I had a perfectly good Canon Powershot 3MP that worked fine. I purchased this camera for three specific features. I wanted to be able to use the zoom without a tri-pod. The anti-shake function allows me to use the optical zoom and the digital zoom without a tri-pod without having the shot come out blurry. I secondly wanted to be able to capture action shots without using movie mode. The quick shutter function on this camera is terrific. If it is a series of shots you wish to capture this camera has a feature that will allow you to take a short movie and then make turn it into stills automatically. The third thing I wanted to be able to do was to switch between shooting environments using pre-sets. This camera has 15 pre-sets and I find them VERY useful. But let me say here that a couple of them are not as useful as they could be.

The candlelight portrait preset is for use with a tripod or for when someone is sitting perfectly still. The sample photo is of someone blowing out candles on a birthday cake. I've tried very similar shots and they came out totally blurry. The shutter speed is too slow for the motion of the person bending over and blowing out the candles. If your taking some sort of still life photos by candlelight, this is a great setting.

The "Sensitive" setting is suppose to allow you to take photos in low light indoor situations. It doesn't work when you are holding the camera by hand.

The Party setting works but without blur only if you have the anti-shake on and even then sometimes shots come out blurry depending on where you are relation to the light source.

The ease of use is incredible. I read the manual through once and starting shooting good shots right away.

The screen is bright and large. You can really see whether or not your shots came out blurry. This was an issue with my last camera.

While the camera is compact, it is not compact and portable. If your intention is to take photos which you intend to share on someone's television or computer other than your own, you will need to take the charger stand with you along with the USB cord for the charger stand. This thing has no way to directly connect via USB. That means that you can not plug the camera into just anyone's computer and download photos nor can you just jack the camera into any AV IN lines and share photos on the TV screen. Not only that but the USB cord that goes into the stand is not standard. When on trips I used to take my Canon to any drugstore and use the digital photo kiosk which has cords that you plug into the USB port of your camera to download photos onto the kiosk for printing. None of the cords that typically come with these kiosks is going to fit the charger stand of this camera. You have to manually take the storage chip out in order to do kiosk printing. This is not that big of a deal but the door to the storage chip insert is kind of flimsy. I would greatly suggest that on trips you take the charger stand and the USB cord with you (they are pretty small and light). I honestly believe that if you open and close the storage chip door on this camera repeatedly, it will break.

You don't need to install any of the software that comes with the camera if you have XP. XP recognizes the camera and will download the photos through the photo wizard. The download speed with this fatter USB cord is very fast, which is nice.

The photo imaging software that comes with the camera is totally primative. Don't even bother installing it. The Ulead light movie editing software is nice enough to make me consider upgrading to the full Ulead software. It allows you to edit your movies, add effects and then burn a dvd.

I did a lot of research before choosing this camera and I am extremely pleased with my purchase.

I bought EX-S500 and although I didn't get such a good deal on the price, I held on to it because it is extreemly versatile. Mpeg 4 quality videos and a Lithium Hydride battery which under a full charge yields almost limitless power. I used it for three days, took 65 videos + 255 photos and it still had 3/4 power left. CCD image quality is excellent.

