The
Casio QV-2300UX carries on the design style of the QV-7000 and 8000, which
uses a rotary lens section and an LCD screen as viewfinder.
The
camera's major controls are quite unlike the current norm. Where other
cameras employ a 4-direction controller to make the navigation of menus
easier, the QV-2300UX uses the system Casio had developed for their earlier
cameras, a system that uses combinations of buttons placed on top of the
camera and others below the LCD screen.
The larger button on the top right of the QV-2300UX is the shutter release,
a two-stage
system with AF/AE lock at the halfway point. Close by are two
buttons labelled [+] and [-] which are to move up or down
in the menus, the latter called up by the fourth button.
The
lens section of the QV-2300UX can be rotated 90° down and 180°
towards the top and back, making it possible to capture photos of subjects
that are close to the ground, or even a self-portrait.
The lack of an optical viewfinder means the LCD screen is always in use.
The LCD screen is quite sharp and bright, easily visible indoors or in
cloudy weather; but, in sunlight it becomes harder to see and some of
the white overlays, can become difficult to decipher if the underlying
image is similarly bright.
The
QV-2300UX is powered on by a slider button located on the ridge above
the LCD screen and next to the zoom button. The power button has a small
ridge that can easily catch on the camera pouch's edge and turn on the
camera.
Recording, or Playback modes are determined by the switch
on the right side's edge, but this switch is similarly easily moved, making
it far too easy to accidentally change the camera's mode while handling
it.
The
remaining camera controls are laid out below the QV-2300UX's LCD screen.
White labels indicate the Recording mode function of each
button, while the blue labels indicate Playback functions.
SHIFT, works in combination with the other buttons, which then
get new functions, labelled on the screen.
While holding down
the SHIFT button, it becomes possible to change a number of items:
Flash
Switches
between Manual, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and the Program
modes
Focus
Changes
metering: averaged, centre-weighted or spot.
Timer
Selects
White balance: auto, daylight, shade, tungsten, fluorescent, manual.
In
Aperture, Shutter Priority and Manual Modes, the Shift button is used
in conjunction with the [+] and [-] buttons located next to the shutter
release.
Leaving
aside the absence of a plain optical viewfinder, the ergonomic design
of the QV-2300UX is not one of the best. The shortcuts offered by the
Shift buttons are better than having to go through the menus, but still
require a fair amount of fiddling that could have been avoided with a
system using a mode dial and/or buttons.
In some ways, the QV-2300UX is quite reminiscent of some of the first
digital cameras to come on the market which relied exclusively on their
LCD screen to allow the user to carry out various operations. The penalty
was then, and remains here, on the life expectancy of the batteries.
