Casio Exilim EX-Z200

Bookmark

By Rich Trenholm, CNET.co.uk
Jun 03, 2008

The Casio Exilim EX-Z200 sits suavely at the top end of the Exilim range. Its compacts have been quietly making a name for themselves in recent years, so there's a lot of expectation resting on the Z200's metal shoulders.

Editors' note:

This review is based on tests done by our sister site CNET.co.uk. As such, please note that there may be slight differences in the testing procedure and ratings system. For more information on the actual tests conducted on the product, please inquire directly at the site where the article was originally published. References made to some other products in this review may not be available or applicable in Asia.

Design

The Z200 has an extremely solid metal frame. It comes in black and silver, with slick silver accents, but our favorite color is the red that our sample was clothed in.

The onscreen sidebar puts useful shooting options at your fingertips.
(click for larger image)

At the back, it sports an enormous 2.7-inch LCD screen. Part of this is taken up by the excellent Exilim sidebar, which minimizes menu sifting and button pushing for quick access to often-used options. The sidebar can be turned off, but even with it active, the screen has bags of room for composing images. As if this wasn't convenient enough, the circular clickpad can be assigned to functions of your choice.

Casio continues to include two buttons for switching between playback and shooting, which we found annoying. A Best Shot or Scene mode button gives access to 39 scene modes, including the usual portrait modes, as well as more obscure options for shooting whiteboards or ID card photos. Also included is a dedicated movie button, removing the need to sift through menus to shoot video. When video is recording, a handy onscreen dual countdown shows both how long you have been recording, and how much memory you have left.

Features »