If
there was a prize to be awarded to the company whose products
show the greatest improvement from generation to generation,
Casio should win it. A case in point, the new QV-2000UX/Ir.
Equipped with a 2.11 megapixel CCD, a 3X retractable zoom lens, a CompactFlash
Type II slot that is 100% compatible with IBM Microdrives, the
Casio QV-2000UX is a camera with surprisingly few compromises.
Designed
along the lines of a traditional Point and Shoot camera, this Casio will
be quickly familiar to almost everyone. The lens of the QV-2000UX is protected
by a tough sliding cover, that doubles as the On-Off switch, and which,
when opened fully, triggers the lens to deploy and the flash to pop-up.
A rubberized strip acts as a hand hold when the camera is ready to shoot.
An
optical viewfinder, placed directly above the lens minimizes
the parallax error inherent to all non-TTL viewfinders.
The
left side of the viewfinder has a diopter corrector, which
makes it simple to adjust the image in the viewfinder
to one's eyesight.
Two LEDs, placed on the right of the exit pupil, indicate flash readiness
(yellow), or autofocus (green). Although close to the eyepiece, the lights
are visible without being distracting.
Four
function buttons are placed astride the top and back of the QV-2000UX.
The first on the right controls the camera's program modes. Left
of it, three other buttons are used for the self-timer, the focus
modes (manual, infinity, macro), and the flash modes (auto,
forced on, forced off, redeye reduction).
A top-mounted LCD status display shows the remaining pictures and the
battery state, along with other pertinent information such as: focus mode,
flash mode, self timer and continuous recording mode.
The
remaining camera controls are laid out on the back of the QV-2000UX. The
zoom control is placed in the upper right hand side, while five other
buttons are located on the sides of the 1.8" TFT LCD screen.
On the left of the screen, the large multidirection control is framed
by the Menu and Set
buttons. The right side presents the Play On/Off and the Display
buttons.
Ergonomically,
the Casio QV-2000UX follows a traditional and time-tested design. The
camera is easy to use and its features, although numerous, are presented
in a comprehensible and straightforward way. Only the position of the
Play On/Off button is debatable. The button accesses the playback mode
of the camera and is independent of the main On/Off switch, which is activated
when opening the lens cover. As a result, it is very easy to turn on the
playback mode and the LCD display, simply by grabbing the camera from
that end when inserting it in its protective pouch.
