Casio Exilim EX-FC100 Digital Camera – Black 2.7 inch LCD
Posted by Notcot on May 20, 2010 in Photography |
- resolution: 9.1 Mio. Pixel Zoom: 5x optical Display: 6.85 cm (2.7″) LCD HD recording with 1280 x 720 Pixel
- Dimensions: (W x H x D) 100 x 59 x 23 mm
- Colour: Anthracite
- Weight: 146 g
Had the black version of this camera for a short while now and I have found that it does everything and more than Mr or Mrs Average would want or require. The list of this cameras functions are, quite frankly, endless and far to complicated to highlight in full detail here. Any setting that anyone could or would require can be achieved, be it either in it’s auto or to be manually set-up. As an example the very detailed manual, which arrives on the supplied CD, has 191 pages. Don’t be put off. All the functions are explained here in precise and clear detail. The supplied basic set-up booklet is Ok (if you can even read the minute text in its umpteen languages) so the CD manual is the one to go for…. for me.
I suppose what initially interested me in this compact camera was the initial 5x optical zoom and the 9m pixel single shot mode together with the 30 shots per second picture function (auto taken at 6m pixels per pic) After the unit arrived I immediately positioned it on a tripod and shot some really great stuff of birds arriving and leaving our bird table. Of the initial 30 shots (which are all grouped together in a CS file on the memory card, ie: a Continuous Shot file) you keep perhaps 3 pics and discard the other 27. It gets very addictive seeing birds with wings & feathers outstretched in a flying or landing posture. 2 of the `best shot’ modes allow the user to highlight (as an example) birds arriving either into or out of the frame. Sensing movement the camera then auto takes 30 shots which can be saved or immediately discarded. Good stuff eh? and all this in a pocket camera. Video can be taken at 210, 420 or 1000 frames per second, yes that’s right.. per second! The default setting (and best as far as I’m concerned) is 210fps. The faster the video the smaller the actual movie picture is when viewing. 210fps gives the best overall effect. All these various speeds and settings can be achieved in either slow motion or normal modes. The video recording format being .avi . Not the best but adequate for home movies I think. The camera can edit itself with either pics or video but I use an external software for isolating video frames or for pictures. Personal preference I suppose. It also comes with some 20 odd `best shot’ pre-programmed stuff for getting the maximum best picture shot according to conditions. ie: best shot. You can insert your own settings if you prefer, but these are lost when the memory card is re-formatted. You will need a SDHC Ultra II card for maximum effect. I have an 8gb card in mine, which will give me approx 20min of video or huge amounts of pictures. When the camera is on for some time the body does get rather warm, almost hot, which apparently is normal, according to the manual. It is light and fits snuggly into a top shirt pocket as not to be obtrusive. The lense cover folds over when in the `off’ position and therefore auto protects the actual glass lense from excess dust etc. There is much much more to say on this camera but to sum up…. I’m very pleased with mine and that’s the best recommendation I can give as far as I’m concerned. Just wish I had it when our children were growing up or before we lost our brilliant little dog who was the best friend I ever had.
Finally a moan… there has to be one doesn’t there? The battery. Battery life, especially on video, is very short and takes 2-3hrs to recharge. You will need a spare battery believe me. It’s one of those square NP-40 things. 3.7v x 1300mAps. The camera would have been perfect had it had a supplied mains type charger that you could plug into the camera when it is mounted on a tripod and you are waiting for `that perfect shot’ which never appears to happen in my case. That’s my main moan but I suppose I always have to remember that this Casio FC-100 is a digi camera and is not supposed to be a camcorder. All IMHO of coarse.
Rating: 5 / 5
As a parent, I’ve had more fun with this camera over the last few weeks than I ever thought possible. For capturing almost any type of action, this camera is absolutely stunning. In terms of absolute image quality and zoom range, there are better compacts,but for me, the image quality is fine and certainly bears comparison with my wife’s Lumix TZ3. The real joy of this camera is that it can shoot at 30 frames per second and so you capture all the details that you would usually miss. (See the photos of my daughter bursting a water filled balloon)It is also incredibly versatile – so that by half depressing the shutter the camera is constantly storing images in its buffer so you never have to miss that critical moment due to slow reaction times. For capturing wildlife, the motion triggered shutter release is absolutely awesome.
The other amazing feature of this camera is its slow motion video. (See weavster123 on Youtube for some clips of my kids jumping off swings and bouncing on trampolines in glorious slow motion)My children now frequently plead with me to record them doing anything that involves jumping and leaping.At 1000 fps I’ve been able to capture the wing beats of a hover fly! although the quality at this speed is very poor. At 210 fps the quality is fine and the ability to slow down time Matrix style is incredibly entertaining.
