Casio's slim Exilim EX-Z77 has plenty of shooting modes and easy uploading to YouTube. Will it be our celebrity-spotting compact camera of choice?
Review summary of the Casio Exilim EX-Z77:
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 The EX-Z77 is slim, solid and practical, a camera you might find yourself taking everywhere. The lack of a dock is disappointing, but both novice and expert point-and-shoot camera users will find themselves satisfied with the size and speed of the device. Images left us wanting better quality, especially under low-light conditions, but the anti-shake features did help a bit, and the Best Mode scenes filled in the gaps in our camera expertise. The menus are a little confusing and could use a little feng shui, but for the most part this is a nice device. Release: September 2007. Price: $150.
Pros: Best Shot modes are helpful. YouTube capture mode is convenient. Slim design. Good optical zoom.
Cons: Confusing menus. Poor image quality in low light. No dock.
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Full Casio Exilim EX-Z77 Review:
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Design - Very good
One of our favorite aspects of Casio cameras in general is the body. While weighing in a bit heavier than some similarly-sized cameras, we find a bit of weight to be preferable, especially in slim-design point-and-shoot models. The camera feels solid, very well-made, and the metal body resisted minor falls and scrapes. All the buttons were responsive, and most were labeled well enough to understand without too much difficulty. The lens retracts into the body when the camera is turned off or in photo review mode, providing reasonable protection.
The 2.6" LCD screen serves as an effective viewfinder, but the low-resolution screen wasn't a good indicator of whether a picture would turn out well once it was on our computer. Still, we understand this is a problem that will be endemic to high-megapixel cameras.
Interface and Features - Good
The Z77 has no shortage of menus. We had trouble familiarizing ourselves, but we can forgive navigational issues, thanks to the EX-Z77's myriad included features. The expansive menus can be a bit intimidating, but the Z77's impressive feature set can hardly be contained. Two of our favorite features are Best Shot and the YouTube capture mode. Best Shot (BS, they're acronym, not ours) is a group of presets for various picture-taking scenarios. It certainly isn't perfect, but makes taking shots of things like running water, twilight and landscapes a lot easier, especially for Joe Q. Pointandshoot. Still, we miss some of the BS modes we've seen on other Exilim's, especially the Panorama mode.
Even more interesting than Best Shot is the YouTube capture mode. Digital cameras have long been able to record video for the popular viral video web site, but the process for uploading was not for the uninitiated. First, you had to get the .avi file onto the computer. Second, use video-editing software to shrink it to a manageable size that met YouTube's size limit of 100MB. Finally, use the web upload tool on the web site to upload the video and enter any description.
With the YouTube capture mode on the Z77 and the included YouTube Uploader software, Casio simply took a few steps out of the equation. The uploader program pops up as soon as a camera or card is connected to the computer, and every video is listed. You select which videos you want to upload, enter a description, and click a button.
Poof! You're famous! The video is already formatted in a YouTube-friendly format, and unless you're filming a three-hour movie, it's almost guaranteed to come in under the file size limit. However, if for some reason you are shooting the sequel to Ken Burns' epic "Baseball," you can still edit the video without any complicated or expensive editing software. Basic editing functions can be performed in-camera, and while they are limited, they¹re just enough for a basic YouTube user.
The photo software Casio bundled with is relatively bare-bones. It is armed with a few options, including burn to disk, send by email, print, slideshow and order prints. However, the largest resolution possible for e-mailing photos through the program is 800x600, and you can't order prints online, but rather need a blank memory card to store photos for your local photo developer to print for you. The software isn't terrible, it just doesn't do anything you couldn't do easier somewhere else. Not to mention, it's not attractively designed. The software is simply a hub to view and store photos; the only editing option available is rotate, of which even Windows Fax and Picture Viewer is capable. Premium features may have been available for an additional cost, but when we clicked on the link within the program, we were taken to a dead page.
