With a powerful 7X zoom and a 7-megapixel sensor, the Exilim EX-V7 packs a lot of hardware into a small shell. But do you really need all that glass?
Review summary of the Casio Exilim EX-V7:
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 The Casio Exilim EX-V7 is a nice compact, and certainly has the best optical zoom we've seen on such a small camera, but we're wondering if the zoom makes the camera a worthwhile pick. Even with image stabilization, which caused a degradation in quality, holding a 7X zoom steady practically requires a tripod, and for the extra bulk, you'd be better off with a larger camera, and a higher-quality lens. Images were good, but not fantastic, and some color problems around bright edges added to the problematic noise issues. We also had some control issues, thanks to a dial that liked to spin on its own. Still, video quality was above average, and the battery life was also good. In the end, the deal-breaker for us would be the required docking station, just another thing to forget on the road. Release: April 2007. Price: $180.
Pros: Good image quality. 7X optical zoom. Plenty of scene modes. Compact design.
Cons: Slow zoom. Noise at higher sensitivity. Required docking station for charging. Unimpressive software. Some features seem half-baked.
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Full Casio Exilim EX-V7 Review:
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Design - Good
With its sliding lens cover / power switch, the Exilim EX-V7 could be mistaken for a Sony Cybershot. The camera is a simple, thin, silver box, like many other compacts in its class, without significant style or design details. The screen is very crisp and bright, with deep color, so previewing images was a pleasure. Buttons are placed neatly along the right side of the camera, from the shutter release on down, which does put everything within reach. Still, we were not fans of the loose function dial, which never stayed put between trips to and from our pockets. When we thought we were ready to shoot a portrait, many times we ended up starting a video (or, heaven forbid, adjusting aperture settings). Also, once or twice the lens cover came open, though the camera has a sleep mode to avoid battery rundown.
The camera does not have any connectivity built onto it, beyond the Casio dock connector. You must use the dock to charge, read pictures from the camera, or use video output to a TV or monitor. We use card readers for SD cards, so the transfer didn't bother us, but we'd rather not lug an extra chunk of plastic just to charge the camera.
Features - Good
The EX-V7's most significant feature is its massive, 7X optical zoom. Furthermore, thanks to a complicated set of optics folded within the body, the lens itself doesn't seem to move or protrude from the camera at all, even at the longest zoom setting. We found the zoom to be a bit slow, surprising on this otherwise zippy camera, both its power was undeniable.
Otherwise, most of the camera's features are contained within Casio's "Best Shot" scene modes. Of these, we didn't see anything too surprising, the usual suspects of "Fireworks," "Candle Light" and "Children" are all present. One neat feature was the camera's "Auto Framing," which claims to track a moving body across the frame. We stood on a street corner and aimed at crossing pedestrians. When it worked, it was very cool, like a targeting system out of a Tom Clancy movie. When it didn't, we got nice close-ups of locked-up bicycles and passing truck tires. It isn't fast enough, or smart enough to track a single player on a ball field, so we can't imagine the use, but it seems like a cool tech demonstration.
Video recording options were good, including quite a few scene sizes, and even widescreen recording. Two tiny speakers on the front of the camera, about an inch apart, brag of stereo recording, and in reality they do add some depth, but we wouldn't get too excited about stereo. The camera also has a keystone reshaping mode, which takes trapezoidal figures, like the way skyscrapers and album covers appear in the camera's diminishing perspective, and give them right angles, correcting the skew. In our tests, this worked occasionally, though sometimes the camera's keystone guidelines clearly hadn't found our object, and the camera gave us no options to correct its error. Another demonstration-level feature.
Performance - Very good
Image quality from the Exilim EX-V7 was not disappointing. Colors looked vibrant, though we did notice some purple spots at the edges between light and dark colors. Noise was especially visible in darker areas at ISO sensitivities above 200, but wasn't bothersome at smaller picture sizes. The flash wasn't too powerful, but managed to fill in a few dark spots on some images without overpowering our subjects.
Zoomed images looked fine on the EX-V7, though clearly a 7X zoom is difficult to hold without a tripod. The camera offers both mechanical and sensor-based image stabilization, and though we managed plenty of stable shots at 7X zoom with the automatic image stabilization working all its magic, enough noise was visible in these long range images that we suspect the sensitivity is being cranked beyond the ability of the sensor.
"Best Shot" modes had little effect on our pictures, though we certainly did not detect any adverse effect from using these modes, so if you're at a fireworks show, by all means use the appropriate setting. Still, our pet was no less cute, and our food no more scrumptious when using those respective modes. The Auto Framing mode reduces the pixel count, and relative size of the frame, to about 3-megapixels to capture the subject dead-center, but we found no help in image quality. We miss the lack of a built-in panorama stitching client. For battery life, we used the camera sporadically over a week's time and never replaced the battery. We shot more than 200 exposures, with occasional flashes, and were still in the green. We see no reason to doubt Casio's claim of 350 exposures.
Software - Mediocre
The Casio image software is a strange bundle, and in the end we weren't quite sure what we had loaded onto our laptops, which is never a good sign. With the camera, you get the "Photo Loader" and "Hot Album," which seem to be the same program. Hot Album is a flash-based photo album, which seems more interested in getting you to buy prints or a premium edition of Hot Album than making your pictures look better. No image editing controls are offered beyond rotation. The software isn't difficult to use, but poor grammar at points make it seem a bit amateur or imported. We'll stick with Adobe's software, for now.
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