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

Ansel Adams was quoted as having been asked how he chose which cameras to shoot with. He replied that he always tooks the largest and heaviest camera he could carry. Later in life he admitted to really starting to like those “tiny” new 35mm cameras.

We can only imagine what his reaction to the new breed of “ultra-compact” cameras would be.

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 or laptop bag with plenty of room to spare. It even offers some real cutting-edge features like its futuristic face-recognition system and Auto-Tracking abilities.

FOR THE CONTENT PRODUCER

One might ask where a compact camera would fit in in the life of the professional content creator. The answer would varied, depend on ones own individual needs, work-flow and work-habits.

The first and most obvious use for such a camera is as visual note-taker. Much like writers are always jotting down notes and ideas onto paper or mini dictation units, a truly small camera can act as a visual note-taker for imagery. No longer must we try and remember a certain visual effect until we are back at our studios and hope to recreate a fleeting thought. This type of use applies to illustrators, photographers, cinematographers, and even designers and typographers.

If this were all a pocket sized camera was good for it would be enough. But Casio has made a line of tiny cameras that when used with a bit of care and thought, can actually deliver professional quality results in a pinch. Sure, this will depend on application and need, but the 8.1 MP images are nothing to sneeze at.

BODY CONSCIOUS

The body of the Exilim-S880 is super-sleek, amazingly thin, and durably made of all metal. It is available in black, silver 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 more 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”, with fully retracted lens when off.

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 those in content creation.

8.1 Megapixel Captures: While some new SLRs are now breaking the 20 MP barrier, it was just a few years ago that 8mp was considered a professional resolution. It won’t take you to a poster, but if shot carefully, this resolution can really deliver in a pinch for small magazine formats, video elements and multimedia needs.

2.8” LCD Screen: Sure there are slightly bigger screens out there on bigger cameras, but this 2.8” panel will give you a good look at what you are shooting. Our only issue here is that is sems not to be as sharp as it should be, and hope future versions correct this problem. Other than that, it is bright and easy to view from oblique angles.

Face Detection: This feature automatically recognizes faces and allows you to remember and prioritize the faces of specific people. 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 may help ensure the focus you are looking for, especially since compacts lack any real focus controls. Unfortunately I found that the face detection slowed the camera down too much for my tastes and usually disabled it.

Autotracking: The S880 can automatically track the subject of your focus, an excellent feature for helping to minimize the blur of moving objects.

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 sepia and black & white modes, and even a YouTube video mode to quickly optimize for upload to YouTube (think quick postings for client approvals and sign offs!). Some of these will be real time and image savers, some will just make you wonder what the camera engineers were thinking. I tended to find that the standard auto settings worked well on most shots. Especially when the ISO was set at a reasonable 200.

Audio Snap: Turning this feature on allows you to record up to 30 seconds of audio after each photograph. This is a great way to take some notes along with the images if using it as an idea book. This way three weeks later when you look at an image you don’t roll your brow wondering what the heck you had been thinking about. This can also be used to capture the sounds for use in multimedia or video projects. The audio is of decent quality considering the small size of the built in microphone.

EASE OF USE

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 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.

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.

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.

Obviously this is no replacement for professional equipment. But with it in your pocket and with you all the time, it will ALWAYS be better than the 200 pounds of photo equipment you left back in the shop.

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 ensure your camera is as responsive as possible, as I found any smudge on the tiny lens 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!

Some Tips: The more light you have, the lower the ISO can be set and the better the quality of the image. Want sharper images? Do what pros have done forever, put your camera on a tripod! Yes, little pocket cameras can especially benefit from scrupulous photographic practices.

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. 200-400 seems to solve the problem for me.

Its red-eye reduction feature is slightly less reliable than I would like. Especially for someone frequently taking impromptu portrait photographs. Expect to become familiar with some additional 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. 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. The controls are wonderfully simple and easy to use compared to most cameras on the market.

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. That’s just real life for you. And it’s great living in a time when I can casually venture out into the world and comfortably carry in my pocket a tool that can be either an overkill note-taker, or in a pinch serve as a multimedia production studio.