Front
The front of the Casio EX-Z600 features a 3x zoom lens on the right side when facing the camera. The lens ring extends slightly out over the edge between the front and left side of the camera, creating a sliver on the body which curves out to echo this feature. The AF assist light is located above and slightly to the left of the lens ring. To the left of this light, the in-camera flash for the EX-Z600 is positioned off the center axis of the lens. The Casio logo is placed to the left of the in-camera flash, with the 6.0 MP appearing beneath it at the center point for the body, while at the base the logo Exilim appears.

Back
The back of the Casio EX-Z600 features an impressive 2.7-inch LCD screen with 153,600 pixels, a marked drop in resolution when compared to the 2.5-inch, 230K LCD screens being released by Kodak and Pentax at PMA 2006. The LCD screen is built out slightly from the back face of the camera and features a glossy black frame surrounding it on all sides.

In the upper right corner of the back face, the undersized playback and shooting mode buttons are positioned adjacent to one another in a tight fit. A raised horizontal bar is located directly beneath these two controls. Below this is a thicker horizontal bar that sweeps outward along the back face and curves into the wrist strap lug at the edge; on this bar are two buttons. The control located closer to the right edge is the Best Shot control while the control located towards the LCD engages the menu on the LCD. These two buttons are in close proximity to one another, much like the record and playback buttons. The menu and best shot buttons are labeled with embossed text connoting each control’s purpose, although it appears that Casio isn’t familiar with an alternate interpretation for the initials BS beyond the intended, and sweetly naïve, Best Shot mode.

The four-way controller with its set button in the center is positioned directly beneath the Menu and BS button. The up arrow on the four-way control controls the amount of information displayed on the LCD, including a live histogram. The down arrow will cycle the user between flash settings when in rec. mode and doubles as the delete button when the camera is in playback.

The left and right arrows do not have assigned features when the Casio EX-Z600 is purchased, but they can be assigned a function if the user chooses to do so. The possible settings for the left and right arrow are located within the rec. menu under the heading L/R Key submenu. The options for the L/R feature are Focus, EV Shift, White Balance, ISO, Self-timer and Off.

Left Side
There are no features on the left side of the Casio EX-Z600 since the A/V out and USB ports for this camera have been moved to an accessory dock. The dock is attached via a port located on the base of the camera.

Right Side
The only feature located on the right side of the camera is a small wrist strap eyelet, which extends slightly out from the body of the camera to allow for additional transportability.

Top
The top of the Casio EX-Z600 does have some essential features, although they may not be immediately apparent upon first glance. A large polished silver shutter button is towards the right edge of the top face and is comfortably positioned for access with the index finger of the right hand. Surrounding the shutter button is a ring with a slight extending tab at the front. When the camera is placed in playback mode, these controls may be used for both playback zoom and multi-up display settings.

To the left of the shutter button is the On/Off control, which leaves much to be desired in terms of design and size. It is a petite sliver control whose polished silver finish becomes lost in the polished silver surrounding these controls. It would be nice if this control stood out from the rest of the camera so that it could be found a bit easier in poor lighting. As it is, this control is hard to find even in well lit situations until the layout is well-known to the user.

To the left of the on/off button are four square dots which form the in-camera microphone. While a frontal microphone will have a better pickup pattern for audio in front of the camera, the microphone for this camera manages to avoid the noise caused by lens mechanics, a problem often found when the mic is placed too closely to the optics of the camera.

Bottom
There are a number of features located on the base of the Casio EX-Z600. On the far left side is the in-camera speaker. While an in-camera speaker for playback audio is important, placing it on the base of the camera seems like an odd choice. Audio will be muffled if the camera is cradled in hands or placed on a hard surface, so is it necessary to hold the camera daintily when viewing footage with audio content.

To the right of the in-camera speaker, near the center of the camera, is a plastic tripod mount that will become easily stripped over time if misused. The camera dock for the camera is positioned directly adjacent to the tripod mount. The final set of features are located on the right side of the base underneath a cover, which protects both the battery and SD card slot, revealed when the cover is pressed down and slid to the right.

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