Casio's new EX-S600 6 megapixel digital camera

Casio's new EX-S600 gives their popular Exilim Card line of digicams a bump to 6 megapixels. This camera also extends its anti-shake technology with an MPEG-4 movie stabilizer function and flaunts a better battery for up to 300 snaps on a single charge. Other than that, the camera still features the same 2.2-inch LCD, 3x optical zoom, and ultra-slim dimensions of the 5 megapixel EX-S500. Available in early 2006 in three retchtasticly named colors: sparkle silver, mistral blue (pictured), or latin orange.

[Thanks, Daniel]

[Feroz @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

I still have my old 5 megapixel Exilim, but i guess it's time to get a 6 mp...hope it's still just as thin!

[Tintin @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

What an amazing camera!
i own the 3megapixel exilim, and the picture quality is amazing. on top of that the camera is so thin it fits in every single pocket.
The number of compliments you get with this camera is incredible, every time i took it out with me someone wants to see it and they are always amazed by it.
Way to go cassio!

[Patrick @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

I guess this is as good a time to ask as any: Has anyone here noticed increased blur with the newer cameras? I have an some Olympus 2.1 megapixel camera that takes pretty good pictures and has a 2 second flash recharge and between-picture lag of about 2 seconds. My wife and I decided to buy a new camera and we got a Nikon 5600. I took 14 pitcures and only 3 of them were not blurry. Thinking it was just me being shaky, my wife took the camera to france when she went for business. She took 170 pictures. Maybe 20 came out decently, and this was after trying the anti-shake and all sorts of manual options. The nikon also had a 7 second between-picture lag which dropped to about 3.5 when the flash was turned off. Thinking it was the camera, I returned it and got a Canon A520. Better in both respects, but still blurry pictures and nowhere near as fast flash recharge and time between pictures. I returned this too because I'm not paying $250 for something that blurs up half my pictures.

Sorry to ramble but it seem that cameras these days have taken a step back. I know it's not just a PEBKAC because reviews for both (and seemingly all) cameras describe how blurry the pictures are. I shouldn't have to carry a tripod for point and shoot photos. I assume this is also not due to the CCD problems lately because the pictures here showing symptoms of that look way worse. Mine were just blurry, not purple.

What is a good, <$300 camera that has a quick between-picture lag and flash recharge that doesn't take blurry pictures?

Thoughts or recommendations?

-p-

[Hitesh Sawlani @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Blurry on all those cameras suggest you don't know how to hold a camera.

Ive used:

Canon Powershot A200
Canon Powershot A60
Canon IXUS 300

and a Casio Exlim whose model i cant remember (4 megapixel me thinks)

in all these cameras "blur" was never a problem. Quality was, the casio produced slightly grainy images.

Apart from that, the camera is great, but the flaw being such an important one makes this series of cameras a no-buy zone for myself (that is if all the cameras in the series have the similar grainy feature)

[Brian @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

#3, I think it's just Olympus, I have the 3.2mp D-540 Zoom, and unless I put the focus seting on, i get lousy photos. But I've been planning on buying a 35mm SLR anyway :b

But If I were to go back to digital, I would consider a Casio, or Nikon

[ehhh.....? @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

actually, i have the S500 and it produces beautiful pictures. you just have to make sure the quality is set to "fine".

on a different note...the one thing i noticed with it was the sometimes blurry movies (which was always me shaking) and now they have this with longer battery and anti-shake movie???!! (who cares about 6MP) and the silver is freakin sweet too.

oh engadet, you said it's in orange? r u sure it's not black? cuz i clicked on the link and the page had the camera changing to all three colors and one of the colors was black....

[Xenos @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

I don't really understand why this 6 mega pixel is coming out. I purchased 7.2 mega pixel Exilim Ex-Z750 back in March. Why this step backwards?

My 7.2 takes beautiful shots and exceeded all of my expectations (after I set the saturation to -1). The video on it compares to the quality of many camcorders and can take about 35 minutes of continual footage on a 1gig SD at the highest quality. The mic is also surprisingly decent.

[Thomas Ricker @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

eh, those colors (orange, blue and silver) are correct.

http://www.casio-europe.com/euro/news/article/276/

There is also a gold version menioned the in Casio japan release.

http://world.casio.com/asia/news/2005/ex_s600.html

Xenos, this digicam is from the Exilim CARD range of cameras. The Z is from the ZOOM series.

[Patrick @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Hitesh Sawlani, in all seriousness, not being a jerk, hold am I supposed to hold a camera? I swear I even put the (Nikon) camera on a table and steadied it and it came out blurry. It's not just me either since some of the cnet reviews say the same thing. What are we all doing wrong, I really, seriously, want to know?

-p-

[Patrick @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

gg, proofreading. "_How_ am I supposed to hold a camera?"

-p-

[Big_Ice_D @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

To # 7

I too have the 7.2 Exilm. I wonder why they went backwards? I've had it for about 2 months and abosolutely love it. The vids on it are awesome. Maybe I'll head back to Wolf Camera and give it a once over.

[Joe @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Don't buy this camera, my EX-S500 nearly identical camera lasted 2 weeks, and then although under warrenty and purchased direct from Casio I was send a bill for $260 to repair. My only complaint about the camera beforeit died was that you cannot see the screen in daylight, and there is no optical viewfinder to help.

