Casio EX-Z600 Review

Casio's EXILIM line of digital cameras have proven rather popular for their slim, stylish ultra-compact bodies and capable feature-sets. The Casio EXILIM EX-Z600 is no exception to the rule - slightly smaller than a standard pack of playing cards, but still offering a fair range of control over your images. An unbranded 3x optical zoom lens with a 38 - 114mm equivalent focal length range is coupled to a 1/2.5" CCD imager with six effective megapixels.

Despite the trim body size, the Casio EX-Z600 still manages to cram in a larger-than-average 2.7" LCD display with 153,600 pixels. However, there's no optical viewfinder - something which is unfortunately becoming rather rare on a lot of digicams these days.

The EX-Z600 offers 9-point contrast detection autofocus with a manual override, and metering choices are multi-pattern, center-weighted or spot. ISO sensitivity ranges from 50 - 400 equivalent, with the ability to boost to ISO 800 equivalent in anti-shake or high sensitivity modes. Shutter speeds from 1/2000 to 4 seconds are available, and apertures range from a maximum of f/2.7 at wide angle, or f/5.2 at telephoto. White balance can be controlled automatically, or manually courtesy of 6 presets or a custom white balance mode. A built in five-mode flash is good to 2.8 meters at wide angle, or 1.4 meters at telephoto.

Special features of the EXILIM EX-Z600 include 32 "Best Shot" modes - Casio parlance for scene modes - including unusual options such as angle correction and color restoration. A VGA movie mode (with QVGA also available) captures clips in the AVI Motion JPEG format with sound. A 4x digital zoom is also on offer.

The Casio EXILIM EX-Z600 stores images in 8.3MB of built-in memory or on optional Secure Digital / MultiMedia Card memory, and offers USB connectivity via an included camera cradle. Power comes courtesy of a proprietary NP-40 Lithium Ion battery, which is charged in the camera cradle as well.