Storage capacity is minimal (coming in at just over 11MB), but many cameras don't pack any internal storage. We were happy to find an SD slot, as the format is currently the most ubiquitous and inexpensive, but we were even happier to find the ability to read SDHC cards, as the first 32GB cards are just starting to appear over the horizon.
Camera Quality - Very good
The 3X optical zoom lens is almost standard for compact point-and-shoot models, but it would be nice to see ISO settings a little higher than ISO 800, especially when comparable models are shipping with ISO 1600. That being said, it isn't bad for a $230 camera, and the 7.2 megapixel sensor, anti-shake and a wide range of shutter speeds (4 seconds to 1/2000 of 1 second) round out what is ultimately a decent piece of hardware.
While the auto-focus worked well enough, it certainly was not fast. We would have liked the camera to tell us which subjects in the frame were being focused on, but it generally picked the one we wanted. The anti-shake also definitely made a difference, although the video anti-shake didn't work as well as the still photo anti-shake. However, when taking self-portraits, even though our hand would shake, we were still able to get a clear image.
Startup times on the EX-Z77 were good, and the shutter also responded quickly. We were able to go from the off position to a focused, finished photo in under 3 seconds, and about half that time for the second shot. We also liked the in-camera editing functions, which included rotation, resizing and cropping, although we couldn't get color balance to work. However, for such large image files, the LCD resolution was too low to see if the editing we did was an improvement or not.
Image Quality - Very good
With the right lighting, the images taken with the EX-Z77 looked crisp, clear and focused. Nighttime shooting was more problematic, as any long-distance photos without optimal lighting looked extremely noisy. The camera captured fast moving subjects well, like a man on a bike, or a moving car or bus on the street. We had less success when we ourselves were moving, as supposed to the subject.
We were able to get great close-up shots during night or day, as well as great landscape shots during the day. Landscape night shots, however, were a bit trickier, and even well-focused shots end up with a lot of noise.
With so many Best Shot modes to play with, we decided to select four that fit the scenarios we were shooting and break them down.
High-resolution image samples
Shot taken with full automatic settings This shot, taken on fully automatic settings, shows what good lighting, no movement and good focus can produce on the EX-Z77.
Shot taken in Twilight Best Shot Mode On the night we took our images in Twilight Best Shot mode, it was cloudy and raining, and we had terrible lighting sources, yet the EX-Z77 was still able to capture a somewhat decent image. We still got a lot of noise, but our image was better than without the Best Shot mode enhancements.
Shot taken in Landscape Best Shot Mode Again, we got wonderful results from shooting with the Landscape Best Shot mode…until we tried to take pictures at night. This sample shot (from the NY Beckham game) had lots of external light, but the players seemed to be just too far away to get a crisp image.
Shot taken in eBay Best Shot Mode This mode simply turns the megapixel count down to 2MP as well as turning face detection and anti-shake off. There isn't much to this mode, but it does keep the size of the photo within eBay's file size limitations, and recognizes you'll be taking pictures of a product, not a person.
The image quality of YouTube capture mode videos compared to non-YouTube capture mode was night and day. The YouTube preset may make things easier, but it also makes them uglier. Pixellated images and low resolutions were the name of this game. That being said, the microphone was VERY receptive, and picked up sound at an outdoor concert very well. Unfortunately, with the poor lighting and low resolution, the image wasn't captured as nicely.
Accessories - Very good
Strangely omitted from the included accessories is a dock, which we liked on other Casio Exilim models (if only for organizational purposes). Instead of having to take out the battery and charge it with the included battery charger, it would be nice to be able to just pop the camera in a dock and start charging immediately, then connect to the computer with the push of a button. Inconvenience aside, the camera comes with most everything needed to take pictures and videos and put them on your computer or play them on your TV. An included SD card would be nice, but that's a rarity in this market. Items that were included: Lithium Ion Battery, Battery charger, AC power cord, camera strap, usb cable, AV cable and a CD-ROM with software.
Price and availability
The Casio Exilim EX-Z77 will start selling for $150 () in September 2007.
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