Availability: Widely Available
Average Cost: $200-260
Product Link: Exilim-S880
Rating:

For the parent already juggling strollers, diaper bags and a million other things, lugging around still and video cameras can feel like the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Even most of today’s compact cameras take up too much room in the purse and diaper bag.

Enter the new “ultra-compact” cameras.

The Casio Exilim-S880 is just such a sleek ultra-compact design that has been dubbed a “credit card camera”. Despite its small size, its all metal body packs a 8.1 megapixel sensor, 3x optical zoom and full frame MPEG-4 H.264 video, making it a stand-out in its class. It fits easily into a pocket, purse, or diaper bag, with plenty of room to spare. It even offers some real cutting-edge features like its “YouTube” video mode which simplifies capturing video for posting on YouTube, and a futuristic face-recognition system.

AESTHETICS & SIZE

The Exilim-S880 is super-sleek, amazingly thin, and made of an all metal body available in black or red. The finish is shiny but seems to be quite resistant to scratches. The lack of plastic on this camera body is refreshing and gives the camera a little bit of heft which makes it easier to hold its small dimensions steady while shooting.

This revision of the Exilim is slightly larger than previous versions but is still one of the smallest cameras on the market, especially given its large feature set. It measures just 3.72” x 2.38” and a thickness varying between 0.54-0.68”.

Its size makes this the smallest camera I have looked at lately, bested only by Casio’s own older EX-S600 model which was slightly thinner and lighter, but also slimmer on features. Note that while the height and width dimensions are important, it will usually be the depth or “thickness” that determines whether a camera feels good in your pocket. Casio’s cameras are as much as half the thickness of some competition. This puts them way ahead in the size category.

FEATURES

The Exilim comes with an extensive range of features. Below I’ve listed the standouts that will be of most interest to moms and dads.

Face Detection: This feature automatically recognizes faces and allows you to remember and prioritize the faces of friends or family members. When it recognizes a face, it automatically sets focus and exposure to make sure that the faces in the photo are prioritized over other elements in the scene. This feature is useful if you’re taking a photograph of your child in a crowded place, or if you’re letting Grandma or Grandpa snap pictures with your camera and you’re tired of always having tack-sharp backgrounds with out of focus children. I found that the face detection slowed the camera down too much for my tastes and usually leave it disabled.

Auto-tracking: The S880 can automatically track the subject of your focus, an excellent feature for moms of toddlers and older kids. If your child can’t sit still for pictures and always ends up in a blur, this feature will be one of your favorites. Again, this slows the camera down to the point where I just leave it disabled unless I’m taking action shots of my 14 month old son, in which case it’s my favorite feature.

Antishake/Blur Reduction: This camera’s anti-shake is a bit of a misnomer. Rather than offering optical image stabilization, the S880 simply increases the ISO of the camera to reduce shake/blur. This could more accurately be called “auto ISO”. With increase in ISO you get an increase in JPEG artifacts/noise, so you are essentially trading one problem for another. Don’t get me wrong, it is a nice feature to have, it just needs to be properly named.

Best Shot: The “Best Shot” button calls up a thumbnail menu of 40 different “best shot” options, including a YouTube video mode, sepia and black and white modes, “Ebay” mode, and more. Some of these will be real time and image savers, some will just make you wonder what the engineers were thinking. I tended to find that the standard auto settings worked well on most shots.

Audio Snap: Turning this feature on allows you to record up to 30 seconds of audio after each photograph. This can be wonderful as you can capture the sounds of your child laughing or add an audio note about the photograph you just took. This is a wonderful tool for parents that are going to use the photographs in a creative montage or a scrapbook and want to have the audio reminder of the idea that they had when snapping the shot. The audio is of decent quality considering the small size of the built in microphone.

EASE OF USE

The Exilim-S880 will greet you with a basic setup screen when you first turn it on. It will step you through setting the date and a few options on the camera. Once this is done, it loads a set of default options that will allow you to just point, press the shutter release button half-way to focus, and all the way to shoot. Congratulations, you’ve taken your first picture. It’s as easy as that.

When I first saw the diminutive size of the controls on this camera, I was worried about being unable to hit the right button or navigate the menus. However, the controls are so well designed and responsive that I find them easier to use than the controls on my previous (and much larger) point-and-shoot. I have even been able to use this camera with gloved hands in freezing temperatures. But don’t try this with mittens!

The controls along the right of the camera control the setup/options and allow you to toggle into video recording mode. The controls along the top are used for previewing. The two buttons on the right toward the front of the camera turn the camera on and off, and operate the shutter. One nice feature of the Exilim line is that you can toggle between taking stills and video without navigating menus. Simply press the red “record” button on the back of the camera to toggle into video capture mode, and again to toggle back to shooting stills. (You can also just press the shutter button which will immediately exit video mode and fire the shutter to capture a still shot- great for when you want to switch to a high resolution still without waiting.

