Casio Exilim EX-Z1200 Digital Camera Announced

[Ben Stafford]

One of two 12 megapixel announcements today, the Casio Exilim EX-Z1200 is the latest Casio Zoom digital camera. Besides the 12 megapixel capture resolution, the camera also features CCD-shift image stabilization, a 2.8 inch Wide and Bright LCD, 3x optical zoom and the Exilim Engine 2.0. The Z1200 will be available in two colors - silver and black - in July for a suggested retail of $399.

The CCD-shift image stabilization will prevent image blur from camera shake, but the Z1200 with its Exilim Engine 2.0 has some other tricks up it's sleeve. The camera can detect the speed and direction of subject movement so that it can increase ISO sensivity and shutter speed to stop the motion of the subject. As with many of Casio's cameras, it also includes their Anti-Shake DSP system. The new processing engine also allows for auto-tracking AF for faces using facial detection and motion analysis.

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The EX-Z1200 has 34 Best Shot modes to choose from. The Best Shot system is Casio's take on preset scene modes.

Images and movies can be recorded on 11.4MB of internal memory or SD, MMC, and SDHC memory media.

The rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack is good for an estimated 340 shots (CIPA standards).

The camera is pretty slim, with measurements of 3.67” (W) x 2.30” (H) x .88” (D).

[Gautam]

Neat. But the price will crash immediately after it is released. I think that's the case with all Casio cameras.

Is the new "engine" the equivalent of DIGIC III which recently is replacing DIGIC II on Canon cameras?

[Ben Stafford]

Is the new "engine" the equivalent of DIGIC III which recently is replacing DIGIC II on Canon cameras?

I don't think I'd call it "equivalent", but maybe "synonymous". More powerful processor that allows for more features and usually faster performance and better battery life.

[Gautam]

I don't think I'd call it "equivalent", but maybe "synonymous". More powerful processor that allows for more features and usually faster performance and better battery life.

Thanks.

What I meant by "equivalent" was that Casio is competing with Canon by touting a new "engine..."

I am also curious to know what you think about the general public needing 12MP. It seems to be that companies are better off focusing on better optics and focus on these ultracompact cameras instead of moving up in megapixels. What do you think?

[Ben Stafford]

Most of the manufacturers use processor upgrades for marketing material since they do actually improve things, whether it's camera speed, better image processing, new features, etc. Panasonic has their LSI Venus Engine III. Sony has the BIONZ processor. Olympus has the TruePic Turbo. (And so on).

I'm not huge on the ever increasing megapixel cameras since they do make image management more difficult by taking up more space for something that is not necessary (and cramming more megapixels onto the same sensor is usually detrimental). Most people rarely print anything larger than a 4x6 with the occasional 8x10 and you don't really *need* more than 6MP for that. Now for professionals, it's a different story. Spending more time on optics and camera operation would be welcomed, in my opinion.

It would be very cool to start seeing physically larger sensors in compact cameras, but there are a whole host of technical hurdles (lens redesign and so on) before that will happen on a widespread basis.

Unfortunately, it's the way tech stuff works - bigger/better/faster, and so on.

[Gautam]

Yeah, I remember reading about having too many pixels can go the other way and get worse results.

The whole file size issue is also another thing like you say. I think the future might be WiMax across the nation and then we might get wi-fi digital cameras (like a current Kodak model) that sends the image right off to our own personal, infinite space server. Memory cards will be a thing of the past, a kind of backup technology in case the network is down....