Auto Mode
The auto mode on the Casio Exilim EX-Z850 allows users to shoot with all controls in full auto or to individually alter manual parameters which control exposure compensation, white balance, metering, focus and ISO in addition to digital filters, auto focus area and flash parameters. The auto mode does have a slight momentary delay as the camera adjusts settings before image capture and users may find it necessary to shoot in continuous capture mode during moments of candid photography. Although this camera doesn’t have an “Easy” mode like Kodak point-and-shoots the auto mode on this camera model should appeal to the novice beginning user. If settings become too complicated or muddled during capture the user can quickly reset everything back to its default setting by turning the camera off and then on.
Movie Mode
The movie mode will enable users of the Casio Exilim EX-Z850 to shoot in several resolution and frame rate permutations. The movie mode quality settings can be adjusted within the Quality menu. The movie mode options for the Z850 are HQ (640 x 480 resolution at 30 fps and an approximate file size of 4.0 MB/sec), Normal (640 x 480 at 30 fps with an approximate file size of 2.1 MB/sec), and LP (320 x 240 at 15 fps with an approximate file size of 745 KB/sec). The recording duration of the camera is only limited by available memory and power. The movie can be engaged by turning the mode dial to the Movie icon. Settings in movie mode can be adjusted prior to shooting. Capturing video files is accomplished by pressing the shutter button. Available time remaining and current time captured are displayed in the upper right corner of the LCD.
In addition to the standard movie mode setup, the Casio Exilim EX-Z850 also comes with a Best Shot Movie Mode option on the mode dial directly beside the movie mode option. This mode offers a handful of presets that cover the following general parameters: Portrait, fireworks, silent, scenery, backlight, short movie, night scene, high sensitivity, and past movie.
Audio quality for this digital camera is as expected with the monaural recording suffering from handling and camera noise when capturing. Manual controls like exposure and white balance are available when shooting and manual focus can be adjusted prior to beginning video capture. Zoom can be adjusted during recording and users will find the resulting footage to degrade quickly due to it being only digital zoom when recording. Zoom levels can be adjusted optically before recording but once recording begins the zoom will switch to a digital zoom only format. Movies can be edited in playback mode with cropping applied to front, middle or end of video clips.
Drive / Burst Mode
Playback Mode
The playback mode for the Casio Exilim EX-Z850 will enable users to engage a number of in-camera viewing and editing options prior to exporting still or video images to a personal computer, printer, or external viewing monitor. Playback mode is quickly accessed by pressing the easily locatable Playback button prominently positioned on the back of the camera above the right corner of the LCD screen.
It is possible to scan images through the four-way controller as either single frames, nine images, or in a calendar format. If wishing to view individual images in a slideshow format the user can engage the slideshow option within the Playback menu. The amount of control over the slideshow feature is interesting and will certainly be helpful to many users with choices regarding included images, time of display, interval rate and transition effect.
The motion print feature will enable users to select either one or nine still image frames with the one frame option being a far more usable option if printing or publishing of images is wanted for the future. Still image frame grabs from video files cannot be altered with the settings that are available to images which were captured originally as stills such as rotation, color correction, white balance and trim for example.
The movie editing control will enable cropping movies through either cutting from the front point, center or end point of the clip. The user sets in and out points for the edited footage by pressing the down arrow and scanning left and right along the horizontal time bar located on the bottom of the LCD screen. While obviously a bit more time intensive if trying to edit numerous or lengthy video files, the in-camera editing of video files will still take less time than uploading footage into an editing software platform.
Other features like white balance and brightness work well on still images while the Keystone and Color Correction options need some definite work. The keystone feature worked tolerably well but had a tendency to crop and zoom a bit too radically to really be used with success.The color correction option is unfortunately not actually an option. When the user selects color correction as an option from the playback menu the camera will most likely state that it “Cannot correct image!”. Personal distaste for unwarranted exclamation points aside, most of the images that were used to test this control were in dire need of color correction. When an image finally was accepted for color correction, the camera displayed the trim frame used in keystone correction and when activated the camera corrected the image for keystone problems. This hardware problem not only appeared on the EX-Z850 but also the EX-Z1000.
Custom Image Presets
The custom image presets for the Casio Exilim EX-Z850 are extensive and to be quite honest, excessive and somewhat unnecessary. Preset shooting modes are intended to simplify the shooting experience for users by providing a quick and easily identifiable preset that matches the general parameters of a scene. The ease and simplicity of preset modes quickly disappears though with the overwhelming multitude of “unique” settings. The menu structure is simple to navigate but with so many offerings on three screens of thumbnails it would seem as though it’s time for this bloat to come to an end and a more conscientious selection to emerge that doesn’t reflect the current “everything but the kitchen sink” mentality shown with the Z850.
Settings for this camera will enable users to select from the following scene parameters once the mode dial is turned to the Best Shot mode and the set button at the center of the four-way control is pressed: Portrait, Scenery, Portrait with Scenery, 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, Anti Shake, High Sensitivity, Pastel, Illustration, Cross, Monochrome, Retro, Twilight, ID Photo, Old Photo, Business Cards and Documents, White Board, and Best Shot Register User Scene. The register user scene mode allows users to select previously captured images to be used as additional setting referents for additional modes. This user controlled preset mode can add up to 999 scene modes to the camera memory.
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