Casio EX-S770

Reviewed January 2007

Characteristics

Equipped with a 1/2.5-inch, 7.41 million pixel CCD of which 7.2 million pixels are effective, the Casio Exilim EX-S770 produces a maximum image size of 3072 x 2304 pixels. A total of 7 image sizes are offered:

These image sizes can be saved using one of three JPEG compression levels: Fine, which has a compression ratio of approximately 5:1; Normal, which has a compression ratio of around 10:1; and Economy, which applies the strongest compression, in the range of 15:1.

The CCD sensitivity can be set to Auto, which allows the camera to adjust it according to the quantity of light available over a range of 50 to 200 ISO, or set manually at 50, 100, 200, or 400 ISO. An additional sensitivity of 800 ISO is available as well, but only when the EX-S770 is set to either the Anti Shake or High Sensitivity Scene modes.

The 3X zoom lens of the EX-S770 is composed of 6 elements in 5 groups, and includes an aspherical lens to reduce curvilinear distortion. The lens has a focal length of 6.2 to 18.6 mm, equivalent to a 38 to 114 mm. Apertures start at f2.7 when the zoom is at the wide angle end, and close at f4.3. At the telephoto end of the lens, apertures start at f5.2 and close at f8.3.

With the S770, shutter speed covers a range from 1/2 second to 1/2000 second, but when the Night Scene mode is used, the exposure time can be as long as 4 seconds, while with the Fireworks mode, exposures are fixed at 2 seconds.

Since there are few external controls, most camera settings that are offered to the user are made in the Recording menu. The Recording menu is composed of 3 sections: REC, Quality, and Set up. While the REC and Quality sections contain settings that are pertinent to capturing images, the Set-up section contains basic camera configuration options and the contents of that section are covered in the Interface and Software section of this review.

The REC section contains the following options:

• Continuous selects :
  • Normal Speed: captures images as long as the shutter release is pressed until the memory is full.
  • High Speed: captures up to 3 consecutive images at high speed.
  • Flash Cont.: allows capturing 3 consecutive images with the flash.
  • Zoom Cont.: captures one image at the selected zoom position, and another that is digitally zoomed 2X of an area of the main image which is selected using a rectangle on the monitor.
  • Off: captures one image at a time when the shutter release is pressed.
• Self-timer selects the self timer delay: 10 seconds, 2 seconds, X3 (uses a 10 second delay then captures 3 images sequentially), or Off.
• Anti-Shake: (Auto or Off). Allows the camera to increase sensitivity, making a faster shutter speed possible, which can minimize the effect of camera shake. This function only operates when the sensitivity is set to Auto.

• AF Area contains two choices: Spot, which forces focus to take place at the centre of the frame, or Multi, which allows the camera to find one or more focus points using its 9 AF areas.
• AF Assist Light: On or Off. provides control over the AF Assist light that is turned on when the AF has insufficient light to operate reliably.
• Digital Zoom: On or Off. Controls the 4X digital zoom which takes over after the 3X optical zoom is at its maximum magnification. The digital zoom crops the centre of the image and interpolates it to selected image size. A loss of image quality it noticeable at the largest image size.

• L/R Key: assigns a function to the Left and Right arrow buttons of the 4-direction controller (Metering, EV shift, White balance, ISO, Self-timer, or none).
• Quick Shutter: On or Off. Set to On by default, Quick shutter allows the camera to take a photo without waiting for the autofocus. The mode uses the lens' hyperfocal to have as much as possible of the scene sharp.
• Audio Snap: On or Off. When On, the function allows adding a 30-second audio clip to an image immediately its capture.
• Grid: On or Off. Controls the composition grid that can be superimposed on the monitor.
• Review: On or Off. Decides whether a just captured image is briefly shown on the monitor for approximately 1 second while it is being saved.
• Icon Help: On or Off. Briefly displays a small text description for the icon associated with a setting change.
• Memory serves to select which settings will be restored when the camera is turned On: Best Shot, Flash mode, Focus mode, White Balance, ISO, AF Area, Metering, Self-Timer, Flash Intensity, Digital Zoom, MF Position, Zoom Position.

