Casio Exilim EX-Z300 Digital Camera Review

Casio Exilim EX-Z300

Digital Camera Review

Nov 26, 2008 - By Tim Barribeau
2.1 The Exilim EX-Z300 is a slim and shiny 10-megapixel point-and-shoot camera from Casio, that has an impressive zoom ratio of 4x, and a maximum aperture of f/2.6, which should let you shoot at very high shutter speeds. However, once we got it into our labs, we found that it performed slowly, and while it did very well in some tests (like resolution and manual noise) it also really struggled with others (such as automatic noise and white balance). These uneven test results and slow speeds coupled with the annoying user interface made this a less than favorite. For full details on the $299.99 camera, follow the link below.
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Casio EX-Z300


Auto Mode (6.50)
There is effectively nothing but auto mode on the Z300. Sure, some settings, like white balance or ISO, can be manually set, but the camera will automatically flip back to auto as soon as it's turned off. There's also no way to change the shutter speed or aperture, so you'll just have to trust your fate to the auto exposure system. Point and shoot is the order of the day here.

Movie Mode (7.75)
The Z300 doesn't have a dedicated movie mode, but rather a dedicated movie button. The vast majority of the settings are identical to shooting still photography, the only change being video resolution, which is altered through the menu to HD (720p), STD (640x480) or LP (320x240).

Drive / Burst Mode (8.00)
The Z300 offers three continuous shutter modes: Normal Speed, High Speed and Flash. Strangely, at no point in the manual are said speeds quantified. Rather, we are informed that high speed and flash shoot at only two-megapixel resolution, the latter for a maximum of three images. In our lab tests, we discovered that normal speed takes one image every two seconds. Hardly a blistering pace.

Playback Mode (8.50)
While in playback, zooming in takes you to a maximum of 8x magnification, and zooming out will take you to a thumbnail view of 25 images. Zooming even further out takes you to calendar mode.

There are a large number of tools tucked away in the PLAY menu. Slideshow lets you select images, the running time of the show, the interval, and which of five transition patterns you want. Layout Print arranges multiple images into a single composite photo in a vaguely artistic manner. Motion Print converts nine frames of a video into a still image, with one large frame in the center, and a strip of four smaller frames above and below.

Lighting allows you to lighten an image by two levels. Red eye helps you repair the dreaded crimson orbs. White balance allows you to adjust the white balance of an image you've already taken, not an option we see very often. Brightness lets you brighten or darken a photo by ±2 steps (and seems to cross over into the same territory as lighting).  Keystone attempts to automatically adjust images for perspective distortion. Color correction trims an image to 2MP, and automatically adjust the color. And then there's the standard set of rotate, resize, trim, copy and protect functions.

Custom Image Presets (9.50)
Never let it be said that Casio left you hurting for image presets. The horrifically titled BS (or best shot system) lets you choose 36 different setups, not counting normal shooting or BS auto, which tries to guess what's the optimal image preset choice for your shooting situation. These presets are (deep breath everyone): portrait; scenery; portrait with scenery; self-portrait (1 person); self-portrait (2 people); children; sports; candlelight portrait; party; pet; flower; natural green; autumn leaves; soft flowing water; splashing water; sundown; night scene; night scene portrait; fireworks; food; text; collection; for eBay; backlight; high sensitivity; monochrome; retro; twilight; multi-motion image; ID photo; business cards and documents; white board; silent; pre-record (movie); For YouTube and voice recording.


Some of these deserve further explanation. Silent, pre-record and For YouTube are for movies, and silent speeds up the frame rate to create the jittery look of a silent film. Business cards and white board mode both automatically keystone images to correct for foreshortening. Multi-motion image combines several pictures into one to show an object moving across frame and ID Photo composes a portrait picture into several common photo ID sizes.

One nice touch by Casio is that they actually bothered to describe what each of these does in the Best Shot menu, so you can find out if the preset uses a color filter, or anything else. This makes the usually obtuse process of selecting the best preset slightly easier.

Design / Layout Page 8 of 15 Control Options
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