Casio Exilim EX-P600

Casio’s digital camera range splits into
the beginner-orientated QV range and
the more sophisticated Exilim series.
The existing Exilim models boast sleek design, but
now they’ve been joined by an altogether
different kind of camera. The EX-P600 introduces
one of the latest 6MP CCDs, and incorporates
serious photographic control.
As well as program AE exposure and Casio’s
trademark Best Shot (scene) modes, you now get
aperture priority, shutter priority and manual
modes. A hybrid AF system boosts response
times, a selection of continuous shooting modes
offers versatility, and the auto-exposure
bracketing function found on other cameras is
extended here into completely new territory.
Casio’s known as an electronics rather than a
photographic manufacturer, of course, and the
company makes no bones about the fact that the
lens is made by Canon. It’s a 4x zoom with an
equivalent focal range of 32-132mm. One
advantage of the Canon lens, incidentally, is that
quite beyond any optical advantages there might
be from the prestigious label, there’s a practical
benefi t, too; the Casio can accept a trio of Canon
conversion lenses, including a wide-angle adaptor,
telephoto adaptor and close-up lens.
Casio’s also keen to promote the EX-P600’s
speed and responsiveness. To achieve this it uses
a sophisticated hybrid AF system. A pair of
external ‘phase-difference’ sensors offers the
speed, while a conventional internal contrastdetection
system provides accuracy. The camera
chooses the appropriate system according to the
conditions – you don’t get to choose which AF
system is used, so you have to take it on trust that
the camera picks the best.
There are three AF point options: a simple
‘spot’ option focuses on whatever’s in the centre
of the frame; the default multi-point option
checks points across the frame and focuses on the
nearest; while you can also use ‘free’ focusing to
focus anywhere in the frame. Or you can just use
the manual focus option, though as with all digital
displays, the Casio’s isn’t really sharp enough for
really precise adjustments.
The AF system is indeed fast. Over a range of
shots, the average delay seemed to be half a
second or less, and it didn’t increase substantially
for telephoto shots. In fact, the EX-P600 feels half
way towards the responses of a digital SLR. It’s
worth pointing out, though, that the camera is
quoted as having a shutter response time of
0.01sec, which doesn’t include the AF time.

Killer features?

The EX-Finder is a hint that the EX-P600’s features
are designed as much for bar-room bragging as
serious photographic use. It aims to represent
camera settings – like focus distance, shutter
speed and aperture graphically – as dials and
scales, overlaid on the image display, but the
effect is just utterly overpowering. It’s hard to
make sense of all this information and compose a
shot at the same time. There’s a similar tendency
towards overkill in the Casio’s auto-bracketing
functions. These come in two sets: those which
adjust the camera settings, and those which
adjust the image processing.
Camera bracketing options include autoexposure
(as you’d expect), focus (useful for
processing (‘multi’) bracketing options
include saturation, sharpening and colour
fi lters, to name but three.
Are you actually going to use these things?
Apart from the exposure and focus
bracketing, these are processing adjustments.
And the provision of so many, sooner or later,
will draw your attention to the fact that the
Casio has no RAW mode (RAW mode would
enable you to do all these things later,
without quality loss, on your computer).
Apart from JPEGs, at three quality settings,
the only other option is TIFF fi les. These are
much larger (larger even than RAW images,
typically), and a distant second-best.