I hate to put superlatives in a review. It sounds like a would be working for the company trying to influence others.
But I am totally independant, don't work for this company or any photography or electronic related company, and really this is simply a *stunning* camera.
My previous camera was a significantly more bulky Epson 2 megapixel PC800 which took excellent photos but had a huge problem: extremely low battery life.
This is not the case with the exilim s500. The battery just seem to never stop: 1/2 day of riding bike taking pictures, video, reviewing them, trying everything I could on the camera and only 1/3 battery life taken! A battery takes less than 2 hrs to fully recharged when dead. You can buy a separate battery charger so that you can charge your spare battery while the battery in the camera also gets charged in the cradle at the same time.
This cradle really puts the exilim apart from the competing Sony DSC-t7. You simply put the camera in it and it recharges the battery and you can download through the usb-2 to your computer: no battery to remove, no card to remove, nothing to attach, simply leave your cradle always hooked to your computer and put your camera on the cradle.
Pictures are stunning. So good is the precision that you can use your camera as a photocopying machine: you are in an hotel on a trip and want to copy a page from a phonebook? Take a picture of it! You can take a SINGLE photo of an ENTIRE FULL 8.5"x 11" page and read every single telephone number on it! That would already be great. But wait... you can read any single phone number of that entire page of phone book ON THE LCD ON THE BACK OF THE CAMERA by using the viewing magnifier and directions buttons on the back of the camera !!!! Absolutely STUNNING.
Videowise. Excellent. The automatic aperture control works like a charm and when I am well inside the living room I can see outside when looking through the windows and then when I move a little bit more I can see the inside very well, no adjustment to do at all. You wonder if CNN will just throw away all their equipment or if their reporters are already all using the exilim.
So in a nutshell:
- very very well thought of. Very easy to use. A real charm.
- excellent pictures even inside the house without a flash
- great video
- great accessories
- the only negative I could find is that you can take a macro only from a 17cm distance
- if I had to write a wish list for a digital camera , I could not have found anything they didn't already do, and then they did much more than I could possibly dream of.
Hats off to Casio engineers. Fantastic work.

I am very happy with the EX-S500 from Casio, I did a lot of research before deciding on this Camera. It is very user frendly and has great features. You should purchase at minium the 1 GB SD card to realy take advantage of the video function. Its so small that you forget its in your pocket. Time will tell how well this camera is made, but so far so good.

I just purchased this camera for basic point and shoot purposes. I travel a lot and needed something compact and powerful enough to take pictures of houses that I am remodeling. Start up time is quick, taking an image is quick. No more waiting for it to boot up. The LCD screen is great, the shots come out beautifully. I love how small this is. I am already travelling with bulky devices, heavy laptop and blackberry, I want something that takes up less space, can fit discreetly in a pocket, and that is technologically competent enough to give me the quality shots that I need while on the road. This camera will fit it a fashionable small clutch for going out. None of my other cameras can do this. Yay!

If you need macro shots, do not buy it. I also own a Sony Cyber Shot that I use specifically for taking macro shots of jewelry and stones. I tried taking a picture of my ring with this camera and it is pretty much useless. You can't have everything.

I bought an extra battery and a 1Gb memory card. I would like to buy a case for it so that it doesn't get too beat up. The outside casing seems sturdy enough but I want to keep it pretty.

Very happy with my purchase. I found out about this camera through the CNET review of digital cameras. They gave it a great rating as well.

I had a perfectly good Canon Powershot 3MP that worked fine. I purchased this camera for three specific features. I wanted to be able to use the zoom without a tri-pod. The anti-shake function allows me to use the optical zoom and the digital zoom without a tri-pod without having the shot come out blurry. I secondly wanted to be able to capture action shots without using movie mode. The quick shutter function on this camera is terrific. If it is a series of shots you wish to capture this camera has a feature that will allow you to take a short movie and then make turn it into stills automatically. The third thing I wanted to be able to do was to switch between shooting environments using pre-sets. This camera has 15 pre-sets and I find them VERY useful. But let me say here that a couple of them are not as useful as they could be.

The candlelight portrait preset is for use with a tripod or for when someone is sitting perfectly still. The sample photo is of someone blowing out candles on a birthday cake. I've tried very similar shots and they came out totally blurry. The shutter speed is too slow for the motion of the person bending over and blowing out the candles. If your taking some sort of still life photos by candlelight, this is a great setting.

The "Sensitive" setting is suppose to allow you to take photos in low light indoor situations. It doesn't work when you are holding the camera by hand.

The Party setting works but without blur only if you have the anti-shake on and even then sometimes shots come out blurry depending on where you are relation to the light source.

