Casio Exilim EX-P505

Reviewed August 2005

Test Photos

STILL LIFE PHOTO

This subject is photographed in a room that has a mix of fluorescent and incandescent light, but which is not brightly lit. The camera's flash is used to add fill light. The backdrop is 1.95 m (6.5 ft) from the camera.

Albeit somewhat softened by the compression, the Exilim EX-P505 captures a clear and bright image at 50 ISO. There is no noticeable light fall-off in the corners of the frame, and the exposure is even across the entire field.

A bit of noise is discernible however, appearing as graininess in solid colour areas.

ZOOM PHOTO

Now we zoom in on a specific area. The intent is to test the sharpness of the image at the zoom's maximum setting. The camera remains at the same distance as with the preceding photo.

Set to the equivalent of a 190mm lens, the P505 is able to magnify a small section of the subject.

The flash does an excellent job of lighting the subject, even while the camera is set to 50 ISO, and the image is detail-rich.

The 5X zoom captures details in the printing of the old photographic paper envelope, and the compression does not appear to cause artefacts, with the possible exception of a slight fuzziness on the edges of the letters.

MACRO PHOTO

Set to the Macro mode, the Exilim EX-P505 can focus on a subject from 1 to 50 cm from the front element of the lens. At the wide angle end this captures a field of view of approximately 3.2 cm (1.25 inches), while at the telephoto end, the camera is able to achieve focus at a minimum distance of approximately 27.5 cm (10.72 inches) and captures a field of view of 12.8 cm (5 inches).

With wide angle macro shots captured at the closest distance, the images reveal some barrel distortion and that the periphery of the frame tends to be slightly out of focus while the centre is sharp.

BUILDING PHOTO

This image is our outdoor test. The architecture of the building, in particular the angled girders, immediately show the presence of jaggies. The shadowed entrance can also often reveal the quality of the exposure.

With the zoom set to wide angle, the P505 produces a clear image that is reasonably detailed. Barrel distortion is not noticeable, neither is there any obvious chromatic aberration. A bit of noise is discernible however, both in the colour of the metal beams that support the building's canopy, and in the shadow areas.

Similarly, the compression seems to lessen the image sharpness somewhat, and edges are slightly fuzzy.

ZOOM PHOTO

Zoomed in at the maximum, some pincushion distortion — the opposite of barrel distortion — can be seen in the image, causing the vertical image elements to curve or bow inwards slightly.

The exposure is determined using the default Multi metering pattern of the P505, and the result is quite good. Some detail can be perceived in the shadow areas and the exterior of the building is not overexposed. Nevertheless, noise which appears as grain, is also visible in the image.

NIGHT PHOTO

This camera is capable of long exposures, and an image captured late at night is presented to give an idea of its capabilities.

The maximum exposure time available with the Casio EX-P505 is 60 seconds when the camera is used with the Manual mode.

But, a 60 second exposure with this subject, even with the aperture closed down, means an overexposure. Indeed, some of the 60 seconds exposures that were done of this subject looked more like overexposed daylight shots than night shots. But, given a darker subject, the P505 should yield some interesting results at its maximum exposure time.

Casio has equipped the P505 with a dark frame noise reduction system that is automatically applied to any exposure longer than 1/8 second. As always, the system captures a second exposure of the same duration, but without opening the shutter, allowing the image to record the background noise. That information is then used to lessen the noise captured along with the first exposure.