Casio Exilim EX-G1 Review Discussion

[Jim Keenan]

While Casio has been in the consumer electronics business since the company was founded in 1957, their first Exilim digital camera reached market fairly recently in 2002. Expanding upon their "card", "zoom" and "high speed" camera product lines, the company has recently introduced the "G" or "endurance" line with the EX-G1 compact digital. The G1, billed as the world's slimmest shock-resistant digital camera, builds upon Casio's earlier forays into durable products with watches and mobile phones.

Read the full content of this Article: Casio Exilim EX-G1 Review

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[Andy Stanton]

My problem with the EX-G1 is that it's priced high ($299 list) for a camera that can only be submerged to 10 feet and that has no image stabilization. Its competition, the Canon D10, Olympus Tough 8000 and Panasonic TS1, are not that much higher in price but have superior specifications. And the Olympus Tough 6000 and 3000 and Pentax W80, cameras with similar specs, are lower in price.

[Jim Keenan]

Lack of stabilization is a disappointment, but the Tough 8000 and TS1 both MSRP $80 higher than the G1, and the Canon is $30 more than the G1. The Olympus and Canon at least give a full atmosphere (33 feet) of depth - the Panasonic has the same depth limitation and less shock resistance than the G1.

The G1 excels with AF acquisition and shutter lag - reviews by this site had the Tough 6000 at .83 and .06 seconds respectively, with the Canon at .36 and .08, and the G1 at .20 and .01. We haven't done a review on the Tough 8000 or TS1, but the G1 times are gonna be hard to beat for anybody in this general class.

Each camera has positives and negatives and ultimately the consumer will have to decide if the premium required for one model over another is a charge they're willing to bear.

[richardchesher]

Why oh why don't camera manufacturers make underwater cameras with a wide angle lens worthy of working underwater? The 28-mm (35-mm equivalent) lens is nowhere near wide enough for good underwater photography and here Casio is creating an underwater camera with only a 38-mm wide angle lens - the worst of the many contenders.

An underwater camera needs at least a 20-mm wide angle lens and even better a 15-mm lens. Is there some technical reason that prevents lens angles this wide in compact cameras?

Even very clear water has photographic visibility limited to just 4 or 5 meters and the closer you can get to a subject the better the image will look. All of the underwater images of New Caledonia coral reefs were taken with a 6-mm wide angle lens on a Canon 30D. A huge rig to lug around but it gets excellent quality images.

The other problem with the underwater cameras is that they leak after awhile because the silly little spring loaded catch on the battery compartment door does not hold it closed tightly enough. I know, my Olympus 1030SW has been back to the repair shop 3 times in 6 months. So here Casio is with the added stupidity of making an underwater camera with TWO doors - one for the memory card and the other for the battery. At least the Olympus and Canon only have one opening port to leak.

You'd think that the competition to produce a really useful underwater digital camera (Pentax, Olympus, Sony, Canon and now Casio) would result in at least one manufacturer creating a camera that takes good underwater images.