Casio Exilim EX-G1

Resolution (4.31)

Overall, we were less than impressed with the resolution of the images that we captured during our tests: they had significant distortion and chromatic aberration, as well as lacking sharpness, especially at the edges of the frame. More on how we test resolution.

Distortion (4.24)

All of the images that we captured across the zoom range had some level of distortion in them: at the wide, mid and telephoto focus points, the images all had significant barrel distortion, where straight lines become bowed inwards like the sides of a barrel. You can see examples of this below, with the most significant distortion being at the wide angle setting.

Distortion Examples
Wide (6.66mm): 2.59% Barrel Distortion
Mid (11.5mm): 1.86% Barrel Distortion
Tele (19.98mm): 1.45% Barrel Distortion

Sharpness (3.86)

We found that the EX-G1 produced images that were extremely soft, with very little fine detail captured in them. Although the images have acceptable sharpness in the center of the frame, the edges of the images were very soft, with details getting lost in a blurry haze and . This happened across the zoom range: you can see examples in the crops below.

Chromatic Aberration (5.54)

We were also less than impressed with the amount of chromatic aberration in the images that the EX-G1 took: again, there was little at the center of the frame, but there was a lot at the edges of the image across the zoom range.

Quality & Size Options (8.28)

The EX-G1 offers 7 image sizes and three quality levels: fine, normal and economy. As the name suggests, fine takes the most space but has the highest quality. The camera estimates that you can fit 253 fine images at the highest resolution onto a 2GB micro SD card, and 721 in the economy mode at the same resolution.

Image Stabilization (0.00)

The EX-G1 includes a feature called Anti Shake, which they claim reduces the effect of subjective movement. We found that this feature made no difference: images were equally sharp when taken with a shaking camera with the mode off or in the Auto mode. We test these types of features by attaching the camera to our customized shake rig (which simulates a shaky hand) and examining the sharpness of images with the feature on or off. We didn’t see any significant difference between the two tests, although to be fair, it may be that this feature just didn’t enable itself in our tests: these focus on a shutter speed of 1/30 of a second, and the feature may not turn on at this shutter speed. More on how we test image stabilization.

Stabilization Comparisons
Casio EX-G1	Canon D10	Fujifilm Z33WP	Pentax Optio W80
Stabilization Off
Stabilization On