Casio Exilim EX-ZR100

Tiny package with a lot packed in – Around the size of a packet of cigarettes, this diminutive camera packs in a 12.5x optical zoom with a 2x digital (more later), HD video plus slow-motion video (albeit at lower resolution), plus panoramic mode, and other worthwhile features. Image quality is very good, but for the enthusiast, there is no RAW capture, now is there manual focus.… Read more ·  1

That said, the auto focus works quickly and very well, with face detection. Does it upset you a little when you take a snap and find someone had their eyes closed? No problem, this device will take up to 30 snaps (at less than maximum resolution - around 7MP) at once, and let you choose the one you like.

Exposure modes feature aperture, shutter, and camera decides. I tend to leave mine on camera decides because it does such a good job. Ever taken a photo of an interior, directed at a window and found either the window perfectly exposed and the walls dark, or vice versa? Again, no problem for this camera, with all parts of the image well-exposed.

The optical zoom tops out at 12.5x, but the digital zoom takes over to give you 25x. Forget blocky images though, for the camera makes multiple exposures and interpolates and combines the pixels to smooth the image and yield an acceptable shot.

Panoramic mode is a little mixed, and though the internals stitch images fairly well, a few friends' heads came out badly distorted a couple of times.

With slow-motion at up to 100 frames per second, the camera has another trick up its sleeve. However, at this speed, resolution is very low, and you really need a tripod to support the camera, or compression artefacts will badly mar the result. Still, at say 240 fps, you could capture the action and use it as the opening to a sequence of slides. Add titling, and you're on the way to some pretty good shows. The only other blot that I could find was the lack of manual focus, which annoyed me when I got a few centimetres from a spider, but the autofocus insisted on locking onto the vegetation behind the spider's web.

Did I mention that it feels quite solid in hand, with easily accessible controls and a bright screen with good viewing angles, and the (proprietary) battery is good for well over 320 images (sans flash) before recharging?

And that's it. Very few cons to this wonderful little device, that fits easily into a pocket, and fires up quickly.

In a word, it's great. Versatile, yields good quality images, compact, long life of battery, and more, more, more! Very little. Panoramic stitching can be unreliable, no RAW option, no manual focus.