Making a scene

The complexity of this camera does start to
get a little distracting after a while. Of course,
you can leave it set to fully-automatic mode
and pick up these extra technical snippets as
you gain experience. The EX-P600 is fi ne for
beginners, including as it does not just a
foolproof point-and-shoot full auto mode, but
26 different scene modes, too.
Casio calls these Best Shot modes, and it’s
turned them into something of an art form.
Other makers simply list their scene modes
on a menu, but Casio gives each one a
full-screen display, with a thumbnail
representation of the type of subject it’s
designed for and a short text description of
what it does. Many more advanced
photographers won’t have much time for
scene modes, considering that they only do
automatically what you can (and should?) do
yourself – things like saturation and contrast
levels, focusing modes, sharpening levels and
more. Even diehard photographers, though,
can’t fail to be impressed by the presentation
and explanation built into these Best Shot
modes. You can even create your own,
choosing one of your own pictures for the
thumbnail representation and a combination
of settings from the camera’s own menus.
You have to be impressed by the Casio’s
continuous shooting options. It can take shots
at around 1.7fps, which is only average, but it
can sustain it for as long as there’s space left
on your memory card. This mode is
supplemented by a special high-speed mode
which can shoot six images in two seconds at
full resolution – it makes 8MP ‘prosumer’
models look positively asthmatic.
There’s a Multi-Speed option that takes 25
shots at 15fps. These are then assembled into
a single 1,600 x 1,200 pixel image. It might
be okay for certain kinds of motion analysis,
but this is where the Casio seems to slip back
into novelty items again.
The movie mode is slightly lacklustre, too.
Admittedly you don’t buy a still camera to
shoot movies, but it’s still nice to have on
hand for those odd occasions when you
need it. And the resolution of 320 x 240 is
now a bit on the weak side for cameras in
this price bracket.
There’s more to a good camera that
features, though. Handling, design and
photographic results are just as important. So
far we’ve talked principally about features, but
only because with this camera there’s a heck
of a lot to cover.

Design downer

However, while its feature list is impressive,
the same doesn’t really apply to the camera
itself. It’s compact for a camera of this type,
which is good, but the design looks messy and
untidy. The controls all provide a high-quality
feel, but apart from the mode dial and
navigational controller, the rest of the buttons
seem to be spread all over the camera simply
where there’s space.
Possibly the worst example is the EX-Key
button. Pressing this calls up an on-screen
menu for adjusting the white balance, ISO,
metering pattern and focus pattern. These
are well designed and easy to navigate, but the
button’s placed on the left-hand edge of the
camera, right at the bottom. You have to keep
looking where it is, and shifting your grip to
press it.
It’s not all bad by any means, though. You
can apply EV compensation simply by pressing
Left or Right on the navigational controller. You
can even view a ‘live’ image histogram with
curves for each RGB channel, though this
means activating the over-the-top EX-Finder.
The start-up time is good. At around two
seconds, it’s beaten by some of the latest
snapshot compacts, but it’s usefully quicker
than most high-end digital cameras. The startup
speed, snappy AF and speedy continuous
shooting mode do produce a very responsivefeeling
package.
It could do with a faster zooming action,
though. And while there are nine (by our
count) intermediate zoom settings, nudging
from one to the next requires a fairly deft fl ick
of the zoom switch.

Picture perfect?

But what’s the picture quality like? Does the
6-megapixel CCD produce visibly superior
results to those of high-end 5-megapixel
cameras? The differences are small, meaning
that overall picture quality is still going to
be the biggest factor in choosing the best
camera. The Casio’s colour reproduction is
especially good, as is its dynamic range in
contrasty conditions. However, dull lighting
can produce very fl at-looking images that
will need some manipulation in your imageeditor
later or re-shooting with a higher
contrast setting.
Perhaps one of the Casio’s biggest
drawbacks, though, is the lack of a RAW mode.
This means that you’re always going to be at
the mercy of the camera’s internal processing
system, while all its rivals offer a RAW mode
that enables you adjust saturation, sharpness,
white balance and digital exposure
compensation on your computer. Of all the
bells and whistles Casio’s added to the EX-P600
to appeal to professional users, that’s the one
that should have been top of the list.
If you want to impress your mates, the Casio
is fantastic. It’s got some interesting and
innovative photographic tools, too, and the
quality of its results is very high. However, it’s
not especially cheap, costing as much on the
high street as the Nikon CoolPix 5400, Canon
PowerShot G5 and Olympus C-5060 – all of
which are rather better cameras.