The Hunt for the Best Ultra-Compact Camera
by Stephen Caston on October 5, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Digital Camera
Playback Features: Casio Exilim Ex-Z40
To power on the camera directly into playback mode, you can press the Play button on the back of the camera. If the camera is already in record mode, you can also press the Play button to switch over to play mode. To move to different files, press the left/right arrow keys. No magnification |
 4x magnification |
Magnification of an image is achieved by using the zoom controller. However, the Z40 only allows up to 4x magnification in 4 increments. To view 9 images at a time as thumbnails, you can press the wide end of the zoom controller. If you press the up arrow key, the screen will change to calendar. This allows you to view images from a specific day. Pressing the down arrow key will bring up a dialog with the options: All Files Delete, Delete, and Cancel.
| Playback Screens | ||
 Basic |
 Detailed |
 No info. |
Pressing the Display button will cause the LCD monitor to change between the following display types: Basic, Detailed, No info. The detailed screen contains the following information: shutter speed, aperture, ISO, histogram, EV, record mode, flash mode, white balance, date, time, location of file (card/internal memory), resolution, quality, and image number.
Pressing the Menu button brings up several options:
| Play Menu | |
| Slideshow | Start, Images (All images, One Image, Favorites), Time (1-5, 10, 15, 30, 60 min), Interval (1-30 sec, MAX), Cancel |
| Favorites | Show, Save, Cancel |
| DPOF | Select images, All images, Cancel |
| Protect | On/Off, All Files: On/Off, Cancel |
| Rotation | Rotate |
| Resize (based on 2304x1728) | 1280x960, 640x480, Cancel |
| Trimming | Select |
| Dubbing | Start |
| Create Album | Create, Delete, Layout, Setup, Cancel |
| Alarm | Alarm 1, 2, 3 |
| Copy | Built-in to Card, Card to Built-in, Cancel |
The Favorites feature allows you to tag favorite images for future reference. With DPOF (Digital Print Order Format), you can specify all or specific images for print. There is also an option to add a date stamp on the pictures. The Z40 offers the option to resize images to lower resolutions. When an image is resized, it is saved automatically as a new file. The Trimming option allows you to resize and move a cropping box around an image to create a new cropped version of that image. The Dubbing option allows an audio recording to be associated with an image. The camera allows for a maximum of 60 seconds for each recording. A really cool feature that the Z40 offers is the "Create Album" option. With this feature, the camera will create an HTML photo album with the pictures that you specify. There are 10 different layouts available from which to choose. The Alarm option allows you to set 3 separate alarms to display user-specified pictures. The alarms can be set to go off either once or daily. Lastly, the Copy function allows you to copy files either from the built-in memory to a flash card or vice versa.
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stephencaston - Wednesday, October 6, 2004 - link
#11: For the continuous drive section of the specs, we use the results of our test. Canon is rated at 2.5 fps, but we found that in the highest resolution and SuperFine mode, we were able to take 3 shots at 2.8 fps.Thanks, I'll add a little note in the specs table.
flexy - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
i love my S230 with its 640x480 video capability. Believe me, once you get started with vids and a good editing program like Vegas you wont get back and pics are only the bonus :) And all that fun with such a tiny cam :)I consider the picture quality/optics of the Canon Powershots "ok" - if you consider it's a shoot and point and not a SLR with hyper-great image quality/zoom etc.
Its picture quality is 'overall good' - a great allround camera with nice features (esp. the vids :). I would prefer my S230 (or newer) any time over a big/bulky camera.
Pros:
nice 640x480 vids
IQ good for a point/shoot
size
stylish
Cons:
weak zoom
xand - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
Also, the continous drive information for the cannon in the specifications table is wrong.xand - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
The "best pictures" of this lot of cameras are almost a given; the S410 has a sensor of the same generation with an area of 38.2mm(1/1.8"), as compared to the others, which have 24.7mm (1/2.5") sensors.What would be more interesting would be a comparison of newer cameras by major manufacturers; generally they now all come with 1/2.5" sensors, including the new canons.
stephencaston - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
#8, Unfortunately, we were limited by which cameras we could choose and the S4i was unavailable at the time. However, we feel that the S40 is comparable to the other two cameras with respect to exposure options, size, etc. The S4i would have been a good option and we would have included it if it was available.rliao - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
How come the S4i wasn't reviewed? Isn't it more of an appropriate comparison?SleepNoMore - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
I looked at the Canon S series - they are very nice - almost bought one - THEN I found the Pentax Optio 33WR (now it's upgraded to 4 MP and called the Optio 43WR).It's WONDERFUL.
First of all, it's highly water resistant, has gaskets all through it.
Has about 13 programmed modes but I never need them really I just point and shoot and things look great. White balance is always right on.
Panorama/stitch modes, close-up modes, etc.
Takes SD cards.
Quicktime movies are a bit cheesy (320 X 160) it's more the sound I have issues with than anything but most of the time it's acceptable.
I'm guessing the Pentax 43WR goes for around 280 bucks - havent checked lately.
If you want a camera you can take skiing, snowboarding, to the beach or stand out in the rain without worrying about damage to the electronics, this is the one. It's also not gooney looking (i.e. bright yellow etc) like some other water resistant cameras.
stephencaston - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
#5 thanks, I have fixed the mistakeGumbico - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
Actually, the S410 only allows 3 mins of vid time. That's my only gripe about this camera.TheAudit - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
I have the Canon and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve never been one to read through a manual and this camera was easy enough to figure out so I did not have to do so. I am always surprised at how crisp the pictures are. Of course, I am not a professional photographer but this camera provides everything that I want in a camera – good pictures and small size because I hate carrying stuff around.