Casio Launches a Pair of Superzooms

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.photographyblog.com/news/casio_exilim_ex-fh25/' target='_blank'>http://www.photographyblog.com/news...exilim_ex-fh25/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"The Casio Exilim EX-FH25 is a new hi-zoom camera with a 26-520mm equivalent lens and a high-speed, high-sensitivity 10-megapixel CMOS imager. Featuring sensor-shift image stabilisation, the Casio EX-FH25 can capture photographs at up to 30 frames per second (fps) and a resolution of 9 megapixels."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1275400483.usr15670.jpg" style="border: 0;" /></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1275401342.usr15670.jpg" style="border: 0;" /></p><p>Casio just announced a pair of superzooms, the EX-FH25 and the <a href="http://www.photographyblog.com/news/casio_exilim_ex-h5/" target="_blank">EX-H5</a>. The EX-FH25, being part of the "F" lineup, offers consumer high speed videos which even now is mostly Casio's domain. Being able to do high speed videos can be fun; just don't try the 1000 FPS option since the resulting resolution is normally in the range of useless. The EX-H5 is a compact superzoom offering a 24-240mm equivalent zoom lens, joining the party started by Panasonic with its TZ series. <MORE /></p><p>It has been some time since Casio had a really competitive camera that could take on the likes of Canon and Sony, which were the EX-Z750 and the EX-Z850 way back in 2005/2006. Both were well-made compacts that were small, fast (back in 2005 shutter lag was a real concern) and laden with controls. Since then they've produced cameras with no better or worse image quality as the megapixels kept on going up. Shame really, since I liked those cameras.&nbsp;</p><p>I haven't tried the newer F-series cameras, but the first batch weren't too hot in terms of image quality vs price. I hope that the new ones are much better, because it would be a real pity to lose Casio's unique feature set (take a look at their Best Shot modes sometime) in the marketplace.</p>

[Reid Kistler]

Basic specs look good on paper - especially for the FH25, which I notice steps back from the ultra-high resolution wars - but it will take some competitive reviews to show whether these can indeed stack up against Canon & Whatever.

A bigger problem might be getting people to seriously consider buying a Casio in the first place: I do not normally consider myself to be one who gets "stuck up" on particular brands, but doubt that Casio would even enter the thought process when shopping for an "Advanced Super Zoom".....

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Casio has been making digital cameras for quite some time and were among the first to make a consumer digital camera. They've got some cute features too, and can be quite aggresively priced. Image quality for the past few years haven't kept up, like I said, but a few good cameras do appear from time to time. Just need to find out which ones they are!