The EX-P600 is equipped with
a 6.37 million pixel CCD of which 6.0 million are used to capture
a 2816 x 2112 pixel image. The CCD's sensitivity starts at
50 ISO and offers user-selectable settings of 100, 200 and
400 ISO. An Auto ISO mode is also available, allowing the camera
to adjust the sensitivity from 50 to 100 ISO, automatically.
The EX-P600 uses a Canon 4X zoom lens with a focal length of 7.1 mm to
28.4 mm, equivalent in
35mm to a 33 to 132 mm lens. The lens is composed of 8 elements in 7 groups
which includes an aspherical element. With the zoom at the widest angle,
apertures start at f2.8 extending to f8, and ranges from f4 through f11.1
at the telephoto end.
Canon brand teleconverters
(TC-DC58; WC-DC58N, or Close-up lens 250D with lens adapter
LU-60A).
The range of shutter speeds available to the camera depends on the shooting
mode in use. With the Snapshot Mode (Auto), Aperture Priority Mode, and
all but 2 of the BestShot Modes the shutter speeds cover from 1/8 to
1/2000 second. While using Shutter Priority or Manual Mode, a range of
1/2000 sec to 60 sec — including a Bulb mode — is available.
The EX-P600 provides a choice of six images sizes:
2816 x 2112
2816 x 1872 (a 3:2 format better suited to 4 x 6 and
5 x 7 prints)
2048 x 1536
1600 x 1200
1280 x 960
640 x 480
Images can be saved either as JPEG at any one of 3 compression
levels:Fine, Normal or Economy; or
with an uncompressed (17MB)
TIFF format. When set to capture TIFF images, the EX-P600
also automatically saves a Fine quality JPEG format version,
and it is this image which is shown on the monitor in Playback.
As noted in the Ergonomics section of this review, the EX-P600 provides
three buttons on the left side of the LCD monitor to access the most
commonly needed settings. The uppermost button is to select any of the
burst or continuous shooting modes, or one of the auto bracketing modes:
Single shot is the
standard shooting mode of the EX-P600.
High speed continuous shutter mode records up to 6 consecutive
images, at a speed of about 3 images per second, as long as the shutter
button is depressed.
Normal speed continuous shutter mode records
images as long as the shutter button is depressed.
The shooting speed depends on the image size and compression,
and the maximum number of shots that can be captured
depends on the capacity of the memory card in use.
Multi continuous shutter mode records 25 consecutive stop-action
frames at high speed and combines them into a single 1600 x 1200
pixel image.
Exposure Bracketing can
be done over a range of ± 2EV in 1/3 EV increments
or more, and over 3 or 5 shots.
White Balance Bracketing is also possible over
3 or 5 images. The bracketing captures either one or
two photos with an increasingly red tone, one normal,
and either one or two images with increasingly blue
tones.
Focus Bracketing is
also possible, over 3 or 5 frames with the focus slightly
before the camera's measured correct focus, and one or
two frames with the focus progressively further behind
the normal focus point.
Finally, Multi Bracketing offers 6 sub-options: Filter
1 which captures 5 images (monochrome, sepia, red, and purple
filters plus normal). Filter 2, also 5 images (green, blue,
yellow, and pink filters plus normal). Portrait captures a
normal image, a diffuse image, and an enhanced flesh tone image. Sharpness (three
images); Saturation (three images); Contrast (three
images).
The other button worthy of note
is the button.
This serves to display a shortcut menu that presents 4 critical
camera settings, by-passing the need to access the full camera
menu (see further). Starting on the left, the first
option is for white balance:
White Balance: Auto; Daylight; Cloudy; Shade;
Incandescent; Daylight white fluorescent; White fluorescent;
Flash; User-set (manual).
AF Area: Spot which forces the camera to
focus on what is precisely at the centre of the frame; Multi which
lets the camera select the closest focus point from 7 areas
automatically; Free which allows setting the focus
point anywhere in the frame using the multi-direction
control.
All the other settings of the EX-P600 are in its recording menu. The menu
system is composed of 3 sections. The first section, accessed with the
tab at the top of the screen, concerns recording settings. The second
section, Memory, serves to decide which settings will be recalled by
the camera after it has been turned off. And the third section, Setup,
addresses the basic settings (time, date etc.) for the camera. As usual,
the contents of the Setup menu is covered in the Interface and Software
section of this review.
The REC menu is presented over 3 screens:
Size: serves to select the image size (see above).
Quality: sets the image quality (Fine, Normal, Economy or
TIFF).
EV Shift: allows adjusting the exposure over a range of ±2
EV in 1/3 EV increments. By default the Left/Right arrows of the multi-direction
control can be used to adjust the exposure in the Recording mode without
having to go to the menu; and so can the shortcut menu presented by
the button.
White Balance: provides the same options as the shortcut
menu (see above).
ISO: selects the sensitivity (Auto, 50, 100 200, 400 ISO).
AF Mode: selects how the AF mode functions. The
Casio EX-P600 is equipped with 2 AF systems: a contrast
detection system and a phase differential sensor which
is located next to the brand name on the front of the camera.
Three options are available for the AF Mode, Hybrid combines
the contrast and phase differential systems. Continuous lets
the camera constantly adjust the focus. Contrast is
slower than Hybrid, but is necessary when the phase differential
sensor window is blocked by a converter lens.
AF Area decides how the camera finds focus: Spot,
Multi or Free (see above).
