For a long time point-and-shoot digital
cameras had little to offer clicksters desiring some control over a shot
they were framing, but that's not the case now, as Casio's Exilim EX-Z150
illustrates. The slim 8.1-megapixel pocketcam, selling in the $148-179
range, has an assortment of features that give a snapshooter a delightful
degree of flexibility when snatching an image.
The Z150's treats start with its lens. A 4x zoom is standard fare for
this class of camera, but its wide angle (28mm equivalent) is not. Many
slimcams can make a shooter feel claustrophobic when framing snaps at
the wide end of their zooms. Not so with this Casio offering.
Another attractive feature of the Z150 is its Control Panel.
Because ultra compacts don't have a lot of surface area for camera controls,
those functions are relegated to a menu system. As anyone who has dealt
with menu trees knows, using them on the fly can be tedious. By the time
a function is found, the moment that prompted a shot in the first place
has frequently evaporated.
The Control Panel is a vertical menu that can be constantly displayed
on the Z150's display. It contains a set of frequently accessed tasks--image
size, flash control, face detection, image stabilization, light sensitivity,
White Balance, exposure compensation--that can be rapidly changed by using
the unit's Arrow Pad.
The imagegrabber's flash has a set of conventional options--on, off,
auto and red-eye reduction--but it has the added attraction of flash compensation.
It lets you increase or decrease flash output to accommodate a situation.
That's a valuable asset for avoiding "washed out" flash snaps.
Two kinds of image stabilization are offered to counter the bane of all
photographers: camera shake. One type of IS shifts the snapper's sensor
to compensate for camera movement. The other adjusts light sensitivity
to boost shutter speeds and offset blur caused by a subject's movement.
Light sensitivity for the camera has a healthy range of ISO 64-1600.
That very low ISO 64 (most cameras bottom out at ISO 100) enables you
to further drain grain and noise from images captured with the camera.
In addition to the typical array of White Balance settings--daylight,
cloudy, shade, etc.--the unit has a manual setting that permits you to
customize the White Balance for a particular shot.
While the Z150's exposure system does a good job of assessing the lighting
conditions of scenes, sometimes tweaking is desired. The camera lets you
do that with its exposure compensation feature. With it, a shot can be
over- or under-exposed by up to two stops in 1/3 increments. What's more,
as exposure changes are made, their effect can be viewed on the digcam's
spacious, bright and sharp three-inch LCD.
The unit's auto focusing system delivers sharp photos consistently, although
on occasion it takes an annoying amount of time to obtain its objective.
If a focusing situation baffles the system, however, the camera can be
manually focused. That kind of flexibility is unusual for a camera in
this category.
It's not often that a camera's self-timer function is called out for
applause, but the Z150's deserves it.
The unit has the standard two- and 10-second delay, but it also has a
multiple shot mode. After a 10-second delay, the camera will snap three
frames in rapid succession, thereby reducing the probability that someone
in a shot won't ruin it with an ill-time yawn or blink.
What's more, when the DSC is in self-timer mode, it stays in self-timer
mode. Many cameras turn off the self-timer after a timing shot is taken.
In addition to still pictures, the Z150 also shoots video. Its video
is adequate for video sharing services like YouTube, although the sound
quality of the unit's built-in microphone is sub-par.
Printed documentation for the camera is thin, as one might expect in
a single manual written in 21 languages, but the English version of its
electronic manual is good.
Software for the unit is mediocre, but Casio's YouTube uploader is a
neat utility to have if you have an account with that service.
Pockerazzi looking for a point-and-shoot camera that gives them more
control over a shot than many DSCs in this category will find the Exilim
EX-Z150 a tempting buy.
|
Introduction
