Casio Exilim EX-S600 Review

The Casio EXILIM EX-S600 is an ultra compact digital camera. In fact it is one of the slimmest digital cameras you will find. In fact the EXILIM EX-S600 is just 16.1mm wide at its widest point. Therefore you should have no problem slipping this camera into your pocket.

It is a simple point and shoot camera and you should find it easy to use and to get up and running with it. It is likely to appeal to anyone looking for a straightforward camera they can take anywhere with them.

This is a 6 megapixel digital camera with a 3x optical zoom lens.

The EXILIM EX-S600 produced a competent set of test photos, but in my opinion they were nothing to get too excited about. Overall I liked the colours the camera managed to produce, but in terms of sharpness I have seen a lot better.

Starting with the outdoor landscape type shots I felt the camera took a decent enough photograph, but I did have some reservations. This is a bread and butter type of shot for a digital camera and most models I test are able to take a half decent landscape type shot. In terms of quality the EXILIM EX-S600 sits somewhere in the middle. My main gripe is the sharpness of the pictures. There are plenty of cameras out there than are able to produce sharper images. Another area where this camera is not quite able to match the best pocket cameras sized digital cameras is in bright areas. There is a clear loss of detail in the white areas of the boats in my test shots. Other cameras I have tested, such as the Sony DSC T9, handle this problem a lot better.

Looking at my tests for colours the camera is able to generate strong colours. This should give a lively feel to all the different types of pictures you are likely to take. No one colour dominates. This is another positive factor.

The outdoor portrait is fine. Skin tones are natural and being that bit closer to the subject than with the landscape shots gives the camera a chance to deliver a more sharply focused shot.

Moving indoors the portrait shot is my favourite photo out of this batch of test shots. In this shot the camera manages to surpass almost all other digital cameras I have tested. The picture is bright, sharply focused and there is not even the slightest suggestion of any red eye.

My other indoor test shot is of some beer bottles. This is taken in almost complete darkness. Here the EXILIM EX-S600 makes a fair attempt, but again the photo is not quite as well focused or as bright as I am used to seeing.

The macro shot is poor. The closest distance you can get to the subject is 15cms. This is much further away than almost all other digital cameras. In my test the camera was unable to produce a sharply focused macro shot.

My final test is for noise at higher ISO settings. Noise is basically a reduction in picture quality and is similar to a television with the aerial unplugged, but not as bad! Higher ISO settings are often used in lowlight and to freeze motion. There is a reduction in picture quality with this camera when set to ISO 400. It is no better or worse than the majority of other digital cameras I have tested.

I feel there is a recurring theme to my tests. That is I think the EXILIM EX-S600 could produce sharper images. With these pocket sized models there is a tendency for a step down in picture quality compared with more standard cameras, but even allowing for this I am disappointed the pictures were not a degree or two sharper.

I managed to take a single shot in 0.33 seconds. This is an average time. It took 17.26 seconds to take five consecutive shots. This works out at a rate of one photo every 3.45 seconds. This is a slow time.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

The three times optical zoom lens has a focal length equivalent to 38 - 114mm in 35mm format. The maximum aperture of the lens is f2.7 (wide) and f5.2 (telephoto). There is also a four times digital zoom feature. For close up shots there is a macro mode that lets you focus from 15cms away from your subject.

For accessing the menu system, composing and reviewing images there is a 2.2" LCD screen. This is made up of around 84,960 pixels. This is quite a low number of pixels. Although I did not experience any untoward problems when lining up a shot it is not that easy to tell how well a photo you have taken has turned out. There is no viewfinder available.

The built in flash unit has a range of 2.8m. This falls to 1.4m when the zoom lens is in use. You need to be aware how restrictive this can be, especially when the zoom lens is being used. The flash modes you can use are Auto, Flash On, Flash Off and Red Eye Reduction.

There is a wide selection of scene modes available. These are known as best shot on this camera. The scenes available are 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, backlight, anti shake, high sensitivity, monochrome (black-and-white), retro (sepia), twilight, old photo, business cards and document, whiteboard and silent. All you need to do is select the most appropriate scene and the camera with use the optimum settings to take the best possible photo.

