Casio EXILIM EX-FH20 Digital Camera

I bought this camera mostly for fun.  While I do professional shoots, I have yet to try this camera out for any paid work yet although I can actually see myself using it for events such as weddings where the bouquet toss comes to mind.

This camera is mostly about high speed frame capture.  Casio has no other competitor that comes close to what this camera was built for - that is high speed frame capture for up to 40 frames at 7 Megapixels.  Casio is its only real competitor with only their own Casio EX-F1 being faster at lower resolutions, but at about twice the price!

This camera offers 20X optical zoom with a very usable wide angle.  9.1 Megapixel resolution.  Blistering fast shooting speeds up to 40 Frames per second.  A usable HD video mode.  And it takes regular AA batteries!

http://lookuppictures.smugmug.com/gallery/7294062_Q5KEJ/1/469016925_HifxT
(link to my gallery of pictures of this unit and box)

Now some specs:
·  Zoom: 20x optical
·  Resolution: 9.14Mp
·  Sensor size: 1/2.33in
·  Sensor type: CMOS
·  Image size: 3456x2592
·  File type: JPEG, RAW
·  Sensitivity: ISO100-1600
·  Storage: 31.9Mb internal, SD, SDHC, MMC, MMCplus
·  Focus types: Auto focus, macro, infinity, manual, spot free tracking
·  Normal focusing: 40cm
·  Close focusing: 10cm macro, 1cm super macro
·  Metering types: Multi pattern, centre-weighted, spot
·  Exposure compensation: -/ 2EV in 1/3EV steps
·  Shutter speed: 30sec-1/2000sec
·  Flash: Built-in
·  Monitor: 3in TFT LCD
·  Interface: USB 2.0
·  Power: 4x AA batteries
·  Size: 122.6x81.4x84.5mm
·  Weight: 483g 

40 FPS!
On the side of the camera, there is a sticker that says 40 FPS - that means 40 Frames per second.  That indicates that the camera is capable of taking 40 pictures (in sequence) within the span of 1 second's time.  What they don't tell you is that the 40 pictures taken are at a lower resolution of approximately 7 Megapixels, and not closer to the 9.14 the sensor is capable of.  Regardless thats still a remarkable feat considering that only a few years ago, I owned a Canon 1d Mk2 which shot just over 8 frames per second (at approximately 8 Megapixels) and the camera body itself was close to $4000.00!  Naturally the quality of the pictures taken by both can't be compared because the sensor's aren't on the same level, but more on that later.

I spent most of my times testing at around the 30-40 Frames per second.  At 40 frames per second, the camera is capable of shooting for only 1 second before it has to flush the buffer and save all the files before you can shoot again.  By default its set so that at the end of the shoot, you can select just the ones that you want to keep and save on your SD card, or choose to save the entire sequence of up to 40 shots.  In the menu, you can choose to have it save the entire sequence of shots automatically if you like.  

They thoughtfully allow you to set a pre-shoot buffer so that the camera captures a set amount of time period (shots) before you hit the shutter so that it captures the action.  How it works is you get the camera ready, and pre-focus (half shutter button) on what you want to shoot.  The moment something happens, you hold down the shutter button till you are satisfied (up to a second at 40 FPS).  The camera then records the pre-shutter click up to the number of frames that you wanted (or seconds) along with whatever is left in the burst. 

Even so... you really have to have your finger on the shutter right when the action happens because you only have 1 second span of time at 40 FPS.

Naturally if you set it to 10 Frames per second, you have 4 seconds of shooting time to capture it and is plenty for most things such as capturing the moments when your kids blow out the candles on their birthday cake.

210 FPS - 1000 FPS! and Movie mode
Switch the camera to movie function, and turn it to 210 FPS which also limits the resolution of the movie to Standard Definition quality (480x360) and you can watch bullet casings fly out of a shooting gun in slow motion like in the famous Matrix scene in the building lobby.  (I know because I tested this at the local gun range for fun).

Bump it up to 1000 FPS, and you can see the bullets flying out of a gun in slow motion.  However the resolution is so low it reminds you of a postage stamp sized movie from an older technology cell phone from the 90s.  (224x56).

Its important to note that at these high frame rates there is no sound captured for the video.  The camera does not capture the sound and play it back slowly - it simply doesn't capture sound.

HD Movie mode:
It can record in 720P resolution at 30 frames per second.  It does well for a digital camera.  Its not going to replace your HD camcorder though, but its a nice touch.  Compared to my Sony HD camera in low light/indoors, the colors are not as rich and vibrant.  Outdoors, it does a fine job for us regular non-pro video camcorder toting users.  On close scrutiny, you can tell that there is a difference between this and a dedicated camcorder (costing twice the price).
It is important to note that there is no optical zooming allowed while recording a video.  It does allow you to do digital zoom but your video quality suffers.

Youtube movie mode:
The camera has a built in youtube friendly movie mode.  What it does is capture the video at a youtube optimized format and resolution for easy upload to youtube without having to reformat or re-export.  There is a software CD that comes with the camera that is supposed to help you with the uploading as well, but I didn't try it.  

I personally prefer to record in the highest / best quality possible and then downsize as necessary for youtube or other video sharing sites to retain the highest quality.

Autofocus:
This camera uses contrast detection auto-focusing which is typical of this type of camera.  It offers the ever popular face-detection, as well as AF tracking to track moving objects, and user adjustable focus points on the screen.  The auto-focus does reasonably well, really only suffering when at the longer range of the zoom and in low light.  I don't have any exact numbers to post, only my opinion that it is not horribly bad or terrific beyond belief compared to other cameras of its size that aren't DSLRs.

There is a bright green LED which can be enabled to assist in low light focusing.

