Casio Exilim EX-Z75

I like cameras that I can tote around easily, especially when I’m traveling extensively. Which incidentally I did lately. I had taken the Casio Z75 with me on this little excursion, so I decided to provide a complete update on the camera (because I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be bored with a blow-by-blow account of my amazing trip).

Form Factor
The camera really is slim. It’s also very light at 4.03 oz, so you can just shove it your pocket when the travel bug bites you. Need to take some candid shots? It’s right there. (No, not in that pocket, stupid!)

What I didn’t like is the odd brown pouch that comes with it. It serves no purpose except to keep the large 2.6 inch LCD protected. There’s no strap or clip to attach it to your belt or anything else. Waste.

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Ergonomic layout of the keys is important, and the Z75 does fine in this regard. The power and shutter release keys are on the top, and at the bottom you’ll find a USB port and battery/SD card compartment.

Usage
Straight off, I must admit that I wasn’t quite impressed by the pixel resolution of the display. It was not clear even though it’s supposed to have a resolution of 479 x 240 pixels with around 11K colors.

The preview of images after they were taken looked horrible and blurry for some reason – but this is not the case in actuality. If you check the files in storage you will see a significant difference and feel that you managed to get some decent snaps after all. The problem is you’ll always be in doubt till you transfer them to your PC. So I’d advise you to switch off the quick preview entirely.

The BS (I mean best picture, not anything else) is a great tool for first time users or those who aren’t into taking absolutely perfect shots by fiddling with the micro settings. You’re spoiled for choice, and each option has a small thumbnail preview. This makes it so much easer to select what kind of setting you’ll need, depending on the situation. The five-way circular navigation pad is user-friendly.

Another issue with the screen is that it says ‘widescreen’ almost everywhere, including the box itself. But the darn options occupy one side of the screen, making it simple to change settings but covering part the screen. It’s a bit unnerving initially, because you’ll probably keep wondering if a portion of the image you wish to capture is hidden by the settings menu. (Just to put you at ease, it’s not. Quite literally, what you see is what you’ll get.)

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Performance
The camera takes just a second to start up, which is brilliant. If you switch the preview off it takes practically no time to take the next image. On the whole I was very happy with the quality of the images (after I saw what they actually looked like on my PC, that is).

Outdoor shots of landscapes and scenery with and without people were really quite good. The colors are a bit too vivid though. They seem bright and a little burned out. But quite vibrant nevertheless.

These closeups of flowers in macro mode will demonstrate exactly what I mean when I talk about the colors being too vivid. They appear so bright they could hurt your eyes. Where the heck are my sunglasses?

The good thing (and this is a matter of opinion of course) is that if there’s no sun, the images will make it crystal clear that it was either raining or dull, or that you were under cloud cover. Detail is preserved quite well, but there’s a minor issue when it comes to dark greens – they tend to blur and look ‘painted’.

If you zoom in to an object, over and above the 3x optical zoom capabilities in digital zoom, the images would naturally appear a bit blurry and unfocused, but the quality is still better than that of most cameras in its class that I’ve reviewed.

On the plus side, the video recordings came out great. You can get some very decent videos using the Z75.

Now we come to the battery. On a single charge I had no problem using it for a full two days even with videos. On a seven-day trip with plenty of video and photo ops, I had to charge the battery just once.

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The Bottomline
For the price of Rs 12,500, the EX-Z75 just about qualifies as an okay camera for the cost. The battery is really good, and there’s a certain simplicity in the navigation and use. The small size and weight are definitely a bonus.

The only grouse I have is with the resolution of the display. The menu covering a potion of the screen irked me even more. Why have a 2.6 inch TCFT display at all if you can’t use the whole thing?

The bottomline is – it’s good but not great. If the price falls to below 10K, I just might gift one to myself.

Specifications

| | Flash
| Auto, Fill Flash, Off, Red-eye reduction
| | Self Timer
| 2-10 secs | | Sound | Yes
| | Street Price
| Rs 12,500 |