Casio Exilim EX-Z1050

Manual Control Options
There are a few manual controls scattered in the menus but there isn’t any manual control over shutter speed or aperture. All of the exposure modes on the camera are completely automated and many are tailored to shoot in very specific situations so users don’t have to worry about manual control at all.

Focus
Auto Focus (3.5)
The Casio Z1050 has a contrast detection auto focus system that isn’t very effective. This is one of those compact digital cameras that you end up deleting 80 percent of the pictures from because they’re blurry beyond recognition. Normally it focuses as close as 15.75 inches. There are several auto focus modes found in the panel and recording menus: normal, macro, and infinity. The manual focus feature is grouped in the same menu, but will be discussed in the next section. The macro mode shortens the focal point to within 3.94-19.69 inches.

There are also auto focus area modes in the recording menu: Multi, Spot, and Auto Tracking. The Multi uses nine auto focus points, but they’re all crammed into a tiny portion of the center – so if your subject is off-center, this won’t work well. The Spot mode is locked to the very center of the image, so there’s not much flexibility. The Auto Tracking mode is by far the most interesting. Users must place the superimposed box on the image over the subject they want to track and then push the shutter release button down halfway; the box turns green and follows the subject around the frame. It follows edge to edge and holds onto subjects very well. Theoretically, this would be useful in the burst mode when trying to track a runner across the frame, for instance. However, the burst mode is deactivated when the tracking auto focus mode is selected.

In the recording menu, there is a Quick Shutter option that reduces shutter lag by a few milliseconds and does so by shortening the auto focus time. This only makes images look worse. The normal auto focus time really isn’t that lengthy; there’s not a lot of shutter lag. The auto focus simply doesn’t focus well on its subjects. In low light, the camera has an auto focus assist lamp that shines orange light from the front to make focusing possible.

All in all, the auto focus works quickly but not effectively.

Manual Focus (2.0)
The Casio Exilim Z1050 can focus from 3.94 inches to infinity. The manual focus mode is grouped in the same menu with the auto focus modes. When the manual focus is selected, a box appears on the screen. There are no other on-screen directions, but when users push the right and left sides of the multi-selector the box digitally magnifies the center of the image and the focus adjusts. It’s hard to tell what’s in focus on the 115,000-pixel LCD screen.

ISO (7.0)
The Z1050 improves upon its sibling model, the Z75, in this area. The Casio Exilim Z75 has a short 50-400 ISO range, while the Z1050 extends from 80-800. It also has a High Sensitivity scene mode that ups the ISO to 1600. This is helpful for keeping subjects illuminated in low light without the flash, but increases the amount of noise and lessens the dynamic range in the images (see Testing/Performance section of this review for more details). Overall, the Casio Z1050 has a decent ISO range but most comparable models have manual settings reaching 1600 now, so it’s a little behind the competition.

White Balance (7.25)
White balance can be changed on the Z1050's panel display or in the recording menu, although the panel display is preferable because it provides a nice large live view. There is an automatic setting along with a healthy selection of presets: Daylight, Overcast, Shade, Day White Fluorescent, Daylight Fluorescent, and Tungsten. There isn’t a flash white balance preset, but Casio covered all the other bases. There is even a manual white balance mode, which some manufacturers don’t put on their point-and-shoots. To see how accurately the automatic white balance is compared to the presets, check out the Testing/Performance section of this review. Surprisingly there is a white balance setting in the playback mode that allows users to pick any of the presets for a photo already taken. There is a preview with this too.

Exposure (7.25)
Users can monitor the exposure in real time by pushing the top of the multi-selector, labeled "DISP," and watching the live histogram. It is tiny but it shows the overall exposure along with the separate red, green, and blue channels. This is helpful since the LCD screen automatically adjusts its brightness when the lighting changes, making it hard to tell if it’s the exposure changing or the screen’s brightness. The Casio Z1050 doesn’t allow shutter speeds or apertures to be manually adjusted, but there is a standard +/- 2 range available for exposure compensation. The typical 1/3-step range is available with a live preview in the panel and recording menus.

Metering (7.0)
The metering mode is only found in the recording menu under the quality sub-heading. Multi-pattern, center-weighted, and spot metering modes can be selected but there is no live view in the menu.

Shutter Speed (0.0)
The Casio Exilim EX-Z1050 has a CCD electronic and mechanical shutter that has a range of ½-1/1000th of a second in the Snapshot mode. The range varies according to the selected scene. For instance, it is fixed at 2 seconds in the Fireworks mode and the Night Scene mode has a wide 4-1/1000th range available. The total 4-1/1000th range is okay, although some point-and-shoots offer better 15-1/2000th shutter speed ranges. The long exposures aren’t that long and may make night photography nearly impossible.

Aperture (0.0)
The Z1050 has a 3x optical zoom lens with an aperture that opens as wide as f/2.8. That is when the lens is zoomed out. When the full 3x is utilized, the aperture diminishes to f/5.1. The smallest aperture available is f/8. This type of range typical of compact digital cameras’ lenses; however, users of the Z1050 will not be able to set these manually.