As well as shooting at the full six megapixels there are a number of lower resolution settings you can use. These can save room on the memory card and also be suitable for email and Internet usage. There is one resolution with a 3:2 aspect ratio. This is ideal if you are planning to print 6x4" photos.

When it comes to focusing you can choose between spot and multi point. As well as auto focusing there is manual, infinity and pan focusing available.

There is a self timer for when you would like to appear in a photo yourself. The delay can be set to either two or ten seconds. In addition there is a setting that allows you to fire off three shots at the end of a ten second delay.

Other features available to you include colour filters (black and white, sepia, red, green and blue), plus the ability to change levels of sharpness, saturation, contrast and flash.

To help combat any camera shake caused by slight movements of the camera while a photo is being taken there is an anti shake feature.

Movie mode is quite comprehensive. You can record movies with sound up to the capacity of the card. The highest resolution you can use is 640x480. Top speed is 30 frames per second. Zoom can be used when shooting your movie as well. There is also a setting called Past Movie. When you place the camera in Past Movie mode it continually shoots footage storing the last five seconds it has captured. When you start recording the movie it includes the five seconds before you started recording as part of the movie. You can also take a still photo while recording a movie.

After you have taken a photo you can make a smaller copy suitable for emailing or posting to the Internet. There is also a feature that lets you crop an image as well. You can also add up to 30 seconds of voice memo to a shot. This helps you to remember what was happening at the time the photo was taken.

There is a selection of more advanced features you can use. These include three types of metering (Multi-pattern, centre weighted, spot), exposure compensation (-2EV to +2EV (in 1/3EV steps)), ISO sensitivity (auto, ISO 50, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400) and white balance (auto, sunshine, cloudy, shade, fluorescent 1, fluorescent 2, tungsten and manual). Shutter speeds range from 4 seconds to 1/2000 seconds. These are set automatically by the camera.

Casio supplies all the necessary cables and software to connect the Exilim EX-S600 to a computer, television set and a PictBridge compatible printer.

I find Casio digital cameras one of the easier brands to find my way around. For taking a photo the menu system is divided into three sections it is easy to work your way through the sections and find the option you are looking for. There are very few buttons on the back of the camera to get used to and you should be able to start taking photos as soon as you have taken the camera out of the box and charged up the battery.

You can pick up a Casio Exilim EX-S600 for around £220. This compares to around £190 for a Pentax Optio S6, £270 for a Sony DSC T9 and £185 for a Nikon Coolpix S3.

It is not the cheapest six megapixel, ultra compact camera, but at £50 less than the Sony DSC T9 it is worth a second look.

As I mentioned at the top of the review this is one of the slimmest digital cameras you will find. It has dimensions of 90 x 59 x 16.1mm and weighs just 115g. This makes it a real lightweight as well. It is more or less the standard rectangular shape, but the ends are rounded and the top is raised slightly to give the camera a more distinctive look.

You can also choose between three different colours, silver, orange or blue. Personally I am not so sure about the orange colour, but this area is a matter for personal taste.

A rechargeable lithium ion battery is used to provide power to the Exilim EX-S600. Both the battery and a charger are supplied as standard. The battery is a NP-20. Casio estimates you should be able to take around 300 shots before the battery needs to be recharged.

Although the camera is compatible with SD cards there is not one supplied with the camera. This is because there are 8.3mb of memory built into the camera. This is a very mean for a six megapixel digital camera, especially when you contrast it to the 58mb built into another six megapixel camera the Sony DSC T9. I was only able to take three photos before the memory was full. At first I thought there must have been a mistake, but on retesting it is just three shots you can take using standard settings. Click here to save money on SD cards..

Super slim size
Indoor portrait
Interesting movie features

Very small internal memory
Slow recycling times
Very short flash range

The Casio EXILIM EX-S600 strikes me as a middle of the road digital camera. Its picture quality falls short of the better models available, but I am sure it's very slim shape will appeal to many people. It is easy to use and is handy to have around for snapshots. For me there are better pocket sized digital cameras around though.

Casio EXILIM EX-S600 Front View

Casio EXILIM EX-S600 Back View

Casio EXILIM EX-S600 Top View Sample Menus

Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Casio Exilim EX-S600