Cameras: Casio Exilim EX-F1 Camera Review – 71

Somewhere deep in the bowels of the Casio factory is a door that once bore a number but now jokingly bears a handwritten sign that says ‘Mad Scientists’. It is only from such a place that this freakishly Frankenstein-like camera could be born. You can almost hear the mad laughter as the crazy engineers lift the body skyward and declare to a skeptical marketing department: “Behold, the future of photography is here. This is the EX-F1.”

Out of a box of goodies the aforementioned mad scientists have melded a 12x optical zoom with a six million pixel CMOS sensor that can produce high definition (1080i) video as well as shoot stills at 60fps. There is also an image stabiliser and the ability to shoot slow motion video at 300, 600 or 1200fps. Can you imagine the expressions of glee on their faces when they assembled young Frankenstein and started making action pics?

The slow motion video is brilliant, although silent, as it won’t record sound in this mode. The highest quality slo-mo is recorded at 300fps; when you speed the process up the screen size and data file size are reduced. Like the madmen in the Casio basement, you will go crazy making slow motion videos of everything from food in the blender, water balloons being popped and, of course, Mentos in Coke bottles.

These guys are so clever they included separate buttons for stills (in the usual place on the top of the grip) and movies (a button placed conveniently on the back of the camera right by where your thumb rests so you get less camera movement when starting and stopping recording). Control dials for the three video options, Standard, HD and HS (high speed), are around the video button. They must have had dials aplenty in that box of bits as there are two on top for the still functions.

It isn’t perfect. The EX-F1 is slow to start and slow to write files to an SDHC card, but it is handling huge amounts of data that no other camera has yet tried to do. You won’t be slipping it in your pocket either, as it is as big as an SLR.

What they said

“It’s not flawless, but damn if it’s not a beautiful and one-of-a-kind invention.” – www.gizmodo.com

Specifications

Effective Pixels: Six million

Lens: 7.3 – 87.6mm (35mm film equivalent 36 – 432mm)

Viewfinder: Electronic

Screen: 2.8-inch TFT color LCD (230,160 pixels)

Shutter: 60 – 1/4000sec

Aperture: f2.7 – f15

ISO: Auto, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600

Shooting Modes: Program AE, Aperture Priority AE, Shutter Speed Priority AE, Manual Exposure, Movie, Hi Speed movie,

Media: 31.9MB built-in memory, SDHC card, SD card, MMC, MMC plus
File Formats: RAW, JPEG, MOV

Batteries: Lithium-ion rechargeable

Dimensions: 127.7 x 79.6 x 130.1mm

Weight: 671g

Pros:

• Slow motion movies up to 1200fps

• Raw file
• Dedicated buttons for stills and movies

Cons:

• Only six million pixels
• Overly large shape
• The slower the motion the more light you need

Verdict

You’ll have more fun than Sam Peckinpah making slow motion movies of everything from a leaky tap to a match being struck

FRASER KITT