Casio Exilim EX-FH100 – Compact Camera With High-Speed Performance
Thumbs Up:
The Casio Exilim EX-FH100 offers a wide range of practical and fun high-speed shooting options; the camera has a decent control layout and it has a lithe lens in a compact body.
Thumbs Down:
Casio Exilim EX-FH100 gives mixed shooting-performance, gives almost useless raw image capture and doesn’t have complete automatic mode.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Manufacturer: Casio
Part Number: EX-FH100BK
Price: $306.95
Product Type: Compact Digital camera
Weight: 8 oz
Dimensions (W x D x H) in inches: 3.9 x 0.9 x 2.1inches
Optical Sensor Type: CMOS
White balance: Custom, Automatic and Presets
White Balance Presets: Auto, Overcast, Daylight, Tungsten, Shade, Daylight Fluorescent, Day White Fluorescent and Custom
Recording modes: Aperture priority, Program Auto, Manual, Best Shot, Shutter priority, Movie (High Speed and Normal)
Metering Modes: Multi, Spot and Center-weighted average
Color effects: Black & White, Sepia, Green, Red, Yellow, Blue, Purple and Pink
Software: Photo Transport and YouTube Uploader (Windows only)
Connector Type: 1 x HDMI
Software: YouTube Uploader (Windows only) and Photo Transport
Storage media: SD/SDHC card
Input / Output Terminals: HDMI output (Mini)
USB: Hi-Speed USB, USB/AV port
Focus Adjustment: Manual and Automatic
Flash Modes: Fill-in mode, Auto mode, Red-eye reduction and Flash OFF mode
Camera Flash: Built-in
Battery Type: Lithium ion rechargeable, 520 shots
Razzle Dazzle:
The Casio Exilim EX-FH100 comes in an all-black metal casing, which not only gives it a classy look, but also enhances a bit of its heft and high-quality feel. The metal casing also makes the camera slightly more durable, and although we are not sure how much abuse the camera could take, but still its design gives an impression that the camera surely will take abuse more than most of the other compact cameras in the market. The camera also is comparatively smaller and will easily get into a loose pants pocket or in a small bag. Though, the overall design of the camera is pretty decent, but still we have certain issues with its design, firstly the flash of the camera has been positioned so close to the right hand gripe that it could easily be obscured during operation, the second problem is pretty similar, but this time it is with the stereo mic, which is placed in such a position on the left that it could easily be blocked with a misplaced finger.
Inside Dope:
If, you hate loosing your shots because of the slow performance of your camera, then its time you switch to the Casio Exilim EX-FH100. The Casio Exilim EX-FH100 camera has a high-speed lens in a compact body and delivers high speed shooting performance. The high speed shooting capability of the camera could be attributed to a illuminated CMOS sensor, which captures movies at the rate of up to 1,000fps and 9 megapixel images at the speed of up to 40 frames per second and is positioned at the rear end of the camera. The good thing here is that the camera will prerecord your images prior to your pressing the shutter, as a result of which you don’t loose the shot you want. Casio combines all these features with a 24mm equivalent wide-angle lens having a 10x zoom, and gives you immense flexibility for capturing things you normally can not capture using the normal point-and-shoot.
Unlike the previous Casio models that have had a couple of apparently unnecessary buttons, which made them a tad confusing to use, the Exilim EX-FH100 has a lot more sensible control panel. The additional control options for the camera here makes a lot more sense as they provides access to two of camera’s key potentials: video and high-speed shooting of photos.
The top floor of the camera houses the shutter release with zoom ring, a power button, and shooting mode dial. There also is the switch for switching to nonstop shooting (either normal or high-speed depending upon the selection you’ve made into the main menu system).
The rear of the camera has the LCD display and on the right of the LCD there is a separate movie record button along with a selector to go in between the high and normal speed capture modes. Positioned underneath it are the switches for moving in between the capture and playback, a Menu button and a circular directional pad having a Set button in the center. Pressing both the capture and play buttons, turns on the camera into their relevant modes. There are a lot of other buttons as well to do a lot with the camera and if you don’t like to experiment a lot with your shots, you surely will be missing a lot of useful features of the camera.
The Exilim EX-FH100 comes with CIPA rating for a notable 520 shots and the camera delivers excellent battery life as well. Though, using the high-speed settings and the continuous shooting modes will dry up the battery a lot faster than expected. The huge rechargeable pack for the camera is positioned behind a locking door at the base of the camera, and so is the memory card slot. The battery of the camera doesn’t charges in the camera and hence you’ll have to remove it for charging. Finally, the camera comes with Mini-HDMI and Mini-USB/AV ports for connecting the camera to an external display and/or a computer behind a door positioned behind a door on the right hand side of the camera.
The shooting performance of the camera ranges from average to below average, outside the burst modes. The camera takes sluggish 3.4 seconds to completely get ready for capturing its first shot from a completely off state. The average shot-to-shot timings for the camera on an average are 4.1 seconds with flash and 2.3 seconds without it.
The good news although here is that the photo quality delivered by the camera is pretty good, and even decent at times. But the quality of the photos largely depends upon the size on which you are viewing them. The quality remains detailed and sharp when the pictures are viewed at 8 x 10 inches, but going beyond that brings apparent distortion in the quality. Although if most of the shots you have taken are viewed at small sizes or are viewed on TV and screens, then the shots taken from the camera are just fine.
Nitty Gritty:
The Casio Exilim EX-FH100 is a compelling Megazoom camera, offering high-speed performance. It is a perfect choice for the photography fanatics who are worried about missing a snapshot.
