Reviews
Casio
Exilim EX-Z40
In this class, it doesn't get any better than this
When Casio shipped their first Exilim, a shockingly slim 2-megapixel
zoomless beauty, we were blown away by the sheer elegance of the
thing. Sure it lacked enough pixel power to render anything larger
than a 5x7 print, but it was so darned cute and easy to carry
and use that we forgave it.
Casio knows a good thing when they have one, so they steadily
carved themselves a nice little niche in the increasingly crowded
digital camera scene: jewelry cameras. Their latest offering,
while not as svelte as the original, offers enough additional
oomph to the hobbyist shooter that we again forgive its minor
faults in the area of image softness and slight chromatic and
optical distortions.
At first glance, the Z40 appears to be a mere cosmetic update
to last year's Z4, offering essentially the same optics and resolution
as that fine little machine. The most significant area where the
Z40 diverges is in its battery life of 2.5 times its predecessor.
This 3.7v, 1230mAh Li-Ion part offers enough juice for a tested
360 shots on a single charge. Finally, a digital camera than can
go all day and not poop out on you.
The second area of improvement is a fairly dramatic speed increase.
From its 1.5 second startup time to it's superbly low shutter
lag of .02 seconds, image review at a blistering 12 frames per
second, to a respectably quick 2-second shot-to-shot time, the
Z40 is the camera to beat in its class, no question.
Finally, the Z40 offers a lightweight anodized aluminum body that's
a dead ringer for the material and finish of the latest Apple
PowerBooks. It offers less weight and increased scratch resistance,
which some reviewers felt was problematic on the Z4.
Rough with the smooth
Physically and operationally, the Z40 does everything right. Buttons
are where you expect them to be, the performance is there to spare,
and the photographic results are quite satisfying for this class
of camera. We give Casio high marks for the addition of a number
of manual controls usually lacking in cameras this small, including
manual white balance, exposure compensation, and sensitivity settings
as low as ISO 50. The Pentax-made zoom lens offers a 35mm-equivalent
range of 35-105mm and renders sharply detailed, well saturated
images in typical daylight shooting. At night or indoors, however,
we detected a bit of softness in many images, most likely because
the autofocus system lacks an assist light. In a camera this small,
adding one is probably a challenge. This softness is not a deal
breaker, though, and you'd only notice it if you zoomed in obsessively.
If that's the kind of photographer you are, then you shouldn't
be looking at ultracompacts anyway.
Along
with the focus issue, we also observed some typical barrel distortion
at wide angles, along with some minor chromatic aberration ("purple
fringing") in the edge detail of shots featuring extreme contrasts,
such as backlit leaves against a bright sky. Both these problems
are on a par with other cameras in this class, and the Casio actually
presents less dramatic amounts of them than most. Again, this
is a snapshot camera, not a professional model.
The big 2-inch LCD display is great to have. Other cameras this
small usually offer dinky 1.5-inch displays. The part Casio chose,
however, is less pixel-dense than the 2-inchers you'll find on
larger cameras, so you get a bit more graininess. We'll gladly
take a bit less resolution if it means we can actually read the
text in the menus without squinting.
Remember to add memory
The Z40 has just under 10MB of internal flash memory and a standard
SD card slot, but you have to provide your own card as the camera
does not ship with one in the box. The internal flash is a great
place to keep copies of your favorite pictures, while your SD
card is for everyday shooting. We recommend investing in at least
a 256MB card, which can be had for under $100 these days. With
the Z40 offering such fabulous battery life, to hobble yourself
with insufficient storage is silly.
Casio provides their Exilim cameras with excellent little charge
cradles that double as photo display stands. Just pop it in and
press a button and your latest images copy across the USB connection
to your Mac or Windows PC. Press another button and all your images
cycle automatically at whatever time you've specified in the camera.
The Casio dock is the slickest design we've ever seen; it not
only works perfectly, it looks cool.
Anyone in the market for a take-everywhere digicam would be nuts
to overlook the $399 Exilim Z40. This jewel-like camera takes
the ultracompact space defined by Minolta's D”mage X and Canon's
Digital Elph to a whole new level of elegant functionality.
- Edison Carter
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