Casio Exilim EX-Z1050 Video Guide
At 25mm wide the Casio Exilim EX-Z1050 will just about fit into a normal sized pocket. There are smaller cameras around, but the Exilim EX-Z1050 is still a pretty compact model.
This is one of the increasing numbers of small cameras with a large number of megapixels. This one has ten. More megapixels do not always mean better picture quality, but they should mean that you can produce extremely large prints if you wish to do so. The other advantage of a high number of megapixels is that you can trim or crop an image and still be left with a photograph you can make a smaller print out of.
The Exilim EX-Z1050 has a three times zoom lens. Although there has been a recent increase in the number of pocket sized digital cameras with longer lenses this is still the most common size of lens you are likely to find.
You have a choice of four colours. These are silver, black, blue and pink. Previously seeing a pink digital camera was a rare site, but a few new pink models have been introduced over the course of spring and summer 2007. The camera weighs 125g without the battery. This makes it one of the lighter cameras on the market.
Pocket sized digital cameras are too small to house AA batteries. Therefore a rechargeable lithium ion battery is used to power the Exilim EX-Z1050. Both a battery and charger are supplied as standard. Having a rechargeable battery keeps running costs down to zero unless you would like to buy a spare battery. Spare batteries are considerably more expensive to buy then a couple of spare AA batteries.
Casio have built 15mb of storage into the camera. To be honest this is not very much for a 10 megapixel camera and you are likely to find yourself struggling to even give the camera a good test out before the internal memory becomes full. Therefore it is sensible to include in your budget the cost of a memory card with a decent capacity. The Exilim EX-Z1050 is compatible with SD and SDHC cards.
One feature I like about this camera is its LCD screen. Not only is it slightly larger than standard at 2.6 inches, but I found it reacted well in bright sunlight. This can be important, especially as a number of other brands have yet to master the task of handling problems caused by glare from the sun.
All in all the Exilim EX-Z1050 is easy to use. This camera has fewer buttons on the back than almost any other digital camera. If you are planning to use this camera as a simple point and shoot model, primarily using the factory defaults for all your shots then you are unlikely to find a much more straightforward camera. The downside of removing the majority of the buttons is that you need to access the menu on a more regular basis when you want to change a setting. Examples of features that are menu based rather than controlled by an external button or dial are macro mode (for close ups), the self timer and also movie mode. If you are planning to use any of these features on a regular basis you will certainly find it more time consuming to have to dip into the menu to use them.
Casio Exilim EX-Z1050 Video Guide - July 2007
