Fast response on the shutter (could be faster!)
Wonderful detail and sharpness, especially on macro shots.
User Interface
You can turn off digital zoom!
You can take pictures of maps, then later zoom in on them and read them. We actually used this "feature" on some of the road trip. Who knew?
Huge useful screen - loved it. The envy of a D70 user. :)

On the down side I could not get the thing to focus on little blue flowers, especially Blue Bells. Drove me nuts. Red, white, fusia, yellow - all fine. Light blue was a problem. In Photoshop, using auto settings, Photoshop wanted to really tweek most of the shots (at least compared to the scanned 35mm slides I normally work with). In many cases the auto adjustments appeared to be superior to the original picture - but not all.

I'd prefer a faster lense, a larger body (I know, the small size is a real boon for hiking but my hands are used to larger older 35mm bodies).
You need the cradle to charge or down load files. I don't like cradles. But I guess it keeps the size of the camera down.

Wish I had better depth of field control. Minor issue in most cases.

Bought this camera as an inexpensive point & shoot for the upcoming vacation where I'd be bringing a medium format and 35mm along as well. Since I had an issue with a previous Casio camera I did some test prints before hand, macro mode and landscape and was very impressed with the image quality.

This only got better as the vacation went on and I relied more and more on the digital than the film cameras. Afterwards 8x10 prints of flowers and landscapes should more detail than I was prepared to see. Guess I was underating the camera from the get go as I was more than happy with it.

The main reason we choose this camera in the first place (was not even on the list of units to checkout when we arrived at the store) were the macro mode and the dial to choose the shooting mode: ie. the User Interface. While this camera has quite a few manual adjustments it really excels at selecting pre-saved scenes - just select what you are shooting and away you go. The camera pretty much gets out of the way.

At full resolution we got about 215 shots on a 1GB card. Seemed a bit low but this was my first experience with a high MP count.

Short story, all have been impressed with the detail and sharpness this little point and shoot is capable of. I used an Epson R220 to make the prints.

We also bought the Casio leather camera holster that goes on the belt. Sometimes the mode dial would get moved out of place (give me dials anyday over menu's) but otherwise it was a great way to carry the camera. Especially when I had the fuji GA645 around my neck.

If you need a nice little P&S for vacation shots you will be hard pressed to dislike this camera. From my experience, up to 8x10's it gave my scanned 35mm slides a run for there money (Pentax KX 100mm macro * 35-105mm zoom). Bokah is not as good as the 35-105 SMC but at least as sharp.

I think in many cases it can replace a DSLR if you want good shots but not the bulk of the DSLR. I'd love to do a side by side with the panasonics, canons and fujifims we did consider. For me the UI was the desiding factor.

Customer Service

Not used.

Similar Products Used:

Grand Daddy to the Exilim line; the EX-Z3.