The ease of use is incredible. I read the manual through once and starting shooting good shots right away.

The screen is bright and large. You can really see whether or not your shots came out blurry. This was an issue with my last camera.

While the camera is compact, it is not compact and portable. If your intention is to take photos which you intend to share on someone's television or computer other than your own, you will need to take the charger stand with you along with the USB cord for the charger stand. This thing has no way to directly connect via USB. That means that you can not plug the camera into just anyone's computer and download photos nor can you just jack the camera into any AV IN lines and share photos on the TV screen. Not only that but the USB cord that goes into the stand is not standard. When on trips I used to take my Canon to any drugstore and use the digital photo kiosk which has cords that you plug into the USB port of your camera to download photos onto the kiosk for printing. None of the cords that typically come with these kiosks is going to fit the charger stand of this camera. You have to manually take the storage chip out in order to do kiosk printing. This is not that big of a deal but the door to the storage chip insert is kind of flimsy. I would greatly suggest that on trips you take the charger stand and the USB cord with you (they are pretty small and light). I honestly believe that if you open and close the storage chip door on this camera repeatedly, it will break.

You don't need to install any of the software that comes with the camera if you have XP. XP recognizes the camera and will download the photos through the photo wizard. The download speed with this fatter USB cord is very fast, which is nice.

The photo imaging software that comes with the camera is totally primative. Don't even bother installing it. The Ulead light movie editing software is nice enough to make me consider upgrading to the full Ulead software. It allows you to edit your movies, add effects and then burn a dvd.

I did a lot of research before choosing this camera and I am extremely pleased with my purchase.

I bought EX-S500 and although I didn't get such a good deal on the price, I held on to it because it is extreemly versatile. Mpeg 4 quality videos and a Lithium Hydride battery which under a full charge yields almost limitless power. I used it for three days, took 65 videos + 255 photos and it still had 3/4 power left. CCD image quality is excellent.

I hate to put superlatives in a review. It sounds like a would be working for the company trying to influence others.
But I am totally independant, don't work for this company or any photography or electronic related company, and really this is simply a *stunning* camera.
My previous camera was a significantly more bulky Epson 2 megapixel PC800 which took excellent photos but had a huge problem: extremely low battery life.
This is not the case with the exilim s500. The battery just seem to never stop: 1/2 day of riding bike taking pictures, video, reviewing them, trying everything I could on the camera and only 1/3 battery life taken! A battery takes less than 2 hrs to fully recharged when dead. You can buy a separate battery charger so that you can charge your spare battery while the battery in the camera also gets charged in the cradle at the same time.
This cradle really puts the exilim apart from the competing Sony DSC-t7. You simply put the camera in it and it recharges the battery and you can download through the usb-2 to your computer: no battery to remove, no card to remove, nothing to attach, simply leave your cradle always hooked to your computer and put your camera on the cradle.
Pictures are stunning. So good is the precision that you can use your camera as a photocopying machine: you are in an hotel on a trip and want to copy a page from a phonebook? Take a picture of it! You can take a SINGLE photo of an ENTIRE FULL 8.5"x 11" page and read every single telephone number on it! That would already be great. But wait... you can read any single phone number of that entire page of phone book ON THE LCD ON THE BACK OF THE CAMERA by using the viewing magnifier and directions buttons on the back of the camera !!!! Absolutely STUNNING.
Videowise. Excellent. The automatic aperture control works like a charm and when I am well inside the living room I can see outside when looking through the windows and then when I move a little bit more I can see the inside very well, no adjustment to do at all. You wonder if CNN will just throw away all their equipment or if their reporters are already all using the exilim.
So in a nutshell:
- very very well thought of. Very easy to use. A real charm.
- excellent pictures even inside the house without a flash
- great video
- great accessories
- the only negative I could find is that you can take a macro only from a 17cm distance
- if I had to write a wish list for a digital camera , I could not have found anything they didn't already do, and then they did much more than I could possibly dream of.
Hats off to Casio engineers. Fantastic work.

