 Excellent slow motion camera, ok photos |
| Review Date: November 28, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Adam D. Shomsky, Detroit, MI USA |
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1Y3VA7I9SJ9WV I bought this camera mainly for the high speed video capability, and I have not been disappointed. This camera's high speed video capabilities are far and away the best you can buy in this price range. In fact, I don't think there is anything on the market right now that can match these abilities even if you were willing to pay 2 or 3 times the price of the EX-F1.
High speed video
The closest competitors to the EX-F1 (besides Casio's other high speed video camera, the EX-FH20) are Sony's HD camcorders that can record 240 frames per second (although not in HD) for a whopping three seconds. I've never used one of these cameras, but I have to imagine the 3-second clip length limitation is quite cumbersome to work with. The EX-F1, by contrast, is limited only by a 4 GB file size cap. High speed video (at all three speeds) takes up about 2MB/sec of recording, meaning you can record for about 30 minutes in high speed mode before you reach that 4GB file size limit. Of course, it would take 300 minutes, or 5 hours, to watch back the whole clip if you were shooting 300 fps. That's a limitation I can live with.
The 1200 fps resolution is pretty small and pixilated, but I'm still glad to see that speed is available. I use it sometimes and the results can be quite interesting even if they are thumbnail-size.
One thing you may or may not be aware of is the amount of light required to shoot high speed video. High speed video, by definition, requires very fast shutter speeds. You must use at least 1/300th, 1/600th, or 1/1200th shutter speed to shoot 300, 600, or 1200 frames per second, respectively. Basically that means you need very bright lights or daylight. I can shoot 300 fps indoors with the aperture wide open at ISO 400 using 600W of light pointed directly on the subject. Anything less than that and your video will come out dark and/or grainy. See my youtube video on the subject called "Casio EX-F1 noise level test": [...]
High speed video downsides
I use this camera to shoot high speed video of things like skateboarding. I'll set up the camera on a tripod, start recording, and go try a trick. Often it takes lots of tries to land it, and if it takes me five minutes to land my trick, then I want to play it back to see how it looks. But the only way to get to the end of a video clip is to fast forward through the whole thing, and when you shoot at 300 fps, "fast forward" means about half real speed. That means I'd have to literally sit for ten minutes waiting for the camera to fast forward to the end of the clip so I can see what I just recorded. It would be really handy if there was some way to quickly skip to the part of the video you want to see, like if you could roll the dial and each click would jump 2.5% of the way though the clip, so 40 clicks would get you to the end of a video of any length. But there is no feature like that. Is someone from Casio reading this? Please add this feature or something like it.
Overall, though, I'd say this is an outstanding camera for high speed video and you won't find anything even close to it in a consumer level price range.
HD video
The high definition video looks great, but the problem is I can't edit the highest resolution (1080P) video. Sony Vegas will read 1080P AVCHD files from Sony and Panasonic cameras, but not Casio. I just discovered today that Sony Vegas 6.0a will, however, read 720P HD video from this camera. Since before today I didn't know of any way to edit my HD videos, I have shot very few. I have noticed that the focusing tends to "hunt" a little bit even when shooting in broad daylight. For me, HD video is a bonus because my primary usage of the camera is for high speed video.
Photos:
It may sound strange, but I have taken very few photos with this camera. I have a Canon 350D DSLR and also a Canon 5D DSLR, so I didn't buy the Casio for photos. And it's a good thing, because if your primary interest is photos, you can do better for $1,000 (try a Canon digital rebel). Of course, if you think you will have a lot of usage for the rapid-fire full resolution stills, you won't find another camera that can match that. It looks like a pretty cool feature, and I've tried it out just to see how it works, but I haven't had any real usage for that feature yet.
The macro capability is decent, but it captures the closest photos when the zoom is at its widest angle and you put the camera about an inch from your subject. Needless to say, it is quite difficult to light the subject when the camera lens is looming an inch away. You can move back a bit and zoom in, but the closest focus distance quickly increases as you zoom in, meaning you can't get as close of a macro shot. |
Amazing technological advance
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| Review Date: October 3, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Joel, SAN DIEGO, US, Canada |
This camera is outrageously good. I've never been able to get the perfect picture before. The speed at which you can capture full resolution pictures makes taking perfect shots very easy. This camera is ideal for capturing fast action. Since it will literally take pictures several seconds before you push the shutter button. It is ideal for almost any situation: waterskiing, children's funny faces, capturing the perfect sports action shots, etc.
