The
Casio QV-7000SX presents itself as a rather large compact.
The major reason for this, is its 2.5" LCD
screen, occupying most of the camera's back.
Equipped with an unprotected rotating lens, the design
does not provide an optical viewfinder,
relying instead on the screen to preview the image,
and control the camera settings.
The Casio QV-7000SX offers a mix of innovative ideas, and
less practical design characteristics.
A big and generously-sized
grip welcomes the right hand, but the left is greeted with a lens section
that provides no comfortable grasping area, short of holding the top and
bottom. Care must be exercised to avoid fingers working their way to any
forward part of the lens section, since not only does it contain the lens,
but the AF sensor, the light sensor, and the flash.
A rotary dial, topping the rear portion of the grip,
is used to access any of the ten different modes of
which the camera is capable. A standard Auto
mode, represented by a green rectangle, is the basic
picture-taking mode. Others, more specialized, offer
a surprising amount of flexibility: Sepia, Black and
White, Title recording, Panorama, Movie, Sports, Night,
Timer, and Custom which permits customized settings.
Many of the programs found on the QV-7000SX are reminiscent
of video camera options.
Next to the dial are: the menu button, which
activates the various menus that can be displayed on
the LCD screen; and the plus and minus
buttons, used for both menu navigation, and exposure
compensation.
The
top front of the grip provides a two-stage
shutter release, ringed by a power switch. The zoom
control is placed on the front, upper part of the grip.
At first blush, the placement of the power switch appears
excellent, similar to many found on SLR
cameras. When simply going by feel however, we found it
easy to confuse it with the zoom control, with the predictable
result of unexpectedly turning off the camera. The position
of the zoom control makes it a bit uncomfortable, particularly
since the screen section is often facing up, which means
that the zoom control is facing down. While all cameras
have design peculiarities, we found this one took some
time to get used to.
The
remaining controls for the QV-7000SX are found on the
back portion, clustered around the LCD screen. The record
and playback functions are selected by a switch
placed immediately below the program dial. Four more buttons,
aligned below the LCD screen, activate flash modes, manual
or macro
focus, a self-timer (2 or 10 secs), and the display of
pertinent information on the screen.
With the camera in playback mode, the same buttons are
used to initiate either the sending, or the receiving
of data by infrared link.
All
these functions are straightforward to use, and easy to
get accustomed to. The only problem being the lack of
a screen brightness setting, which would help make the
screen more visible in sunlight. Indeed, in that situation,
the LCD screen can become quite difficult to see.
