Casio Exilim EX-Z85 Review

The Casio Exilim EX-Z85 is a very small, pocket digital camera. It has 9 megapixels and a 3x optical zoom lens. It has a fairly basic feature set, but this does include a couple of different features such as a You Tube upload mode and a setting that will automatically fire off a shot when it detects someone is smiling.

This is a cheaper pocket digital camera. It takes a decent snap shot and scores well for ease of use.

Outdoor 1 (Medium Zoom)
Taking into account the price of camera the Exilim EX-Z85 handles this scene very well. There is very little detail lost to sun glare and the shot is sharper than ones produced by more expensive digital cameras. The colours are well balanced too.

Outdoor 2 (No Zoom)
As with the first scene the Exilim EX-Z85 does well when the lens is fully retracted. Some parts of this scene are very distant, but the camera manages to pick out as much detail as possible. As long as you do not become over ambitious with the size of any prints you make you should be able to produce pleasant scenic snapshots.

Outdoor 3 (Maximum Zoom)
I must admit to being surprised by the quality of my first three test shots. This shot is sharper than I thought it would be and I am impressed by the level of detail in the photo.

Outdoor 4 (Building)
Sharpness across the photo is above average and I continue to be impressed by the general quality of the photos produced by such a small and inexpensive camera. I also like the warm colours it the shot.

Outdoor Portrait
Moving in close the Exilim EX-Z85 continues to perform well. The skin tones are accurate, focusing is good and the camera uses the light well.

Indoor Portrait with Flash
The range of the flash unit is relatively short. The burst of flash has lit up the face well, but I would like to have seen more even light throughout the photo with the hair and background being brighter too.

Indoor Portrait without Flash
Without the burst of flash, lighting is more even. Having said that I think the picture would improve if the corners of the shot were not so dark. The Exilim EX-Z85 does manage to control noise well on the whole in this picture. This leads to more definition in the shot than some cameras manage.

Colours
I like the colours produced in my test shots. They have a natural feel in most cases.

Macro
The macro mode is limited by the fact you need to be 10cm away from the subject before the camera is able to focus. The quality of the shot is about average.

ISO 400 and ISO 1600
When using higher ISO settings noise levels are inline with what I am used to seeing. As with the indoor portrait without flash there is a tendency for dark areas to show in the corner of the photos.

Overall
I tend to find the quality of photos produced by different Casio digital cameras can vary. The Exilim EX-Z85 does well on the whole though and picture quality is good for a small, snapshot digital camera. All digital cameras tend to perform better outdoors in natural light, but with its weaker flash this is perhaps more noticeable than usual with this camera.

All my shutter lag test times were standard. A single photo was timed at 0.32 seconds and five at 12.59 seconds. With flash turned on times increased to 0.59 seconds for a single photo and 17.33 seconds for five photos.

To turn the camera on and take the first shot took 2.63 seconds.

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

You can see instantly that the Exilim EX-Z85 is smaller and more compact than almost any other digital camera. It has rounded corners. Taking the price tag into account it has an attractive look about it. The camera comes in 8 different colours: blue, brown, orange, green, pink, vivid pink, black and silver.

89.7 x 51.7 x 19mm

100g

Lithium Ion (NP-60). Casio estimates you should be able to take around 240 photos in between charges. Casio supplies both a battery and charger as standard.

Casio have built 41mb of memory into the Exilim EX-Z85. This is enough for around 22 photos. The camera is compatible with SD and SDHC memory cards.

Click here to save money on SD cards.

Very Good. Even the more basic Casio digital cameras tend to have a few extra features than most brands. This is true of the Exilim EX-Z85. I like the way Casio displays menu options down the right hand side of the screen. This makes it easy to see your current settings. It also makes it easier to change them.

Ease of use - very small size - lightweight - picture quality outdoors

Weak flash

It is not easy to find too many very small, cheap pocket cameras. One I like a lot is the Olympus FE-20.

I found the Casio Exilim EX-Z85 to be an impressive little digital camera. It handled most of my tests well. It is one of the smallest and most lightweight digital cameras around. If I was looking for a smaller, relatively inexpensive digital camera I would place this one on my short list.

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-Z85