09-29-2005, 01:00 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Designtechnica Reviews the Casio EX-S500
"Mindboggling. That�s the only way to describe the ultra-tiny new 5-megapixel digicam from Casio. I�ve handled the vast majority of compact 5MP models with large LCD screens but the Casio Exilim Card EX-S500 is even smaller than the competition. And while camera�s LCD is screen is not as large as say the Sony T series (2.2 versus 2.5 inches), the overall package is appealing�on paper. Unfortunately this camera is far from perfection personified but it is a tour de force of miniaturization. Now if they only spent as much time on photo quality�"
A fairly damning review from Design Technica - what makes it worse is that this is the camera that I own. ;-) The size and aesthetic design of the S500 are top notch - it gets wows from people whenever I take it out. In decent lighting conditions, or subjects within range of it's flash, it takes decent pictures - much better than any other ultra-small camera that I looked at. In low lighting conditions, the noise is quite bad. I looked at a lot of different cameras, and all small sized cameras seemed to have small sensors. And the smaller the sensor, the greater the digital noise (in general). I was shocked to see that the review complained about the speed of picture taking - that's one of the things that I feel the S500 excels at.
The review commented that it took a while to save the picture to the SD card, which could be caused by the type of SD card that was used. The shutter lag - how long it takes to snap the picture when you press the shutter - is very low. The 640 x 480 video clips look excellent - much better than any other still camera I've seen. Overall, the S500 is a nice camera with a lot going for it, but there are some compromises with image quality. I have yet to see a camera this size that takes truly excellent pictures, but am looking forward to the day one exists.
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