I am very happy with the EX-S500 from Casio, I did a lot of research before deciding on this Camera. It is very user frendly and has great features. You should purchase at minium the 1 GB SD card to realy take advantage of the video function. Its so small that you forget its in your pocket. Time will tell how well this camera is made, but so far so good.

I just purchased this camera for basic point and shoot purposes. I travel a lot and needed something compact and powerful enough to take pictures of houses that I am remodeling. Start up time is quick, taking an image is quick. No more waiting for it to boot up. The LCD screen is great, the shots come out beautifully. I love how small this is. I am already travelling with bulky devices, heavy laptop and blackberry, I want something that takes up less space, can fit discreetly in a pocket, and that is technologically competent enough to give me the quality shots that I need while on the road. This camera will fit it a fashionable small clutch for going out. None of my other cameras can do this. Yay!

If you need macro shots, do not buy it. I also own a Sony Cyber Shot that I use specifically for taking macro shots of jewelry and stones. I tried taking a picture of my ring with this camera and it is pretty much useless. You can't have everything.

I bought an extra battery and a 1Gb memory card. I would like to buy a case for it so that it doesn't get too beat up. The outside casing seems sturdy enough but I want to keep it pretty.

Very happy with my purchase. I found out about this camera through the CNET review of digital cameras. They gave it a great rating as well.

I had a perfectly good Canon Powershot 3MP that worked fine. I purchased this camera for three specific features. I wanted to be able to use the zoom without a tri-pod. The anti-shake function allows me to use the optical zoom and the digital zoom without a tri-pod without having the shot come out blurry. I secondly wanted to be able to capture action shots without using movie mode. The quick shutter function on this camera is terrific. If it is a series of shots you wish to capture this camera has a feature that will allow you to take a short movie and then make turn it into stills automatically. The third thing I wanted to be able to do was to switch between shooting environments using pre-sets. This camera has 15 pre-sets and I find them VERY useful. But let me say here that a couple of them are not as useful as they could be.

The candlelight portrait preset is for use with a tripod or for when someone is sitting perfectly still. The sample photo is of someone blowing out candles on a birthday cake. I've tried very similar shots and they came out totally blurry. The shutter speed is too slow for the motion of the person bending over and blowing out the candles. If your taking some sort of still life photos by candlelight, this is a great setting.

The "Sensitive" setting is suppose to allow you to take photos in low light indoor situations. It doesn't work when you are holding the camera by hand.

The Party setting works but without blur only if you have the anti-shake on and even then sometimes shots come out blurry depending on where you are relation to the light source.

The ease of use is incredible. I read the manual through once and starting shooting good shots right away.

The screen is bright and large. You can really see whether or not your shots came out blurry. This was an issue with my last camera.

While the camera is compact, it is not compact and portable. If your intention is to take photos which you intend to share on someone's television or computer other than your own, you will need to take the charger stand with you along with the USB cord for the charger stand. This thing has no way to directly connect via USB. That means that you can not plug the camera into just anyone's computer and download photos nor can you just jack the camera into any AV IN lines and share photos on the TV screen. Not only that but the USB cord that goes into the stand is not standard. When on trips I used to take my Canon to any drugstore and use the digital photo kiosk which has cords that you plug into the USB port of your camera to download photos onto the kiosk for printing. None of the cords that typically come with these kiosks is going to fit the charger stand of this camera. You have to manually take the storage chip out in order to do kiosk printing. This is not that big of a deal but the door to the storage chip insert is kind of flimsy. I would greatly suggest that on trips you take the charger stand and the USB cord with you (they are pretty small and light). I honestly believe that if you open and close the storage chip door on this camera repeatedly, it will break.

You don't need to install any of the software that comes with the camera if you have XP. XP recognizes the camera and will download the photos through the photo wizard. The download speed with this fatter USB cord is very fast, which is nice.

