Casio Exilim EX-P600 Review

[smc1377]

Being that this camera is in the same line as the Casio Exilim EX-Z50 that I had already written a review for, practically everything in that review will also apply to this camera.

The Casio Exilim EX-P600 is the perfect 6 megapixel camera for those who want an advanced point and shoot. The camera not only has the usual fully automatic mode, it also has 25 pre-programmed Best Shot modes. When you want more control, the camera can be switched over to Aperture or Shutter priority modes. And when you want complete control, the camera will switch into full manual mode.

The camera also includes buttons for quick access to the most used menu options. The EX button on the left side of the camera (as you are looking at the back of the camera) provides easy access to White Balance, ISO, Metering and Auto Focus Area. First, there are 7 preset White Balance settings as well as a setting for manually setting the white balance. The ISO range is small, going from 50-400, and of course it can be left on AUTO. Metering ranges from spot, center-weighted or evaluative. Lastly, the Auto Focus area can be set to middle of the screen to multi where it scans a pre-set area for the best focus and locks onto that area. And then you can manually set the AF area at any point on the screen you want to which is nice when you are trying to focus and meter on a very precise area.

Another quick access button is the Bracketing mode button. When pressed, a menu pops up where you can choose from 8 different options (not all related to bracketing), which are Single Shot (normal), High Speed Continuous, Normal Speed Continuous, Multi Continuous, AE Bracketing, White Balance Bracketing, Focus Bracketing and Multi Bracketing. Now even though it appears that there are only 4 bracketing options, the Multi Bracketing option brings up a submenu that gives you 6 different bracketing options like Filter 1 (which are different color filters), Filter 2 (which is another set of colored filters), Portrait (normal, soft focus, really soft focus), Sharpness, Saturation and Contrast. With every single Bracketing mode, you can also specify 3 or 5 bracketed shots and the interval between the shots (bracket steps).

The multi-continuous shot is actually a fun little feature of the camera where it'll take 25 superfast pictures in the span of like 3 seconds and then combine all the pictures in a single picture arranged in a 5x5 grid. This is great for action photos like a basketball being shot. You can basically follow the action all the way through and the motion is shown across a single image.

This camera also comes with a wireless remote. The remote is limited in functionality, but it does have enough to zoom in and out and allow access to menu options. Basically all that you'll need when taking a picture, but it'd be easier to set your settings beforehand.

Another useful feature is that the camera has both a 2 second and a 10 second timer. And with both timers, you can set the camera to take 1 or 3 pictures. This is a nice feature when taking timed photos of large groups simply because you know someone is going to blink. So hopefully, one of the 3 pictures will actually turn out great.

The lens is actually a Canon lens, 33-132mm equivalent. At the 33 end, the aperture ranges from f2.8-8.0. On the 132 end, it ranges from 4.0-11.1. All in all, it does allow for some creativity on Depth of Field control.

Now more on the Best Shot modes. As I mentioned in my review of the Casio Exilim EX-Z50, the camera has 25 preset settings optimized for certain situations. For example, mode #12 is Flower mode, where the camera goes into Macro focus mode along with high saturation. Switching to mode 19, Fireworks mode, the camera then goes into infinity focus along with a slow shutter speed. And with each mode, there are values that you can easily change with the directional keypad. For example, in this Fireworks mode, you can easily change the aperture and the shutter speed just by using the directional arrows.

Other random features of the camera...

• 2" LCD screen
• Hybrid focusing system that allows for some very low light autofocus abilities
• Video mode that takes avi movies limited only by the amount of space on memory card
• 4x optical zoom plus 4x digital zoom
• Fast startup time
• Macro mode up to 10 cm away from subject
• 300 picture battery life
• Shutter speed ranges from 1/2000 to 60 seconds, plus bulb setting
• Camera body is made of tough silver metal that has withstood some beating
• PC Sync terminal to hook up to strobes or whatever other kind of lighting you may have.
• A fairly effective internal flash

This camera literally has all the options of my DSLR camera (except being able to change lens) plus a lot more, but in a much more compact form. I wish it could shoot in RAW mode though, but I suspect most people won't care. It has been a rugged camera in that it usually just gets stuffed in a bag or the occasional tackle box. It is a tad thick to be a truly pocketable camera, but it can be done. The Canon lens is a nice touch for it does take some really nice pictures.

This camera doesn't get used nearly as much as it should though. I tend to either go for my DSLR camera when I want to take some serious pictures or for the Casio EX-Z50 when I want something pocketable. This camera falls squarely in-between the two, thus almost renders itself useless to me. But if someone were looking for a fully manual camera as well as having all sorts of automatic features, this camera is for them.