[Big_Ice_D @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Don't have it @ my Wolf/Ritz and local BB doesn't carry Casio. To #12 the 7.2exilm does have a view finder....and the huge LCD can be seen in the daylight. I had a problem with the LCD screen after I had it for a weekend and Wolf took it back no questions asked and gave me a new one in about 5mins.

A. Why would you ever buy direct from the manufacturer? And don't tell me it's cheaper than oredering it from a respectable dealer online.

B. If they didn't cover the damage with the 1 year standard Casio Warranty...you fucked up. Warranties don't cover clumsiness/stupidity....only defects in manufacturing. Which is why yo should have bought it from a respectable dealer and purchased an extended warranty.

C. No I don't work for a camera retailer, I'm just an informed consumer. Most of the time extended warranties are a BS ploy to get xtra $ out of the consumer...but not with cameras. A camera is very expensive to fix if not warrantied...as you found out the hard way.

[Johhan @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Just got Canon s450 and its pretty sweet deal - compared to other micro cameras. JUst one complaint - 2,5 inch screen is to large for such a small camera... Its draining its punny small battery like crazy.

[Joe @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

#13 I was talking about the 5MP camera, not the 7.2MP one, and there is not an optical viewfinder, and you telling me that I could see the display in sunlight is a little ignorant. I bought it direct because at the time that I purchased it was only available from them. I was one of the first ones to have it, and if you hang out here much I'm sure you can appreciate that aspect of it. You're right though, I will probably buy my next one from a store with a generous warranty policy; I did learn that $500 lesson the hard way. I'm not trying to have anyone feel sorry for me, I was only trying to let consumers that may be "less-informed" than you know that the design of this camera is not resilient at all and there's no advantage in customer care to buying direct. Casio obviously does not care about its customers judging by the conversation that I just had with them. I will never buy a Casio again, and I urge you not to buy into this series of cameras not matter what the MP is, because it is likely to break on you.

[Alan @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Replying to Patrick (3)&(9) about blurry photos.
(A) There are lots of things to look at, like holding the camera with 2 hands and opposed thumbs, ensure you're not locked on max aperture so that the depth of field is only 1metre perhaps, not locked on tiny aperture in poor light so shutter open time is greater than 1/60th so anyone who isn't a professional sniper will have some shake, check that you're not drinking 4 coffees per day, not taking all shots from cars and boats, etc.
(B) but I think there's something else here. If you go to www.dpreview.com or www.steves-digicams.com and carefully compare the test images there, you will find some disappointing effects outside the centre of the photo, for many compact digital cameras. It's not just depth of field or large aperture issues, it seems like an abberation in quality of focus towards the edges, in a way that SLRs (with their big lenses) do not exhibit at all. As a further point, I came to the conclusion that the new compact ceramic lenses do not focus as well as the glass ones, even if they are smaller and lighter.

In conclusion, may I say that the holy grail of the perfect compact camera hasn't arrived yet?

[Alan @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Oh, and of course, make sure you haven't select "soft focus" or some other filter option which takes the edge off sharp images.

[Joe @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

The camera is very easy to shoot a pic with one hand. I would recommend never taking off the wrist strap!

You will get a fuzzy pic every time if you do not set the focus by holding down the button half way and you see a green light, rather than red. This happens almost every time that someone else uses the camera for you. The camera will take good-great photos but you have to be very sure that you operate it correctly. It's not a point and shoot fixed focus camera.

[Alan @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Thanks, I forgot to put that point, which also reminds me about the focus points. On SLRs I was quite happy using single focus point selection and halfpress-hold-panning before taking the shot. But on compacts, this doesn't work for me, so I use auto-focus point selection. So another thing to check for is that you haven't got single (central) focuspoint selected, since a lot of the time your subject will not be in that tiny central area.

[JPDigicam @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

I am going to get one once it is released in North America.

[THIS DJ @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

at first i was hesitant in purchasing the s500 due to consumers' reviews on how the low-light pics came out blurry, but i guess according to alan (#16) all you have to do is hold it steady with two hands, and of course make sure you're on the correct settings. so that should solve any blur problems when i want to take pics at a concert or somewhere at night?

but i've also heard that when recording video on the s500 and playing back on a computer, the audio and video aren't sync'd up and that's annyoing. will this be the case for the s600 as well? cuz i'm planning on getting rid of my camcorder and just having an all-in-one, now that most cameras come standard with movie mode.

i've looked at the the z750 and i like it a lot. i'm just more interested in the s600 cuz it's nicer looking cuz i'm all about status cuz i'm shallow like that. i'll wait til the s600 comes to town. thank you have a nice day.

[Neal @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

You can get the s600 now online, but its weird there are no 3rd party reviews on the camera. I would think someone would have bought it and given a detailed review on its photo quality vs. the s500. Anybody have an idea on this?

[Neal @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Does anyone know where there is a real review on the s600?

[THIS DJ @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

i think the only legitimate place to buy the s600 is overseas via ebay, for now. if it's not due to be released in the usa til early '06, then how can some of these us stores have them 'in stock?' sounds kinda sketchy to me.

i still need to know if casio has fixed the audio/video sync problem.