Point and Shoot Camera – Casio Exilim EX-FC100

Full disclosure:

I did not buy a new point and shoot camera recently.

I have a Nikon Coolpix digital point and shoot that I carry in my purse and a Nikon D50 that I haul out when I actually care how the pictures turn out.  I love both of them and am extremely happy with the way they do their respective jobs.

However, a friend of mine recently was searching for a digital camera that was more compact than his existing point and shoot.  A friend of his recommended the Casio Exilim.

He bought it.  I played with it.

That’s the best kind of shopping (or at least it will be when I convince him to give it to me).

The specific camera we’re looking at is a Casio Exilim EX-FC100.

It’s about 5 inches wide and only weighs 1 pound, which makes it extremely easy to carry around in a pocket or small purse.  If you’re someone who likes to take pictures at parties, restaurants or just everyday outings, than portability is an important factor to consider when shopping for a digital point and shoot camera.  If it’s too much of a hassle to take with you, you’ll never use it to take pictures – no matter how great of a camera it is.

Of course, at almost $300, it better damn well take a good picture, too.

This is a picture of my insanely gorgeous friend Samantha.  It’s SOOC – or “straight out of camera” – meaning I haven’t touched it in Photoshop or anything.  There’s plenty of sun and she was basically standing still.  The picture isn’t SLR quality, but it’s pretty good for the auto setting of a point and shoot camera.

This is a difficult setting for any camera.  We were inside a screened porch with crazy sunlight streaming in from outside.  This picture was taken with the flash, and it actually does a pretty good job of not washing her out completely and leveling out the foreground with the background.  It’s not a great picture – but that’s not really the camera’s fault.

I’m much happier with the lighting in this – or rather, I’m much more confident in the camera’s ability to take a decent picture in low light.  It’s not grainy and the blow out isn’t near as bad as I would have expected in these conditions.

All three of these pictures were taken with the camera’s automatic setting.  Honestly, I think that is the most important setting on a digital point and shoot because – again – you’re not going to use it if you have to fiddle with all the settings every time you want to take a picture of you and the cute bartender.  Or something.

However, for $300, it’s nice to have the option of doing a little more with your digital camera.

The Casio Exilim has a really cool menu function that lets you easily see various “presets” for different kind of photography (like night photos, portrait, macro, etc.)

It also has a very large LCD screen, which is useful when you’re trying to see how the picture you just took is going to turn out on your computer or photo paper.

Another cool feature of the Casio Exilim is the slow down feature.  You push the slow down button and it gives you a slowed down, delayed picture of what you’re looking at on the LCD screen.  This lets you take the exact action shots that you want, or get a picture of someone smiling instead of talking.  I have never seen this feature on a camera before (digital, point and shoot or otherwsie) and I can imagine using it a lot.

Like most digital point and shoot cameras, the Casio Exilim has a video camera option.  However, this one shoots in HD video – which I’m not entirely sure I need, but can appreciate just the same.

The camera loads extremely quickly when you turn it on and has no perceptible delay when shooting pictures.  That is a common concern with digital cameras – especially if you’re used to pulling out a camera quickly to capture your kids doing something cute that they will never do again in life if you miss that 3 second window.

Overall, Adam is happy with his purchase.  The difference between the Coolpix and the Casio Exilim isn’t significant enough to make me go out and plunk down $300 for a new camera, but the features are unique enough that I will think about a Casio the next time I’m in need of a digital point and shoot camera.

Buy the Casio High-Speed Exilim EX-FC100 on Amazon

OR

Buy the comparable Nikon Coolpix S560 Camera on Amazon for about 50 less.

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