In summary, this camera has breathed a new lease of life into my family photography both in terms of its rapid stills ability and its phenomenal time slowing video. This camera has no direct competition because no other compact except other Casio’s can capture motion so completely. I can’t recommend this little bundle of joy highly enough!
Rating: 5 / 5
Owning two excellent cameras the compact Pentax S5N and the Bridging camera Fuji FD6500 I already owned two great cameras that took great pictures.
The reason I bought this Casio was for the continous speed shooting for action shots this is where the others don’t compare no more need to miss action shots of the kids and the dogs.
Night mode is also excellent no need for a tripod incredible.
Normal picture taking Fantastic with little noise at low speeds below 800.
Everyone I’ve shown off to wants one this is a work of genius.
Rating: 5 / 5
First thing is that the ‘white’ EX-FC100 is actually silver, despite what it says. It’s a very ‘white’ silver, but it’s silver. It’s not as small as you might think either. In fact, it’s pretty much the same size as my Panasonic TZ7. A Canon Ixus is much smaller.
It’s made entirely of plastic, with a plastic tripod mount (yuk). And a very nasty plastic battery door that seems certain to break at some point and is hard to close. The arrangement of that door makes it a bit tricky to get the memory card out too. And if you press on it, it creaks.
While I’m moaning, the wrist strap is far too short. You have to take your thumb out of it to reach the shutter when it’s around your wrist. I’m going to have to buy another.
But it’s not all bad. The camera looks pretty good, and has quite a decent LCD. I found the interface to be intuitive and most settings quick to access and change. There are a million functions so you can play with the menus al day if you want, and change things like sharpening and saturation. There’s a live histogram too, which is very handy, because you really don’t want to underexpose photos on this camera.
If you underexpose photos, they look very ‘mushy’ and noisy, especially if the light’s poor. But with the right exposure, photos look pretty good. I was particularly impressed with the amount of detail the lens captures and the impressive sharpness in the corners, an area where compact cameras often disappoint. For best results, set ISO to 100.
The 5x optical zoom lens is quite useful, but I would prefer a wider angle than 37mm. My Panasonic TZ7’s image stabiliser works incredibly well, but Casio’s version seems to hardly work at all and I found I couldn’t really trust it to give me a blur-free shot at slow shutter speeds that wouldn’t trouble the Panasonic.
The Casio has some neat ‘trick’ modes to help you get blur-free shots in difficult conditions though: the high-speed anti-shake and high-speed night shots take several shots in one second and combine them into one. These modes work quite well, but the resulting shot is less sharp and detailed than regular photos taken in auto mode, and not just because of the reduced (to 6MP) resolution, which is neither here nor there.
If this camera didn’t have a few more clever tricks up its sleeve I would rate it as being relatively poor compared to rivals from Canon or Panasonic. But they don’t have high-speed shooting and video like the Casio.
So the question is, do the high-speed functions outweigh the Casio’s limitations as a normal camera? I guess it all depends on the use you’ll get out of them. They’re great fun, of course, but maybe just a novelty – you can only film so many water balloons bursting or balls being kicked.
A problem with the high-speed functions is that they all require lots of light – preferably very bright sunshine. 30fps stills of fast-moving objects in low light just look blurred. And high-speed video in low light looks horribly grainy.
This isn’t my only camera, and I wouldn’t want it as my only camera. It has many limitations, but as a fun ‘second’ camera, it’s just about justifiable, if the price is low.
Rating: 4 / 5
I’ve had this camera for a few weeks and absolutely LOVE it! It’s pretty dinky, so easy to carry around, but PACKED with great features….sooooo much better than my old camera (it’s amazing how quickly the technology changes!). It does all the basic stuff you expect a digital camera to do – 9MP high resolution, brilliant 5x optical zoom (actually it’s 20x total zoom if you include the digital zoom as well) and loads of scene modes (“best shot”) to help you out in tricky situations….BUT the best thing about this camera is the high speed shooting. 30FPS is on a par with an SLR, but in a much easier to handle package. It’s absolutely perfect if you take lots of pics of your kids or pets – you KNOW you’ll get the right shot, and some pretty funny alternatives as well. There’s also a high-speed movie setting as well, which actually delivers slow motion video files (if you can get your head around that!). I haven’t used it all that much yet, but it’s good fun – reckon I’ll get more use of it on nights out with my mates over the next few months! Most importantly, it’s really easy to use. I’m not particularly techie, but having had a digi cam before I was able to set up and get started really easily. There is a pretty hefty manual on the CD for those who want to get to grips with everything, but I liked the fact that I could get cracking ASAP without wading through loads of paperwork. Result.
Would thoroughly recommend this to anyone looking to upgrade their existing camera, but don’t want a bulky black ugly thing or the hassle of an SLR. It does the job!
Rating: 5 / 5