Model Design / Appearance
The Casio S10’s most valuable feature is its sexy design and diminutive size. A lot of other features, such as comfortable handling and more on-camera controls, are sacrificed for size.
The S10's stainless steel body comes in four bold, glittery colors: red, blue, silver, and black. Many manufacturers offer trendy digital cameras in multiple colors. For instance, the Kodak EasyShare V1003 comes in an array of nine colors, and the Fujifilm FinePix Z10fd comes in five very bold colors.
From standing at the Casio booth for a few hours and hearing people’s comments about this camera, I made one surprising observation. I was surprised that most people gawked over the colors rather than the features. “Ooooo, I like that silver. It looks more like chrome. Very sophisticated.” CES attendees aren’t the general public; it’s electronics industry analysts, manufacturers, and press. I thought for sure anyone over 16 would appreciate features like the face detection more than its availability in silver, blue, red, and black. I learn something new at every CES. Apparently colors are one of the big trends.
Casio calls the S10 its “wearable card camera.” It would make an awfully large necklace, but it is light enough to wear, I suppose. The stainless steel camera does have a sophisticated look – and, ooooo ahhhh, comes in four colors.
Size / Portability
The Casio Exilim EX-S10 is the company’s crown in its “pursuit of thinness,” as the press release put it. It is only 3.7 inches across, 2.1 inches tall, and 0.6 inches thin (94.2 x 54.6 x 15mm). At its thinnest point, it is only 0.54 inches (13.8mm). This qualifies it as a bona fide product of the Exilim “card” lineup. The booth rep at the show said this camera is 25 percent smaller than last year’s model.
The Casio S10 is flaunted as the world’s thinnest 10.1-megapixel camera, a phrase also found on the Samsung NV24HD’s press release. The Samsung’s has a qualifier though: it is the world’s smallest 10.1-megapixel camera that also has an ultra-wide 24mm lens. The Samsung NV24HD measures 0.7 inches thin compared to the Casio S10’s 0.6-inch width.
Without the card and battery, the Casio S10 weighs slightly less than 4 ounces (113g). The small size and light weight make it a perfect candidate to stash in a pocket and carry anywhere. But the “pursuit of thinness” comes for a price. The camera may fit comfortably into your tight jeans’ pocket, but it will be a pain to handle and is more likely to break than sturdier, thicker models.
Handling Ability
The Casio S10 is so thin that you pretty much have to pinch it to get any sort of handle on it. The S10 is a flat rectangle with rounded edges and no evidence of a hand grip or even a finger grip. There aren’t even attempts: no plastic bumps or textured surfaces. The Exilim logo on the front of the camera provides some traction, as do the controls on the back. But this is in no way comfortable. The S10 is a “wearable card camera” made for only occasional picture-taking. Handling is a difficult endeavor.
Control Button / Dial Positioning / Size
If there was a prize for the tiniest controls ever, it would likely go to the Casio S10. It has a power button that isn’t much larger than the tip of a pen and is recessed into the body so much that it’s hard to push on. None of the other controls are much better.
There is a movie button on the upper right corner of the back that makes it possible for you to record videos without entering a menu first. This is convenient, but the button is so high up on the camera body that it’s hard to start and stop videos without supporting the camera with both hands – which is nearly impossible because there’s simply not enough space for two hands to share this property.
There are four tiny circular buttons on the back with a multi-selector in the middle. The multi-selector is the worst I’ve seen in years. It is crammed up to the right side of the LCD screen, which is raised up slightly. That slight raise in the camera body makes it hard to jam a finger in and push the selector to the left. I could scroll left only about 30 percent of the time.
Rounding out the controls is the shutter release button, which is the only decently-sized control, but isn’t domed and doesn’t otherwise protrude. It is surrounded by the zoom ring with its sharp knob that nearly severs your finger when you try to zoom.
All in all, the controls will make you hate this camera.
Menu
This Casio has a similar menu setup compared to previous Exilim digital cameras. Its oddly formatted 2.7-inch LCD screen leaves enough space at the side for a “Panel” menu, often called a Function menu on other cameras. This menu gives you quicker access to frequently used features such as image size. The panel menu can be turned on and off in the Setup menu. When on, it appears at the right side of the LCD screen with its options fanning out to the left. You can make the menu options appear by pushing the central selection button in the multi-selector.
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Image Size
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10M, 3:2, 16:9, 7M, 4M, 2M, VGA
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Flash
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Auto, Off, On, Soft, Red-eye Reduction
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Auto Shutter
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Off, Auto Detect Blur, Auto Detect Panning, Auto Detect Smile
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Trigger Sensitivity
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Low, Normal, High
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Face Recognition
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Family First, Normal, Off, Face Detection Setting (Speed, Quality), Record Family, Edit Family
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Continuous
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Normal Speed, High Speed, Flash Continuous, Off
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ISO
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Auto, 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600
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EV Shift
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-2, -1.7, -1.3, -1, -0.7, -0.3, 0, +0.3, +0.7, +1, +1.3, +1.7, +2
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Display Time
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(displays date and time)
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The background of the menu is semi-translucent, and many of the options come with live views. The options in the Panel menu are repeated in the Recording and Quality menus, so turning off the Panel menu won’t make options simply disappear.