The camera has a great range of zoom and can take very good pictures in low light because the flash goes off 7 time per second to give good speed and lighting!
On top of that the video is amazingly detailed both in regular HD 1080p or in the high speed capture that shows details you've never seen before. |
Clear pictures
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| Review Date: December 12, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Donna K. Reynolds, |
I really like this camera. It takes pictures fast enough to catch my baby grand daughter's fleeting smile, and the pictures are very clear.
Katie's Grandma- Danville, IL. |
I like reviewing items I never touched, too!
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| Review Date: July 6, 2008 |
| Reviewer: P. Ryan, |
| Re: Empty's claim that the resolution is too low at full 1200 fps: Le duh, it'll be like another five years until that technology becomes feasible; that full six-MP photos might be captured at 1200 fps is a little much to ask of any camera anyone could make today. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is fully content to use the 300 fps movie mode as seen on YouTube or the unprecedented 60 fps burst mode which surpasses even the highest end pro cameras such as the Canon Eos 1D Mark III. Personally, I can't even imagine what one would do with 1200 fps that one couldn't do with 300 fps. But thank you for your astoundingly uninformed and altogether pathetic review. Cheers. |
Great versatility, a bit compromised quality
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| Review Date: September 16, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Skaven252, Finland |
The key features in this camera are its overall versatility and its much touted high speed video. In fact, at the time of writing this article, this is the only consumer level digital camera that can do this (some HD video cameras, such as Samsung VP-HMX20C also have this feature, but with take length limitations). Mind you, the high speed video can only be done in limited resolution. At top speed of 1200 frames per second, the resolution drops to 336 × 96, which looks like viewing the action through a half-closed letterbox. As the shutter speed is high, you will also need plenty of light. Indoor lighting won't do at 1200fps, you will need daylight. At 300 fps the resolution is 512 × 384, which is OK for Youtube. Actually, if you're looking for sample videos, try searching Youtube for "EX F1".
About its versatility; this camera can do almost everything. It can go from macro to 12x - both of which also work in high speed, it can take both pictures and shoot full HD video with stereo sound. You can even take still snapshots while shooting video (not available during high speed). It has a 60fps burst shoot capacity which makes it easier to find the perfect moment. The burst shoot can also be used for "digital anti shake" which is handy for shooting distant objects at maximum zoom. I was looking for an automated time lapse feature though.
Handily, the EX-F1 saves its videos directly in H.264 QuickTime format. These pack quite well and are easy to scrub and edit. As a downside, the videos are quite heavily packed, which becomes very evident especially at 1200fps, when pixel motion gets so slow the motion estimation algorithms go overboard and cause warping.
However, whereas the high speed capacity is a nice extra the camera's designer obviously focused on, this technology comes at a price - compromises have been made to keep the price tag reasonable. The image stabilizer doesn't do its job quite as well as you would expect. The optics are not of as high quality as you would expect from a camera in this price range. The image and video packing introduces a lot of artifacts even at highest quality. The CCD is quite noisy, resulting grainy photos even in indoor lighting (considering this, a 60fps burst "digital noise reduction" mode would have been nice).
I can recommend this camera if you are primarily interested in the cool high speed video shooting ability. However, if your top priority is high quality photos, another camera may do a better job at the same price.
Make sure you get a high capacity SDHC memory card with this camera. It doesn't come with one, and HD video requires plenty (720p video fills your card at 1 Mb / second).
REVIEW REVISION, additional comment: There appears to be a lot of crosstalk between the Left and Right channels of the external microphone connector. I tried using the camera with ear-mounted binaural microphones (Soundman OKM Classik), and if I rub only the left microphone, the right channel also gets signal because of the crosstalk. This is usually not a problem, but it hampers the immersion of any binaural recordings. Casio customer support confirmed the crosstalk, but said there's nothing that can be done about it.
Pros:
+ Rather unique high speed super slow motion and burst shooting features
+ Very versatile general purpose camera for both videos and stills
+ Long optical zoom range
+ Fast to use, easy to switch from videos to stills and even take stills during video shooting
+ External microphone jack (with reservations, see above)
+ The menus are sensible and quick to access
Cons:
- No time lapse shot automation (would have been cool if the "time warp" worked both ways)
- The fast and sensitive CCD is rather noisy, resulting grainy photos
- Poor performance in low light conditions, even when shooting normal video or taking still photos
- The image stabilizer could work better
- Occasionally very slow auto focus when shooting video |
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