particularly want to have at your fingertips in the future, it’s easy to create your own Best Shot mode. Simply select a photo you’ve taken with the desired settings, then register it as a scene mode selection. There’s room for up to 999 user-created entries, each of which includes settings for face detection, focus, EV shift, white balance, flash, ISO, metering, dynamic range, flash intensity, flash assist, color filter, sharpness, saturation, and contrast.
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