Digital Trends

Casio Exilim EX-S500

September 27th, 2005 | by David Elrich

Performance

With the camera in 2560x1920 pixel Fine mode, set in multipoint AF and auto everything I took some nice photos on a bright shiny day in Asbury Park, NJ, famed as a starting point for rock superstar Bruce Springsteen. The camera reacted quickly but not as fast as competitors since there was some lag as images were saved to the card. It wasn't a big deal but it was noticeable that Casio had fallen behind the Big Boys (Sony, Canon, Fuji and Olympus).

As I walked around the faded seaside resort searching for The Boss, I also noticed the camera did a very uneven job with auto focus, something that should be a non-issue in this day and age. As I took snaps, I would review them on the LCD screen, zooming in to see if the focus was sharp. In many instances, it wasn't. I changed from multipoint to spot focus and back but it really didn't help. As noted, the LCD is very grainy compared to other slim digicams out there including the recently reviewed Canon Digital ELPHs. Fearing my eyesight was going bad, I checked the image quality on my monitor at home and the focus was still uneven. Some shots were excellent while others went into the Delete bin. The same held true for images in shadows, fluffy kitties and my usual list of subjects. This was very disappointing. Not trusting the monitor, I even churned out some prints on a Canon MP780 multifunction device. No luck. And I know it wasn't the printer since I just made some 8.5x11 beauties from the 8MP Olympus Stylus 800.

Another test of a camera's capabilities is simply taking a variety of flash shots. Considering the EX-S500 has an AF Assist Lamp, shots should've been spot on. They weren't. Bummer.

The EX-S500 has a movie mode that records in MPEG-4 to the length of the memory card. They looked OK on my TV screen but you're not buying this as a camcorder—it's a digital still camera—and not a great one at that.

Conclusion

Life is filled with disappointments but in this new era of Hurricane Katrina, a so-so digital camera doesn't rank high up there. Still it does cost money and no one wants to throw it away. I tip my hat to the Casio engineers for creating such a small camera. Next time they should spend much more time on image quality.

Pros:

• Incredibly thin
• Incredibly compact
• Many Best Shot options (33)

Cons:

• Poor quality LCD screen
• Dicey auto focus
• Soft, inaccurate photos