Casio Exilim EX-V7

Implementing 7x optical zoom in an ultra-compact digicam seems like a major achievement, especially when the camera lens motor is completely internal, i.e. it doesn’t protrude out of the body. But is it really effective? Do we have a superzoom killer here or just an overambitious project? Read on.

What I really like about the Exilim V7 are its accessories. I’ve always appreciated Casio giving this nice and handy leather pouch with its cameras, and sure enough, this comes bundled with one as well.

The second thing I liked about the bundle was the cradle. Though personally I always prefer that the camera has its own USB slot, so I can plug it in directly, I really appreciate how convenient the V7 cradle is. With a USB button and a slideshow button, you don’t have to get into operating the camera yourself for these basic functions.

The camera has a slider mechanism that protects the lens as well as works as the camera’s power switch. The top of the camera has a minimal look, with just the shutter release button. Everything else is on the back.

The control scheme of the camera is a bit on the unconventional side, but not in a good way like in the Samsung NV10. This one’s kind of annoying with its tight and semi-sharp-edged jog dial and very tiny buttons. Even the zoom switch, which works directly with the biggest USP of the camera, is flat and very uncomfortable to use.

Usually the displays in Exilim cameras give you little to complain about, but here they seem to have gone wrong with that too. The 2.5" screen appears a bit too dull to give you a good idea about the camera’s focus, and under bright sunlight it’s extremely tough to get an idea of what the image on the screen looks like.
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The camera has its scene modes under the name of BS, which stands for Best Shot. The options here are quite comprehensive, offering ID photo, auction, and collection, but I guess it’s only fair to make things easy for everyone. There’s also a manual mode that allows you to play with the exposure settings.

7x optical zoom is great, but the fact that it doesn’t come supported with image stabilization makes picture-taking at full zoom extremely challenging. In anything but the brightest lighting, getting a still shot was near impossible at full zoom especially in my caffeine-weary hands.

Even without the zoom, blurring seems to be a bit of a problem with the V7 under normal indoor lighting. You’ll probably have to use a lot of flat surfaces for getting it right in this one.

Other than that, the colors I got from the V7 were pretty good. There was a bit of over-saturation on bright reds but that’s rare and easily forgivable.

Sharpness levels though seem quite low for a camera of this price. With 7.2 megapixel resolution at its disposal, the sensor definitely had enough room to make the images look a lot sharper than they did. In the end I felt these pictures would be best suited for 4x6 or similarly sized prints.
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With a street price of Rs. 19,500, it’s very hard for me to recommend this camera to anyone. There are many other slim cameras out there (many from Casio itself) that perform a lot better than the V7. The camera is in desperate need of a better design, image stabilization and could also have its image quality worked on while at it.