Casio EX-Z29 Review

The Casio Z29 combines a 1/2.5"-type CCD image sensor with 10.1 effective megapixel resolution to an Exilim-branded 3x optical zoom lens in a compact body. 35mm focal lengths range from a rather tight 37.5mm wide angle through to a 112.5mm telephoto, and the maximum aperture varies from f/2.8 to f/5.2 across the zoom range. There's no optical viewfinder on the Casio EXILIM EX-Z29, with images being framed and reviewed on a 2.7" wide-aspect LCD display with 114,960 dots of resolution.

Aimed at affordability and ease-of-use, the Casio EXILIM Z29 includes no less than 23 "Best Shot" scene modes that let beginners control the look of their images without needing to understand the subtleties of shutter speeds, apertures and the like. Metering options include multi-pattern, center-weighted or spot. Focusing is by contrast detection using data from the image sensor, with either multi or spot AF possible. There's also a Face Detection function that identifies the locations of faces in the frame, and then takes this into account when determining autofocus and autoexposure. Shutter speeds range from 4 to 1/2000 second, and ISO sensitivity from ISO 100 to 1,600 equivalents.

As well as capturing still images at resolutions up to 3,648 x 2,736 pixels, the Casio EX-Z29 can also record movies at 848 x 480 pixels or below. Movie clips are stored as Motion JPEG-compressed AVI files, with monaural sound, and a YouTube capture mode aims to simplify the process of uploading videos to the popular website. Movie frame rate wasn't available at press time. Images are stored in 17.8MB of built-in memory, or on Secure Digital cards including the newer SDHC types. Power comes courtesy of an NP-60 Lithium Ion rechargeable battery.

Available from April 2009, the Casio EXILIM EX-Z29 is set for pricing of about $150.