Manual Focus:
Manual focus is possible through the LCD screen.  It magnifies a portion of the screen to help you adjust - it works, but myself, like most people probably won't be using this as much since the auto-focus does a decent job.

Imaging sensor / Picture quality:
The sensor is what I consider to be small - as small as many point n shoot compacts: 1/2.3".  Why this matters is that it affects the resolution, light capturing ability, pixel density, camera size, and more importantly image noise.  

In my opinion, the noise is kept fairly under control and about the middle-ground when compared to other normal super-zoom digital compact cameras.  I think the noise processing is too aggressive in my opinion, but they do provide a RAW format option which I haven't tried yet which might solve that problem.  The noise processing removes noise, but also affects the resolution and gives images a more smeared look and is apparent at all ISOs from 100-1600

The colors overall are reasonably OK.  Not great.

Lets talk about the lens:

20X Optical!  And image stabilized!  Wow!  Well really in order to do this and fit it in such a small size there had to be some compromises.  The sharpness is there, and the range from 26mm - 520 mm (in 35mm camera terms) is great!  I love that it truly covers a useable wide angle!  However, the chromatic aberration (failure of the optics to focus all the colors on the same point) comes into play most at the wide end and the tele end of things.  This is fairly common for lenses of such high zoom range.  I think it handles the entire zoom range pretty evenly which is not a bad thing.  And also common is that its worse on the edges of the frame than the center which remains sharp.  In this camera it shows up as purple and green fringing on the corners and in fine detail against bright light shots.  The effects can be partially corrected in photoshop to some degree rather easily.

Image stabilization is paramount for a camera with such a long zoom range, and it has it.  It doesn't work wonders, but it works well enough.  Some other reviewers have mentioned that its not up to par to other competitors, but I don't have another ultra-zoom compact to compare with.

The aperture starts out at 2.8 at wide angle, and 4.5 at the tele.  Minimum aperture is 7.9 across the entire zoom range.  Not bad!
Macro function is quite good, allowing you to get as close as 10mm! to the subject in super-macro function.  

One bad thing is that the lens sticks out ultra-long on full telephoto. http://lookuppictures.smugmug.com/photos/469016925_HifxT-M.jpg


Controls / Handling:
Overall I give it thumbs up.  Casio did a really good job.  Overall the camera feels peppy.  The shutter lag is remarkably little/almost non-existent.  The few buttons on the camera are well placed, the menus make sense and gives you a lot of control over what you want to have happen in shooting.  You get full manual control if you want, as well as lots of scene modes, exposure adjustments, contrast and saturation tweaks, but mostly through a menu interface.

Don't get me wrong, this is not a pro SLR class handling camera.  It does a good job for what it is.

I can easily switch between high speed flash pictures, high speed 1-40 FPS shots, regular single full resolution shots, high speed camera videos, and hd videos all at the rotation of a knob.

There is a button labeled BS - which allows you to switch between any number of 19 different exposure/camera scenes all with an explanation of what the mode does for you.

The zoom control is a toggle switch conveniently located right where your right index finger is while holding the camera.  Zooming is fast. Zooming is not possible optically in movie mode while recording, only digitally.  You can zoom all you want before you start recording though.

The camera feels really solid in the hand.  It feels well built, balanced and easy to hold. 

Reviewing the pictures either in groups, or individually is fast and I must say VERY FUN!  The camera organizes the pictures in groups of shots so that you can play the standard pictures in a way like a movie/slide-show.  Its really easy to fast forward and reverse frame by frame or automatically.  

LCD Screen / Viewfinder:
Large 3" screen.  It has sufficient resolution but isn't the top of its class.  Refresh rate is fast as well.  Very usable.

Viewfinder works better than expected - surprisingly high resolution and good colors.  I just wish it had the ability to automatically switch between viewfinder and LCD screen using proximity sensors like some of my other cameras (Panasonic and Minolta/Sony).

Flash:
The built in flash is up to the task when it comes to high speed shooting.  This flash can keep up, and it does it very well.  It has the typical range of built-in flashes but it charges up and fires fast!

Unfortunately there is no hot-shoe option on this camera to use a bigger more powerful flash.

Raw Mode:
This camera has a raw mode.  I have not tested it extensively yet.  It records in Adobe's Raw image format *.DNG which is a plus, but only will allow you to record a DNG Plus a jpg at the same time.  This adds to the time to record the image, and also takes more space on the flash card.  In a simple test with the built in memory, it took over 10 seconds to record a full resolution image in RAW and jpg.

Recommended Software:
I really think that Casio should have included some sort of stop motion picture processing software such as stop motion pro - at least a lite version anyway.  It would be really nice to string together a series of those shots in some way into a video or some flash video interface that can replicate what you can do on the camera.  Download a trial and have some fun with it - just be prepared for some watermarks on your video.

Recommended Batteries:
The box comes with a set of alkaline batteries to start you out.  I recommend that you buy a set of new NiMH batteries such as the Sanyo Eneloop pre-charged batteries.  For whatever reason, the precharged ones that keep the charge longer, also seem to last longer in this camera when compared to regular NiMH batteries of even higher capacity rating.  Have at least a few sets if you are going to be shooting all day at high speed (such as at the race tracks).

Price/Value:
$599.99 is no chump change.   Thing is: 1. Casio doesn't have any real competition at this point.  2. Casio limited distribution to certain and few outlets pretty much controlling the price.   I've read that the high speed cameras costs many many thousands of dollars into the hundreds of thousands.  I think $600 is an incredible value for what it can do compared to anything close.

Fun:
The fun factor is incredibly high.  I found myself doing every day mundane things and making them incredibly cool and interesting.  Capturing people jump up and down in slow motion was even fun in itself. 

This camera really helps you capture that one moment at its best.  Being able to do that makes photography fun again.