Casio Exilim EX-P505

Reviewed August 2005

Characteristics

The 5X zoom lens of the EX-P505 is composed of 10 lenses in 8 groups and includes an aspherical lens to reduce curvilinear distortion. With a focal length of 6.3 to 31.5mm, the zoom is the equivalent of a 38 to 190mm lens on a 35mm camera. At the wide angle end apertures start at f3.3 and continue through to f7.4; while at the telephoto end the aperture range starts at f3.6 and carries on to f7.4.

Added flexibility with this aperture range is provided by a built-in ND (Neutral Density) filter that reduces the light entering the camera by 2EV. The ND filter is available only when the camera is set to the Aperture Priority mode, or the Manual mode, and is turned on or off using the 4-direction controller.

The shutter speed range covers from 1/8 second to 1/2000 second, when the camera is set to the Snapshot (Auto) shooting mode, but extends over a range of 60 seconds to 1/2000 second when the camera is set to Shutter Priority or Manual mode.

The Exilim EX-P505 is capable of capturing images at any one of six image sizes:

• 2560 x 1920 pixels
• 2560 x 1712 pixels (3:2 format, proportional to 4 x 6 and 5 x 7 prints)
• 2048 x 1536 pixels
• 1600 x 1200 pixels
• 1280 x 960 pixels
• 640 x 480 pixels

All still images are recorded using the JPEG format, but a choice of 3 compression levels is offered: Fine, Normal and Economy, with Fine offering the highest image quality and Economy the most compressed image and lowest image quality.

The selection of the image size and compression is made in the REC menu. The Casio's REC menu is divided into 3 sections: REC, Memory, and Set Up, and is presented overlaid on the image coming from the lens (shown here on a black background to improve legibility):

• Self-timer selects the self timer delay: 10 seconds, 2 seconds, X3 (uses a 10 second delay then captures 3 images sequentially), or Off.
• Size: selects the image size.
• Still Quality selects the compression level.
• Movie Quality selects the movie size and quality.
• EV Shift: serves to adjust the exposure compensation over a range of ±2EV in 1/3EV increments.
• White Balance: Auto, Sun, Cloud, Shade, Fluorescent 1 (white fluorescent), Fluorescent 2 (daylight fluorescent), Incandescent, Flash, and Manual (set under the ambient light).

• ISO serves to set the CCD sensitivity: 50, 100, 200 or 400 ISO, or Auto.
• AF Area provides focusing options:
  • Spot: sets the focus at the centre of the frame.
  • Multi: automatically selects the nearest focus point from any of seven possible points located horizontally near the centre of the frame.
  • Free: allows moving the focus point anywhere in the frame while the camera displays a cross on the screen with next to it the point's Cartesian coordinates. Pressing the SET button once the focus point is where it should be locks it there.

• Metering: provides a choice of three metering patterns:
  • Multi: divides the frame into sections and meters each section to arrive at an average.
  • Centre-weighted evaluates the entire frame, but give more importance to the reading obtained at the centre of the frame as it is where the subject is usually located.
  • Spot meters the a small area at the centre frame only.
  Audio Snap: On or Off. Allows adding up to 30 seconds of sound to an image.
• Filter: serves to capture the image as Black and White, Sepia, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Pink or Purple.
• Sharpness: serves to adjust image sharpness over a range of ± 2 increments.
• Saturation: controls colour saturation over a range of ± 2 increments.
• Contrast: controls image contrast over a range of ± 2 increment.
• Flash Intensity: controls flash output over ± 2 increments.
• Flash Assist: Auto or Off. Automatically increases the image brightness when the subject is too distant for the flash to light it effectively.
• Grid: On or Off. Controls the composition grid that can be superimposed on the monitor.
• Digital Zoom: On or Off. Controls the 8X digital zoom. The digital zoom crops the central part of the frame and interpolates the cropped image to the currently selected image size, lowering the image quality the greater the digital magnification used.
• Review: On or Off. Decides whether a just captured image is briefly shown on the monitor while it is being saved.
• Icon Help: On or Off. Briefly displays a small text description for the icon associated with a setting change.
• L/R Key: assign a function to the Left and Right arrow buttons of the 4-direction controller (EV shift, White balance, ISO, Metering, Self-timer, or Off).

The P505 is also equipped with a shortcut menu called the EX Menu. The menu is displayed when the button on the lens barrel is pressed.

The menu offers a fast access to 4 of the most commonly needed functions:

• White Balance,
• ISO setting,
• Metering,
• AF Area mode.

And, although the content of each of these options is the same as the options of the REC menu, their presentation is different, and intended to be accessible faster.

The second section of the Recording menu, Memory, is designed to select those settings that will be recalled after the camera has been turned off.

Up to 11 settings can be selected for recall:

The third section of the REC menu, Set Up, contains options that are related to basic camera settings and is also shown when the camera is set to the Playback mode. The contents of this section, in common with the Playback mode, can be found in the Interface and Software section of this review.

Set to the Playback mode, the EX-P505 offers a similar-looking menu, but only composed of 2 sections. The first section, Play, provides playback options, the second is the access to the Setup options (see above):

• Slide show: serves to start a slide show with a selectable interval ( 1 to 30 seconds) and a selectable overall play time (1 to 5 minutes, or 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes).
• Motion Print: allows capturing a frame from an existing movie. Two formats are available, 9-frames (1600 x 1200 image size) which places the screen capture at the centre of 8 other movie frames; or 1-Frame which captures a 640 x 480 pixel image.

• Movie Editing: allows editing movies that are longer 5 seconds by cutting out frames before or after a specific frame, or splicing 2 movies into 1. Editing is done directly with the original movie and cannot be undone.
• DPOF (Digital Print Order Format): makes it possible to select images that will be printed, decide how many prints will be made of each, and specify whether or not the date should be superimposed on the image.

• Protect: allows making the images "read-only" preventing any accidental erasure, either one at time, or all at a time.
• Rotation: serves to rotate an image in 90° increments.
• Resize: makes it possible to resize an image to 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960 or 640 x 480 pixels and save the resized image as a new image (2560 x 1712 [3:2] and 640 x 480 images cannot be resized).
• Trimming: serves to crop an image. 2560 x 1712 [3:2] images, images recorded with another camera, images created with Motion Print, or movies cannot be cropped.

• Dubbing: allows attaching a sound recording (up to 30 seconds) to an already recorded image.
• Copy: serves to copy images, movies, or audio recorded with the EX-P505 between its internal memory and a memory card.

Just like a number of recent Casio digital cameras, the Exilim EX-P505 comes equipped with a 7.5 MB built-in memory, and is generally retailed without a memory card.

Nevertheless, the EX-P505 is compatible with SD (Secure Digital) and MMC (Multimedia) memory cards, and a card slot is available next to the battery in the compartment beneath the camera.

The chart below lists capacities for both the internal memory and a 256MB SD card:

As noted above, the Exilim EX-P505 is powered by a Lithium-ion (NP-40) that is covered by a solid door that is shared with the memory card slot. A fully depleted battery is recharged in approximately 2 hours using the BC-30L charger which is included in the camera kit.

The top connection is for the optional AC-DC converter; while the one below has a dual function for both USB (2.0 Hi-speed compatible) and A/V (Audio/Video) out with stereo audio.