Metering: selects the metering mode, Multi, Centre-Weighted,
or Spot. (See above).
Audio Snap: On or Off. Makes it possible to add
up to 30 seconds of sound recording to a photo captured
in JPEG format.
Filter: Off or B/W, Sepia, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow,
Pink, Purple.
Sharpness: Hard, Normal, or Soft.
Saturation: High, Normal, or Low.
Contrast: High, Normal, or Low.
Flash Intensity: Strong, Normal, or Weak.
Grid: On or Off. When On a simple grid of fine
black lines is overlaid on the monitor.
Digital Zoom: turns On or Off the 4X digital zoom.
The digital zoom image is interpolated to the current image
size from a section of the 6-megapixel image that is comparable
to a longer focal length and the image quality is therefore
slightly degraded. (For more information about digital
zoom, see our
article).
Review: On or Off. When On, a just captured image
is displayed on the monitor.
L/R/ Key: sets a function, or none, to the left/right
arrows of the multi direction control (EV Shift, white
balance, ISO, metering mode, and AF area selection).
As explained earlier, Memory, the next tab of the
menu, determines which camera settings will be recalled.
A total of 11 specific settings can be recalled:
•
Flash mode
•
Continuous Bracketing
•
Focus mode
•
Flash Intensity
•
White Balance
•
Digital Zoom
•
ISO
•
MF Position
•
AF Area
•
Zoom Position
•
Metering
Much like the recording mode, the Playback mode of the EX-P600 is able
to show a histogram of an image under review. The DISP button
on the camera, or the included remote control unit, can be used to control
the depth of information displayed by the camera.
By default the display shows the basics for the image: file
number, image size and quality setting, storage location,
date and time and battery state. Alternatively, pressing
the DISP button adds the histogram — a means
of visualizing the distribution of brightness in the frame (see our
article) — along with the camera's settings
for the shot. Exposure compensation, shooting mode, flash
mode, white balance, metering, ISO, f-stop and shutter speeds
are indicated.
The Playback menu, unlike
the Recording menu, only has two sections, and the second section,
Setup, is identical to the one available in the recording mode:
Slideshow: images captured with the camera can
be played back as a slideshow on the monitor, or on a
television. Images to be included can be selected (favourites,
or all, or individually selected), so can the shows's
duration and the interval between each photo.
Calendar: displays the calendar screen which
shows a thumbnail of the first image captured on a specific
day.
Favourites: selects images as favourites which
are then stored in the camera's internal memory.
DPOF: tags images for printing either by a service
or a DPOF compliant printer, or with a PictBridge or USB
Direct compliant printer.
Protect: makes images "read-only" so
they cannot be accidentally erased.
Rotation: allows rotating an image in 90° increments.
Resize: serves to make a smaller-size copy of
an image at any of 3 sizes: 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960 and
640 x 480.
Trimming: makes it possible to crop an image.
The zoom control can be used to magnify the image, and
the multi-direction control to select a particular portion
of the magnified image. Then, pressing the SET button
saves the cropped section as a new image at one of the
camera's smaller image sizes that corresponds best to the
cropped section.
Create Album: creates an HTML photo album layout
for the images. Three types of Albums can be created: a
layout to view images on a computer; one to be used to
post images on a Web page; or one for printing the images.
Dubbing: allows adding a 30 second sound bite
to an already captured image.
Alarm: to set one of the three internal alarms
of the EX-P600. If desired, an image can be selected to
be displayed when the alarm rings.
Copy: allows copying an image from the camera's
internal memory to a memory card, or vice versa.
The EX-P600 has 9.2MB built-in
Flash memory and is compatible with SD (Secure Digital) and
MMC (MultiMedia) memory cards. The camera is sold without a
memory card.
The card is inserted in a slot underneath the camera, in the same compartment
as the battery; making it awkward when the card needs to be changed while
the camera is mounted on a tripod.
The chart below shows the image
capacity for the built-in memory, and for a 256MB SD card:
Resolution
JPEG
TIFF
FINE
NORMAL
ECONOMY
INT
256
INT
256
INT
256
INT
256
2816 x 2112
2
80
3
99
5
146
—
12
2816 x 1872
3
89
4
113
6
166
—
13
2048 x 1536
5
138
6
184
13
356
—
22
1600 x 1200
7
215
11
319
23
623
1
36
1280 x 960
12
332
18
509
33
894
2
57
640 x 480
44
1188
57
1559
92
2495
8
224
As noted above, the EX-P600
is powered by a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery. The battery
is powerful enough to give the camera excellent autonomy, even
when the large 2-inch screen is used. A charger is included
with the camera, and a full charge takes approximately 2 hours.
The tripod screw — metal — is at the other end of the camera
but, regrettably that placement tends to throw the camera out of horizontal
alignment when it is mounted on a tripod.
The two external connections of
the EX-P600 are on the right side of the camera, covered by
a rigid plastic door that opens from the top. Uppermost is
a DC-IN jack for the optional adapter (AD-C40); and
below is the USB (1.) and A/V Out (NTSC or PAL)
connection for which the cables are included.
Compare Prices for High Capacity Battery For CASIO Exilim Pro EX-P600 Li-ion 950Mah
Characteristics
button.
This serves to display a shortcut menu that presents 4 critical
camera settings, by-passing the need to access the full camera
menu (see further). Starting on the left, the first
option is for white balance: 
