Casio Exilim EX-Z1050 Easy Digital Camera Review

The Casio Z1050 looks like almost every other point-and-shoot digital camera with its boxy measurements and extending 3x optical zoom lens. But the Z1050 has something most other slim cams don’t: 10.1 megapixels. This Exilim has purely automatic modes and few manual controls and retails for $269.

The camera has a large LCD screen on a compact body, leaving almost no room for anything else. Thus there is no mode dial and the limited number of buttons are tiny. Because there is no mode dial, all exposure modes are grouped in a menu. There are 36 scene modes along with an all-purpose automatic mode and a movie mode. The scene modes range from the standard Portrait and Scenery options to the wacky Splashing Water and For eBay modes. Unfortunately, like other point-and-shoot digital cameras, most of the modes produced blurry or unfocused pictures.

The movie mode records 640 x 480 pixels at 25 fps, just short of the 30 fps that most digital cameras offer. This makes for slightly choppy movement, but it’s really only noticeable with quick-moving subjects. For instance, I recorded my son dumping a bucket of sand onto the ground. His arms weren’t blurred at all or anything, but the sand looked strange as it appeared just under the bucket and then on the ground without any fluid falling motion between. A few advantages of the movie mode: you can pull individual frames and create still images from them, albeit very small, and you can perform simple editing tasks to cut the film down to include only what you want.

Casio advertises a 7 fps burst mode, but the fine print is that it only goes fast at very limited resolution. At 2 megapixels, you can’t even print a decent 4 x 6-inch picture. The “normal speed” burst mode is abnormally slow: it took nearly 3 seconds between shots. The EX-Z1050 is not made for snapping a home run or touchdown, as it will miss the action 9 out of 10 times. This camera has a really cool tracking auto focus mode that locks the focus and then moves around with the subject even when the camera isn’t moving. This would have been useful with action shots, but is disabled when the burst mode is activated.

The Casio Exilim Z1050’s body measures 3.6 x 2.3 x 0.95 inches and comes in pink, blue, silver, and black. It is quite boxy but its 3x optical zoom lens extends outward so it isn’t completely flat all of the time. The back of the camera has a strangely formatted 14:9 LCD screen that measures 2.6 inches diagonally and has only 115,000 pixels. Because none of the images are formatted to that size, there are always black bars cropping the view to what it should be – or a panel display in place of the black bars that shows basic recording features like image size and ISO, among others. The resolution on the screen isn’t very good so it’s hard to tell if the image is in focus.

The LCD screen isn’t the only cheap component. The flash is quite weak, reaching only 10.8 feet when the lens is zoomed out and 5.91 feet when the lens is zoomed in. The flash produces a vignette effect so the edges of the frame are slightly darker. When the flash is turned on, it almost always brightens the subject but leaves the background looking completely black. There is, however, a handy flash assist feature that saves the background by upping the ISO setting. This looks great unless big prints are made; the higher the ISO climbs, the more speckled random “noise” creeps into the picture.

The Casio Exilim EX-Z1050 is unimpressive and thus wades in the dregs with the vast numbers of cheap point-and-shoot digital cameras on the market. It isn’t especially good-looking, but it comes in four colors and has a standard 3x optical zoom lens. It really doesn’t have any distinguishing features. Its 10.1 megapixels is an attention-getter, but who wants humongous images of blurry people? $269 is too much to pay for crappy pictures.

Casio Exilim EX-Z1050 - THE BOTTOM LINE.... Rating: 378.35

Likes

- Comes in cool colors - Lots of picture effects - Very portable - Lots of flash options - Tracking auto focus - Musical slide shows

Dislikes

- LCD resolution and limited viewing angle - No power adapter - Tiny buttons - Lengthy menus - No software for Macs - Horrible burst mode

Casio Exilim EX-Z75 Rating:	Canon PowerShot A640 Rating: 386.12	Olympus Stylus 1000 Rating: 326.83	Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2 Rating: 375.07	Samsung S1050 Rating: N/A
Better	Better	Better	Better	Better
- Cheaper at $229 - Thinner at 3.8 x 2.4 x 0.77 inches - More powerful flash unit fires to 11.48 ft	- Easier to handle - Longer 4x optical zoom lens - LCD folds out and rotates - 21 shooting modes from manual to automatic - Wider 15-1/2500 shutter speed range - Flash reaches 14 ft - Better 30 fps video frame rate - 1.5 fps burst mode at full resolution	- Sells for less than $250 online - Sturdier all-weather body - 230,000 pixels on LCD screen makes for a much smoother view - Panorama mode - Guide mode with pages of tutorials for beginners	- Larger widescreen-formatted image sensor - 2.8-inch LCD screen with 210,000 pixels - Shoots widescreen pictures and movies - 4x optical zoom lens - Optical image stabilization - 3 fps burst mode - 60-1/2000 shutter speed range - Takes nice looking pictures - ISO reaches 3200 - Flash reaches 13.5 ft	- 5x optical zoom lens - Larger 3 inch LCD screen with 230,000 pixels - Cool matte black metal body - Nice mix of manual, priority, and automatic exposure modes - 800 x 592-pixel movie mode - Face recognition technology - 80-1600 ISO range - 2 fps burst mode at full resolution - Sells for under $200
Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal
- Very similar point-and-shoot design - 4.3 oz weight - 3x optical zoom lens with 38-114mm equivalent - Same shutter speeds - Same auto focus modes - 2.6-inch wide LCD screen with 115,000 pixels - Accepts DS, SDHC, MMC media	- 10 megapixels - Same 115k pixels on LCD screen - Lots of picture effects - 80-800 ISO range - 640 x 480 videos	- 10 megapixels - 3x optical zoom lens - Comes in four trendy colors - ISO topped at 800 in full resolution	- 10.2 megapixels - Wide LCD screen - 640 x 480 video resolution - Accepts SD, SDHC, MMC media	- 10.1 megapixels - Similar name, even though that doesn’t really matter - Standard 640 x 480 movies at 30 fps
Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse
- Smaller max aperture of f/3.1 - 7.2 megapixels - Smaller 1/2.5-inch CCD - 34 Best Shot modes - Fewer editing features in the playback mode - ISO tops off at 400 - Less efficient battery snaps 230 shots per charge - Less internal memory with only 8 MB	- Not as comfy in a pocket - 2.5 inch LCD screen - Runs on 4 AA batteries that add a lot of weight - A bit more expensive: around $300	- 2.5 inch LCD screen - Panorama mode only works with Olympus-branded xD card - 20 scene modes - Burst mode and ISO compromised by resolution	- Widescreen movies record at choppy 15 fps - 18 scene modes - Slightly larger frame with 4.2 x 2.3 x 1 inches - Only 13 MB internal memory - More expensive at about $450	- Thicker 3.9 x 2.5 x 1 inch body - Buttons aren’t intuitively labeled - Widescreen movies record choppy 20 fps