Casio EX-G1 is a 12 megapixel point and shoot camera with durable body allowing you to shoot in extremely difficult conditions. The camera has interesting design, but as most point and shoot cameras no viewfinder.
Casio EX-G1 pros:
+ Interesting design
+ Good color reproduction
+ low noise levels
+ Excellent sharpness
+ Dedicated video record button
+ Comfortable controls
+ Well balanced and so easy to handle
Casio EX-G1 cons:
- Slight problems with reds and yellows
- In high ISO noise reduction leads to loss of details
- Poor colors in video recording
The design:
Casio EX-G1 measures 104 x 64 x 20mm and weighs 124 grams. The front of the camera houses the lens, assist light, flash, speaker and microphone. On the back of the Casio EX-G1 is the 2.5-inch screen, dedicated video mode button, shutter release button as well as zoom, playback, menu and 4-way controller. The left side hosts only the rubber bump protector, whereas the right side features the port cover release, port cover and the wrist strap connector. The bottom houses only the tripod mount and the battery cover. The top houses the best shot button, power button, and of course the shutter button.
Performance:
The images taken with the Casio EX-G1 have quite good resolution and sharpness. Only on the edges the sharpness gets worse, but it most probably be hardly noticeable for non-professionals. The camera offers 7 image sizes with the largest being 12 megapixel (4000 x 3000). Although the camera has a form of image stabilization called AntiShake it makes almost no difference to the images.
The camera has only a 2.5-inch screen with average resolution, yet the menus are easy to read and navigate trough. The flash is a bit too close to the lens on the camera which means that you may get some red eye effect on your photos. The small battery in the Casio EX-G1 should be enough to take about 300 photos. The camera comes with only 35 MB of internal memory so you will have to buy a microSD memory card.
Image quality:
The Casio EX-G1 captures colors quite accurately and in fact it does a similar job to the competition. Only the reds and yellows were a bit worse than the rest, but still it is good enough for a point and shot digital camera. Since the camera has 8 different color modes you can find the right one by trial and error. Fortunately, the noise is not an issue with the Casio EX-G1 at least as long as you shoot photos below 800 ISO. Then it becomes a bit more problematic, yet still nothing out of the ordinary.
Video quality:
Casio EX-G1 can also record videos and it even has a dedicated video mode button. The camera can record in up to 848 x 480 pixels which is just enough for YouTube. The videos look average and the colors are a bit less attractive than in still images. If recording videos with a digital camera is your thing have a look at our reviews of Nikon COOLPIX S570, or
Canon PowerShot S90.
Selected Casio EX-G1 features and specifications:
Sensor
• 1/2.3″ Type CCD
• 12.39 million pixels total
• 12.1 million effective pixels
Image sizes
• 12M (4000 x 3000)
• 3:2 (4000 x 2656)
• 16:9 (4000 x 2240)
• 8M (3264 x 2448)
• 5M (2560 x 1920)
• 3M (2048 x 1536)
• VGA (640 x 480)
Movie clips
• 848 x 480 (30 fps)
• 640 x 480 (30 fps)
• 320 x 240 (15 fps)
File formats
• Still: JPEG (DCF / Exif2.2/DPOF compliant)
• Movie: AVI format, Motion JPEG, IMA-ADPCM (monaural)
• Audio: WAV format (monaural)
Lens
• 3x optical zoom
• 38-114mm (35mm equiv.)
• f=6.66 to 19.98mm
• F3.9 – 5.4
• 11 lenses in 9 groups, including aspherical lens
Digital zoom
Yes, up to 4x
Focus
• Contrast Detect AF
• Macro Mode
• Pan Focus
• Infinity Mode
• Manual Focus
AF area modes
• Intelligent
• Spot
• Multi Tracking
Focus distance
• Normal: Approx. 10cm – infinity
• Macro: Approx 10cm – 50cm
Metering
• Multi-pattern
• Center weighted
• Spot by imaging element
ISO sensitivity
• Auto
• 64
• 100
• 200
• 400
• 800
• 1600
• 3200
Exposure compensation
-2EV to +2EV (in 1/3EV steps)
Shutter speed
• Auto: 1/2-1/1250 sec
• Night Scene: 4-1/1250 sec
Aperture
• F3.9 – F5.4
White balance
• Auto
• Daylight
• Overcast
• Shade
• Day White F
• Daylight FL
• Tungsten
• Manual WB
Self timer
• 10 seconds
• 2 seconds
• Triple Self-timer
Continuous shooting
Approx. 3 frames per second at 1600 x 1200 pixels (Up to 8 shots)
Flash
• Auto, Flash Off, Flash On, Soft Flash, Red Eye Reduction
• Range:Approx. 0.1 to 2.4m (W), approx. 0.5 to 1.1m (T)
Viewfinder
No
LCD monitor
• 2.5″ TFT LCD Display
• 230,400 dots
Connectivity
• USB2.0 High speed
• AV Output (NTSC/PAL)
Storage
• microSDHC Memory Card, microSD Memory Card
• 35.7MB internal memory
Power
• Rechargeable lithium ion battery (NP-80)
• Charger included
Other recently reviewed digital cameras:
Nikon COOLPIX S570, Sony Alpha DSLR-A550, Panasonic DMC-GH1, Canon PowerShot S90, Olympus E-P1, Nikon Coolpix L100, Kodak EasyShare Z950
