Casio QV-R51

The QV-R51 is the latest entry into the list of 5-megapixel ultracompacts which are expected to flood the market this year. While nothing's been done in the looks department, this update of yesteryear's QV-R40 features a higher-resolution sensor, larger LCD display as well as power enhancements to help you shoot more with less.

What's New?
Like the rest of Casio's QV-R series of cameras, the QV-R51 doesn't excel in the looks department. Targeted at a different market from its popular ultraslim Exilim line, the QV-R has its priorities based more on functionality. As such, this really isn't Casio's answer to Sony's fashion-oriented DSC-T1. For that group of users, we should be expecting a 2004 refresh of the Exilim Z series soon, especially since Pentax has already announced one.

In the hands, the QV-R51 feels about the same as its predecessor, the QV-R40. However, we did find the zoom control a little flimsy when compared with the former. Otherwise, you should feel right at home if you've owned or used the older QV-R. While the software side of things hasn't made navigation easier, the 25 percent larger 2-inch LCD display should help in this regard. Disappointingly, the resolution of the screen hasn't improved and remains at about 85k pixels.

According to Casio, the manufacturer has also improved battery performance by a sizeable 36 percent over the QV-R40. The manufacturer claims the newer model is able to capture up to 900 images between charges. As you'll read further on, we did find the battery life to be good but due to time constraints we weren't able to verify the 900 figure.

Features
As we've come to expect from this series, the QV-R51 has a pretty extensive feature set although it's primarily a simple point-and-shoot model. More advanced photographers will appreciate the manual controls offered by the unit. These include three metering modes (multi, center-weighted, spot), manual focusing, exposure compensation, and white balance controls.

There are also other in-camera processing options such as the ability to control the levels of contrast, sharpness, saturation and multiple filter options to suit your taste buds. As with the later Exilims, there's also a real-time histogram to aid users in getting good, accurate exposures.

Like its other Casio brethrens, the QV-R51 comes with the extremely useful Best Shot mode. This assortment of pre-programmed settings caters to a wide range of photographic situations and first-timers will appreciate the pictures and descriptions associated with them.

When shooting stills the unit is able to save JPEGs at six resolutions and three compression settings. However, for the 5-megapixel sensor the 10MB (actual 9.7MB) of internal memory is grossly insufficient. Unfortunately, like previous Casio cameras, there is no external Secure Digital (SD) or MultiMediaCard (MMC) bundled with the unit even though there's a slot for flash memory. In the highest quality settings, we were able to capture only four photos.

Mixed Performance
In our tests, we found the QV-R51 to be a bit of a mixed bag. It clocked in slower than its forerunner for the shot-to-shot runs, but managed to retain the ultra-fast startup timing. This Casio still sprang to life in an instant (1 second) by either pressing the record or power button. Once awake, the fast zoom mechanism also made quick work of composition.

In our shot-to-shot runs, the unit performed dismally with the flash on or off. The camera required a horribly long 4 to 5 seconds between frames with the flash disabled and took seemingly forever to cycle with the flash on, averaging about 8 to 9 seconds. It would appear that although Casio has upgraded the image sensor's resolution, it has neglected to increase the buffer size--or at least the speed of it--resulting in a large dip in performance.

On the upside, the autofocusing (AF) system was decent, often taking about a second for situations with adequate lighting. Under dim or bad lighting, the AF took around 2 to 3 seconds. We should mention also that the AF has a slight tendency to get confused under low-ambient lighting and ends up obtaining the wrong focal points.

For battery performance, this little shooter showed strong stamina. Under normal usage, even after about 150 shots with the LCD on and in various flash settings, the bundled 2100mAH rechargeables on the QV-R51 showed no sign of giving out.

In terms of image quality, the Casio delivered mediocre photos. The final images compared well with Sony's own 5-megapixel point-and-shoot, the DSC-T1. We were also happy to notice that in its default settings, the QV-R51's images were not overly sharpened--an issue with the earlier Casios which resulted in visible artifacts when viewed closely. The colors captured were pleasing and the metering generally delivered well-exposed shots.

The Perfect Vacation Camera
Usually, using the terms affordable, stylish and feature-packed in a single sentence would result in a paradox. However, with a sticker price of just S$699 (US$413), this Casio proves to be an exception. At over S$300 (US$177) cheaper than Sony's DSC-T1, the QV-R51 offers a viable alternative for point-and-shoot users who need high-resolution pictures. The older QV-R40 became a great vacation cam because of its ability to take AA-size batteries. This latest iteration takes it further by improving the battery life, giving you the ability to shoot more between charges.