Casio Exilim EX-Z75

Casio made its name in the digital camera world with its ultraslim Exilim Card cameras, and thin cameras -- such as the Exilim EX-Z75 (part of the Exilim Zoom series) -- remain one of the company's specialties. As Casio will readily admit, the Z75 is a very basic upgrade of the existing EX-Z70. Aside from the Z75's 2.6-inch (instead of 2.5-inch) wide-screen LCD, the two cameras are almost identical. We just wish that the slightly larger screen brought more pixels with it, but alas, we found it just as coarse as its predecessor's.

Design
At 60.6mm wide by 60.6mm high by 19.6mm deep with the lens retracted, the Z75 will fit in almost any pocket, though you'll need to dig into the setup menu if you don't want to turn the camera on by accident. By default, the playback and record buttons on the back will power up the camera if you press them when the camera is off. In our field tests, we were vexed on more than one occasion when the lens extended while the camera was in a jacket pocket. Ultimately, we turned this feature off. All of the camera's buttons are on the right hand side of the camera, making one-handed shooting fairly comfortable, though we always recommend shooting with two hands for better stability. Most of the buttons look and feel very similar, making it difficult to differentiate between them without looking.

Features
Like most ultracompacts, you won't find any manual exposure controls, though Casio does include exposure compensation to tweak the camera's auto exposure decisions. There are also 34 Best Shot modes (aka scene modes) to help the camera deal with specific shooting situations, such as fireworks, sunsets, portraits, or sports. The 3x optical, 38mm-to-114mm-equivalent, f/3.1 to f/5.9 zoom lens isn't anything to write home about, but is comparable to what we'd expect from a camera in this price range. Casio's Anti-Shake DSP (aka electronic image stabilisation) tries to keep the shutter speed fast to help prevent blurry photos, but isn't nearly as useful as the optical or mechanical image stabilisation found in some cameras.

Considering that all Casio did, essentially, to differentiate the Z75 from its predecessor was make the LCD screen 0.1-inch larger, we don't see the benefit of the change. When we reviewed the Z70, we knocked it for its low-resolution screen, but this new screen is just as coarse, with a mere 114,960 pixels, which means you're previewing and reviewing you images on an LCD with a resolution of 479X240 pixels. In our field tests, we found it difficult to tell if an image was in focus before shooting. If not for the AF/metering square turning green, and the accompanying chirp if the sound is turned on, there's no way we would've known if the camera achieved focus. With so many companies offering cameras with 230,000-pixel LCDs, or at least something near that, it's absurd to see such a low-resolution screen. It's a clear example of cutting costs at the obvious expense of quality.

Performance
In our performance tests, the Exilim EX-Z70 scored well, mostly. It took 1.6 seconds to start up and capture its first JPEG, and took 1.84 seconds between subsequent JPEGs with the flash turned off, but slowed considerably to 3.36 seconds between JPEGs with the flash turned on. Shutter lag measured a fairly speedy 0.55 second in our high contrast test, which mimics bright shooting conditions, and 1.2 seconds in our low contrast test, which mimics dim shooting conditions. In continuous shooting mode, we were able to capture a none-too-impressive average of 0.73 frames per second when shooting 7.2-megapixel JPEGs. In the camera's Quick Capture mode, you can speed things up a bit, but since the camera doesn't focus between shots, you'll likely end up with a lot of useless shots.

Shooting speed
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Typical shot-to-shot time

Time to first shot

Shutter lag (typical)

Kodak EasyShare V705

1.2 

3.6 

0.3 

Casio Exilim EX-Z70

1.3 

1.2 

0.4 

Canon Digital IXUS 70

1.5 

1.0 

0.5 

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T10

1.6 

1.4 

0.5 

Olympus FE-240

7.3 

4.0 

0.8 

Typical continuous-shooting speed
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

in frames per second

Kodak EasyShare V705

2.1 

Canon Digital IXUS 70

1.7 

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T10

1.4 

Casio Exilim EX-Z70

0.8 

Image quality
While the EX-Z75 does a decent job dealing with colour -- we saw adequately accurate colour reproduction in our test images -- it disappoints in most other areas of image quality. Its automatic white balance did a decent job of neutralising colour when shooting under our lab's very yellow tungsten hot lights, but we were still left with a very slight yellow cast in our images. The tungsten setting did a much better job, as did the manual white balance setting. Unfortunately, we saw image artifacts in all our shots, and though they weren't hideously fuzzy by any stretch, they weren't the sharpest images we've seen, either.

At the camera's lowest sensitivity setting of ISO 50, there isn't much noise, but noise does start to creep in at ISO 100, though you'll only really notice it if viewing on a monitor; it likely won't show up in prints. Noise is significantly worse at ISO 200, decreasing sharpness further, though shadow detail is largely unaffected and prints are still definitely usable. Again noise increases noticeably at ISO 400 and continues to hurt sharpness, but images are still usable, though you'll likely not want to print images shot at ISO 400 full size. If you want to ratchet ISO up past 400, you're out of luck. Compared to a lot of the cameras on the market, that puts the EX-Z75 at a serious disadvantage, though given its price this becomes another sacrifice to hit a low price point.

Given its price, and the fact that most cameras in this price range yield similar image quality and often slower performance, the Casio Exilim EX-Z75 is actually a decent deal and sports a more attractive design than much of its competition. However, if you're looking for a camera that captures pleasing pictures, you should really shell out a little extra cash and go for something such as Canon's Digital IXUS 70 or Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-T10. If you'd like another option in this price range, you can take a look at the Olympus FE-240, though it's much slower and doesn't offer as sleek a design or the plethora of scene modes you'll get with the Z75.

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