When you’re ready to move beyond the defaults, the camera has an astounding array of options including manual settings that even professional photographers will find very appealing. Each of these options is available through an intuitive menu interface. This is one of the easiest to use cameras that I have encountered. While most cameras offered by Sony, Canon and Kodak require at least a quick glance at the manual, this one was simple enough for me to figure out how to use on my own. I didn’t even touch the manual until a few weeks later when I wanted to take it to the next level of controls.

SPEED

For a while compact cameras were getting faster and faster. Casio seems to have reached it’s peak speed a few versions before this release and it’s gone a bit downhill since then. This camera has shutter lag that is almost double that of Casio’s earlier EX-S600. Only part of this increased lag can be attributed to the camera’s higher megapixel count and features such as anti-shake and face detection. (Although turning these features off does increase the responsiveness of the camera slightly.) Make sure to buy one of the higher speed SD cards when using this camera, otherwise the time it takes to write to the card will quickly become an additional frustration when combined with the shutter lag. Making sure that the lens is free of finger prints may also help in making sure your camera is as responsive as possible, as I found that my son had poked the lens on more than a few occasions which resulted in the autofocus taking a long time to work, a very non-responsive camera, and blurry soft-focus shots.

QUALITY OF CAPTURE

The quality of photos taken with this camera is pretty similar to that of other compact point and shoot models. At ISO 200 or below and in well-lit situations the quality is quite good. At higher ISOs and situations with less light you’ll see quite a bit of noise. Zoomed all the way out (wide angle), or zoomed all the way in (telephoto) you’ll notice slight amounts of distortion in your photographs, but it’s surprisingly not too bad considering the fancy footwork that Casio has to do with its optics to fit 3x optical zoom onto such a small body.

Ultimately, the imagery will not compete with a good digital SLR. But given a little extra care the quality of its imagery is very good and able to be blown up/printed to 8×10” and larger.

Movie quality is quite good under ideal lighting situations, but very grainy when it is even slightly darker than ideal. Most indoor video will be of mediocre to poor quality, even with normal room lights way up. But again this is a hazard of the format; any compact point and shoot camera that shoots video will result in the same quality issues. As far as quantity goes, you can capture up to three hours of video on a single 2GB flash card!

FLASH

The Exilim-S880 has five flash modes: Auto, On, Off, Red-Eye and Soft Flash.

Unlike some camera flashes that blast the subjects with too much harsh light, this flash unit offers a wonderful realism of color with all of its flash modes. Things seldom appear overly washed out or discolored. The downside is that it is slightly under-powered and doesn’t function well at any sort of distance. The solution is to raise the ISO to a point where the sensor can make better use of whatever light the flash can muster.

Its Red-eye reduction feature is slightly less reliable than I would like. Especially for someone frequently taking family photographs. Expect to become familiar with some software-based red-eye reduction.

BATTERY LIFE

While you can theoretically take upwards of 300 shots with a single charge of your battery, I get about 200 shots with my usual pattern of taking a few shots here and there, shutting the camera off, reviewing pictures that I’ve taken and showing them to the other people in the shot. Since my way of using the camera is more standard to most moms and dads, expect to be able to take about 150-200 shots before needing to recharge. I bought a spare battery but found that I seldom ever need to use it. Mostly it ends up being used on full-day outings or when I forget to charge the battery for a few too many days/weeks. Battery drain when sitting unused doesn’t seem to be as bad as it has been with other cameras or even the previous models from Casio. It’s really nice to be able to walk away from taking pictures for a few weeks and come back to a (mostly) fully charged battery.

DURABILITY

One concern that I had about the Exilim line of cameras was the durability after my previous Casio died a premature death of a cracked LCD screen (not covered by warranty). The S880 has a much thicker plastic layer over its LCD screen and seems less prone to breakage. I’d still recommend not skipping the protective case, though (a separate purchase). The shiny finish on this camera lead to some worries about scratching and chipping. In my experience it has been quite durable when faced with day to day use and abuse. But again, a protective case will help here as well, even though using one makes “pocketing” the camera less practical.

CONCLUSION

While the quality of this camera pales when compared directly to shots taken with an expensive SLR, it is as good or better than most other compact digital cameras I have seen and is truly outstanding for its diminutive size. Its slim credit-card shape makes it one of the most compact cameras on the market. The all-metal design makes it more rugged than most and it holds up surprisingly well even with the occasional drop and bump. (Inevitable events when you have a toddler that has discovered how to empty the diaper bag at lightspeed when your back is turned for a half second.) The controls are wonderfully simple and easy to use compared to most cameras on the market.

If what you’re looking for is an inexpensive, small camera loaded with features, and of good enough quality for snapshots that can be printed fairly large, this camera is unquestionably the one you want thrown into your purse or diaper bag. My other camera is a pricier digital SLR with great quality lenses. Yet when heading out the door I usually find myself reaching for this Casio instead of the SLR, despite the quality differences. Convenience trumps all when you’re a mom rushing to a playdate or day in the park.