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Recording Menu
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Focus
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Auto Focus, Macro, Panning Focus, Infinity, Manual Focus
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Continuous
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Normal Speed, High Speed, Flash Continuous, Off
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Self-Timer
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10 seconds, 2 seconds, x3, Off
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Auto Shutter
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Off, Auto Detect Blur, Auto Detect Panning, Auto Detect Smile
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Face Recognition
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Family First, Normal, Off, Face Detection Setting (Speed, Quality), Record Family, Edit Family
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Anti-Shake
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Auto, Off
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AF Area
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Spot, Multi, Tracking
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AF Assist Light
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On, Off
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Digital Zoom
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On, Off
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L/R Key
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Off, Meter, EV Shift, White Balance, ISO, Self-Timer
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Quick Shutter
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On, Off
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Grid
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On, Off
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Review
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On, Off
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Icon Help
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On, Off
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Memory
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BS, Auto Shutter, Flash, Focus, White Balance, ISO, AF Area, Metering, Self-Timer, Continuous, Flash Intensity, Digital Zoom, MF Position, Zoom Position
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Quality Menu
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Image Size
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10M, 3:2, 16:9, 7M, 4M, 2M, VGA
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Still Quality
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Fine, Normal, Economy
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Video Quality
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UHQ, UHQ Wide, HQ, HQ Wide, Normal, LP
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EV Shift
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-2, -1.7, -1.3, -1, -0.7, -0.3, 0, +0.3, +0.7, +1, +1.3, +1.7, +2
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White Balance
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Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Overcast, Fluorescent N, Fluorescent D, Tungsten, Manual
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ISO
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Auto, 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600
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Metering
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Multi, Center-weighted, Spot
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Dynamic Range
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Expand +2, Expand +1, Off
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Portrait Refiner
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Noise Filter +2, Noise Filter +1, Off
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Color Filter
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Off, Black & White, Sepia, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Pink, Purple
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Contrast
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-2, -1, 0, +1, +2
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Sharpness
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-2, -1, 0, +1, +2
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Saturation
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-2, -1, 0, +1, +2
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Flash Intensity
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-2, -1.7, -1.3, -1, -0.7, -0.3, 0, +0.3, +0.7, +1, +1.3, +1.7, +2
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Flash Assist
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Auto, Off
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There are three tabs in the standard menu button-accessible menu: Recording, Quality, and Setup. The Recording and Quality menus are shown above, while the lengthy Setup menu appears below.
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Panel
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On, Off
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Playback Display
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Wide, 4:3
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Screen
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Auto 2, Auto 1, +2, +1, 0
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Sounds
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Startup, Half Shutter, Operation all with 5 sound options and off, Operation Volume, Playback Volume with 7 levels
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Startup
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On, Off
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File Number
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Continuous, Reset
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World Time
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Home, World
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Time Stamp
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Date, Date and Time, Off
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Adjust
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(set date and time)
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Date Style
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MMDDYYY, YYYYMMDD, DDMMYYYY
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Language
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English, Japanese
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Data View
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Page View, List View
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Sleep
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30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes, Off
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Auto Power Off
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1, 2, 5 minutes
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Rec/Play
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Power On, Power On/Off, Disable
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USB
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Mass Storage, PTP
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Video Out
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NTSC 4:3, NTSC 16:9, PAL 4:3, PAL 16:9
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Format
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Format, Cancel
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Reset
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Reset, Cancel
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The Casio Exilim S10’s multi-selector has perhaps the worst navigation in the digital camera market. It is almost impossible to scroll to the left, so I found myself trying to scroll right through to the other side of the submenus. Frustrating! The menus themselves are in a readable font and are fairly intuitive, although a bit long.
Ease of Use
The Casio S10 is intuitive for those familiar with Exilim digital cameras. All of its exposure modes are grouped in one place – found by pushing the “BS” button. But if you’ve never heard of a Casio camera and don’t know what “BS” is, would you think to look there for the list of modes? Once that is figured out, it’s much easier to use. When scrolling through Scene modes, there are sample photos and brief explanations available to help you choose the right one for the situation – and there’s a Scene mode for everything on this camera. The most difficult thing about this camera is its handling and control. The S10 is so small that it requires you to pinch it rather than really grip it. The control buttons are incredibly small too, making it nearly impossible for anyone with fingers larger than Popsicle sticks to use.
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