As outlined above, the second section of the Recording menu is called Quality, an it contains settings that include image size and quality, along with options for white balance and metering:

• Size: serves to set the image size (see above).
• Quality (Still images) serves to select the compression applied to images: Fine, Normal or Economy. (See above.)
• Quality (Movies): serves to set the frame size, format, and compression level for movie recording (see the Ergonomics section of the review for more information about the movie mode).
• EV Shift: serves to adjust exposure compensation over ±2 EV in 1/3 EV increments.
• White Balance: Auto, Daylight, Overcast, Shade, Fluorescent 1 (white fluorescent), Fluorescent 2 (daylight fluorescent), Tungsten, Manual (user set under the ambient lighting).
• ISO serves to set the CCD sensitivity: Auto (between 50 and 200 ISO), 50, 100, 200, or 400 ISO.

• Metering offers a choice of three metering patterns:
  • Multi: divides the frame into segments and meters each independently. The readings are then combined to arrive at the proper exposure settings.
  • Centre-Weighted: meters the entire image, but gives more importance to the reading obtained at the centre of the frame.
  • Spot: meters a small area at the centre of the frame.

• Filter: decides if the image will be recorded in normal colours, or as Black and White, Sepia, or with a Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Pink, or Purple tone.
• Sharpness: serves to adjust image sharpness over 5 steps.
• Saturation: serves to adjust image saturation over 5 steps.
• Contrast: serves to adjust image contrast over 5 steps.
• Flash Intensity: allows increasing or decreasing the flash intensity over ± 2 steps.
• Flash Assist provides 2 settings: Auto or Off. When set to Auto, Flash Assist detects when the subject was too far to have been lit effectively by the flash, and brightens up the image before recording it.

• Slide show: is to review the images that have been captured. The contents of the show can be selected to be still images only, movies only, or one image at a time, or those that have been selected as Favourites (see further). The duration of the slide show can be selected (from 1 to 60 minutes), as can the interval between photos (from 1 to 30 seconds). Transition effects are also available (dissolve, fade, shutter).
• Motion Print serves to create a still image from a movie. Two formats are offered:
  • 9-Frames places 9 frames from the movie in a single 1600 x 1200 pixel frame. In the 9-Frame image, the frame selected appears larger in middle, with 4 preceding frames above and the 4 frames that follow it below in a smaller size.
  • 1-Frame Snapshot records a 640 x 480 (VGA) image of the frame selected.
• Anti Shake: On or Off. When On, the camera electronically stabilizes the movie during playback to minimize any shaking that may been recorded.
• Movie Editing: allows editing movies in any of three ways:
  • To Point Cut: discarding the section up to the cut.
  • Point To Point Cut: discarding a section between two others.
  • From Point Cut: discarding the section after the cut.

• Keystone: allows straightening a rectangular subject that was captured at an angle in a still image.
• Colour Correction: serves to do a colour restoration of an old photograph captured with the camera.
• Calendar: accesses the calendar view mode, also reached by pressing the zoom control twice on the side.
• Favourites: allows selecting images as favourites and storing them in a private folder where its contents can be shown or not.

• DPOF Printing: serves to select which photos will be printed, how many prints will be made of each, and whether or not they will be date-imprinted, a choice made by pressing the BS button. The EX-S770 is compatible with both PictBridge and Epson's USB Direct Print, allowing the camera to print directly to a compatible printer.
• Protect: allows making images "read-only", preventing any accidental erasure.
• Date/Time: serves to change the time and date of an already captured photo.
• Rotation: serves to rotate an image in 90° increments each time the SET button is pressed.
• Resize: makes it possible to resize an image to 5M (2560 x 1920 pixels), 3M (2048 x 1536 pixels), or VGA (640 x 480 pixels).
• Trimming: serves to crop an image. Images are cropped using the 4:3 format and the cropped section is saved at the nearest image size.
• 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-S770 between its internal memory and a memory card.

The Casio Exilim EX-S770 has a small built-in memory of 6 MB and is normally retailed without a memory card. The EX-S770 is compatible with SD, SDHC, MMC and MMC+ memory cards. The card slot is located next to the battery in a compartment underneath the camera that is covered by a long narrow door.

The chart below lists approximate capacities for both the 6 MB internal memory and a 1 GB SD card:

Power for the Exilim EX-S770 comes from a thin Lithium-ion (NP-20) battery, which is recharged in the camera through the cradle and the AC adapter that are included with the camera. The cradle provides the USB connection (2.0 Hi-Speed) and an A/V (Audio/Video) out jack so that the camera can be connected to a television.

Four television image aspect ratios are supported: NTSC 4:3, NTSC 16:9, PAL 4:3 and PAL 16:9. The setting for the aspect ratios is found in the Setup menu (see the Interface and Software section of the review).