Casio Exilim EX-S600

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Barely a few months after the 5-megapixel Exilim reached consumer markets, the 6-megapixel EX-S600 is out. Not letting its predecessor down when it comes to colors, this camera is available in four different hues with equally fancy names like Fiesta Orange, Sparkle Silver, Luminous Gold and Mistral Blue. However, the most striking difference in the two models lies not on its glossy exterior, but its bunny hop from 5 to 6 megapixels.

Design
Face it, we love compact cameras that perform but somehow we feel it's a conspiracy between vendors to confuse buyers with their near identical shooters. Think hit-confuse-and-run scenarios. Panasonic is guilty of that, and so is Nikon--from the Lumix FX8 to FX9 and the Coolpix S1 to S3, respectively. Now Casio wants to play the same game with its EX-S600. This catching-up game will inevitably end up with buyers having a never-ending list of choices. Except for the inscription along the top edge that says it's a 6-megapixel camera, we find it hard to distinguish the EX-S600 from the predecessor.

The EX-S600 has three dedicated blocks for each of the main recording functions on the camera. Unlike others, the movie record button lets the user skip a step by activating its primary function when it is pressed, rather than having to hit the shutter to start recording. While that saves time, unintentional presses on the button may frustrate users for they will have to delete the useless video to free up memory space.

In our previous review of the EX-S500, we mentioned the barely visible descriptions on the back of the camera especially when the unit was tilted at certain angles. In this new iteration, the problem is corrected. Wordings are in black and clearly visible.

Unlike Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX9's individual directional keys, the four-way control on the S600 is merged into one single key--the center button, on the other hand, is separate by itself. While the keys are responsive, larger digits will find it slightly more difficult to navigate the buttons for they are nearly flush with the body.

For that slim design, Casio has had to relegate connectivity options, including the DC-in, to the accompanying cradle. What's left on the camera is a tripod receptacle on the bottom edge of the unit. While the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T9 managed to get away with a non-extending lens, the S600 extends by another 2cm when powered up, revealing its 3x optical zoom lens.

We are probably nitpicking but we had difficulty removing our memory card from the camera because it's located too close to the compartment cover. If you have supersized fingers, you may have to depend on your nails to extract your memory card. Then again, unless you have a habit of swapping memory cards between gadgets, this shouldn't cause too much of a hindrance.

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