Casio EX-S500 Review at DesignTechnica

A thing of beauty is the Casio Exilim EX-S500 - a 5 megapixel version of their ultra small, ultra cool S100 - the S500 features a 3x optical zoom, VGA 30fps MPEG4 video that allows you to store one hour of video on a 1GB SD card, a larger 2.2" screen, all in a slimmer (16.1mm) body available in 3 colours: Grey, Red and White. The new camera has built in 'anti-shake' technology:

"With Casio's EXILIM Engine's Anti Shake DSP, blurry pictures are nearly a thing of the past."

Casio Exilim EX-S500

Designtechnica have reviewed the Casio Exilim EX-S500. Here is some of their commentary-

"Life is filled with disappointments but in this new era of Hurricane Katrina, a so-so digital camera doesn’t rank high up there. Still it does cost money and no one wants to throw it away. I tip my hat to the Casio engineers for creating such a small camera. Next time they should spend much more time on image quality."

Exilim EX-S500 Features:
* 5-Megapixel effective CCD imager, 3x optical zoom w/auto macro
* Stylish, durable and light-weight aluminum body
* Large 2.2-inch TFT color LCD with 84,960 pixels
* AF assist light makes focus operation easier even in dark settings.
* High-speed start-up enables shooting approximately 0.9 seconds after powerup.
* Release time lag of only 0.008 seconds after the shutter is pressed.
* High-speed picture playback of approx. 0.1 seconds interval.
* Continuous shutter function enables photos to be taken in 0.9 seconds intervals.
* 33 "BEST SHOT" scene modes set the camera for easy to difficult situations.
* Attach up to 30-second audio memos to still images at capture or later.
* Record voice-only audio, approx. 25 minutes on internal memory.
* MPEG-4, VGA(640×480 pixels), 30 frames/second high quality movies
* Movies can be captured continuously for 1 hour and 20 minutes
* Movie Best Shot, Past Movie, Short Movie and in-camera movie editing.
* 9-point autofocus system with selectable AF modes: Multi or Spot AF.
* ISO sensitivity from 50 to 400 or Automatic.
* Built-in flash with Red Eye Reduction and Flash-assist function.
* USB 2.0 high speed data transfer to PC or Mac computers.
* Super-Life battery enables up to 200 shots on a single charge.
* Li-ion rechargeable battery and charging cradle included.
* 8.3 Megabytes of internal memory and SD card slot for memory expansion.
* ExifPrint, PRINT Image Matching III, USB Direct-Print, and PictBridge compatible.