Casio EX-V7

Reviewed September 2007

Image Quality

Fitting a 7X zoom into a camera the size of the Casio Exilim EX-V7 is quite remarkable, and the fact that the 7X optical zoom lens is entirely internal — nothing sticks out past the front of the camera when the camera is on — is even more so.

Moreover, Casio adds a number of additional features to the EX-V7 that make it even more appealing. The camera can record stereo sound with movies or with stills, it offers a sharp high definition LCD monitor, and can even light the area in front of the lens using its AF assist lamp.

To this interesting package, Casio adds a CCD shift stabilization system, important as the EX-V7 only provides the LCD monitor to frame shots. This type of design requires that the photographer hold the camera nearly at arm's length to view the screen. This stance, inherently less stable than the one a photographer adopts when using an eye level optical viewfinder, can easily emphasize the slightest inadvertent movements and lead to a slightly blurred image when the shutter speed is relatively low. The CCD shift system of stabilization moves the CCD minutely so as to counteract these movements, allowing the camera to capture a clear image at slower shutter speeds.

Casio adds to this CCD shift stabilization system an Image Blur feature that is intended for use when the subject is fast moving. As with all such systems — often a source of confusion with purchasers who assume it to be similar to optical stabilization — when Image Blur is enabled the camera increases the CCD sensitivity to allow for a faster shutter speed, which in turn freezes the movement. But, as a result of the increase in sensitivity, images captured captured using the Image Blur system tend to be visibly noisier than otherwise.

The 800 ISO level, the highest sensitivity for all but the High Sensitivity mode, noise can be seen throughout the image, and the overall image sharpness is visibly lower. Finally, the 1600 ISO level, the maximum sensitivity of the High Sensitivity Scene mode, is uniformly noisy and of limited use.

When they are seen at 100% scale on a monitor, the images of the EX-V7 are a touch soft focus, particularly when captured using the wide angle end of the zoom. But, if desired, images can be sharpened in software, or by increasing the default sharpness setting on the camera without any undesirable side-effects.

Some barrel distortion, albeit minimal, can also be detected in images captured with the wide angle end of the zoom, and similarly, some pincushion distortion is detectable with telephoto shots. Still, in view of the tiny size of the 7X zoom, the quality of the images it produces is impressive.

One of the most unusual features of the EX-V7 is that it offers the possibility of using its AF assist lamp to add light to a subject. The lamp, located directly below the lens, is a very bright white LED that has a short effective range, but can sometimes be useful, particularly if the zoom is set to the wide angle end, and the macro focus is used. Interestingly, the lamp can be used when capturing movies, and makes it possible to capture a movie in near total darkness as long as the subject is not too distant.

Overall, the EX-V7 yields very good images. Colours are faithful and not oversaturated, exposures are precisely metered and contain a good balance between highlights and shadows, and given sufficient light, noise-free.

With the EX-V7 the user is provided with three compression levels to record JPEG images and, of course, the best image quality is obtained when the Fine setting is used. Although the compression is — in our opinion — still a touch heavy at the highest quality, it is not as harsh as what is common on numerous other cameras nowadays, and generally does not cause the appearance of compression artefacts. Nevertheless, in view of the EX-V7's compatibility with a wide variety of SD-based cards, an even lower compression setting would have been a desirable feature.

As is the case with most compact digital cameras, flash photos with the EX-V7 are best if the sensitivity is set to Auto, and the camera allowed to push the sensitivity up to 200 ISO. And, at that level, at the cost of a slight increase in noise, the camera is able to capture brighter images than it can at the base setting of 64 ISO.

The Exilim EX-V7 is yet another innovative camera from Casio. Very compact, it manages to offer a better than average zoom with CCD stabilization, a large resolution and even offers movie modes with stereo sound. The EX-V7 is generally simple to use — albeit too many of its functions depend on the menu, slowing down the selection of settings — and is responsive to both the shutter release and its other external controls.