The photo imaging software that comes with the camera is totally primative. Don't even bother installing it. The Ulead light movie editing software is nice enough to make me consider upgrading to the full Ulead software. It allows you to edit your movies, add effects and then burn a dvd.

I did a lot of research before choosing this camera and I am extremely pleased with my purchase.

I bought EX-S500 and although I didn't get such a good deal on the price, I held on to it because it is extreemly versatile. Mpeg 4 quality videos and a Lithium Hydride battery which under a full charge yields almost limitless power. I used it for three days, took 65 videos + 255 photos and it still had 3/4 power left. CCD image quality is excellent.

I hate to put superlatives in a review. It sounds like a would be working for the company trying to influence others.
But I am totally independant, don't work for this company or any photography or electronic related company, and really this is simply a *stunning* camera.
My previous camera was a significantly more bulky Epson 2 megapixel PC800 which took excellent photos but had a huge problem: extremely low battery life.
This is not the case with the exilim s500. The battery just seem to never stop: 1/2 day of riding bike taking pictures, video, reviewing them, trying everything I could on the camera and only 1/3 battery life taken! A battery takes less than 2 hrs to fully recharged when dead. You can buy a separate battery charger so that you can charge your spare battery while the battery in the camera also gets charged in the cradle at the same time.
This cradle really puts the exilim apart from the competing Sony DSC-t7. You simply put the camera in it and it recharges the battery and you can download through the usb-2 to your computer: no battery to remove, no card to remove, nothing to attach, simply leave your cradle always hooked to your computer and put your camera on the cradle.
Pictures are stunning. So good is the precision that you can use your camera as a photocopying machine: you are in an hotel on a trip and want to copy a page from a phonebook? Take a picture of it! You can take a SINGLE photo of an ENTIRE FULL 8.5"x 11" page and read every single telephone number on it! That would already be great. But wait... you can read any single phone number of that entire page of phone book ON THE LCD ON THE BACK OF THE CAMERA by using the viewing magnifier and directions buttons on the back of the camera !!!! Absolutely STUNNING.
Videowise. Excellent. The automatic aperture control works like a charm and when I am well inside the living room I can see outside when looking through the windows and then when I move a little bit more I can see the inside very well, no adjustment to do at all. You wonder if CNN will just throw away all their equipment or if their reporters are already all using the exilim.
So in a nutshell:
- very very well thought of. Very easy to use. A real charm.
- excellent pictures even inside the house without a flash
- great video
- great accessories
- the only negative I could find is that you can take a macro only from a 17cm distance
- if I had to write a wish list for a digital camera , I could not have found anything they didn't already do, and then they did much more than I could possibly dream of.
Hats off to Casio engineers. Fantastic work.

I am very happy with the EX-S500 from Casio, I did a lot of research before deciding on this Camera. It is very user frendly and has great features. You should purchase at minium the 1 GB SD card to realy take advantage of the video function. Its so small that you forget its in your pocket. Time will tell how well this camera is made, but so far so good.

I just purchased this camera for basic point and shoot purposes. I travel a lot and needed something compact and powerful enough to take pictures of houses that I am remodeling. Start up time is quick, taking an image is quick. No more waiting for it to boot up. The LCD screen is great, the shots come out beautifully. I love how small this is. I am already travelling with bulky devices, heavy laptop and blackberry, I want something that takes up less space, can fit discreetly in a pocket, and that is technologically competent enough to give me the quality shots that I need while on the road. This camera will fit it a fashionable small clutch for going out. None of my other cameras can do this. Yay!

If you need macro shots, do not buy it. I also own a Sony Cyber Shot that I use specifically for taking macro shots of jewelry and stones. I tried taking a picture of my ring with this camera and it is pretty much useless. You can't have everything.

I bought an extra battery and a 1Gb memory card. I would like to buy a case for it so that it doesn't get too beat up. The outside casing seems sturdy enough but I want to keep it pretty.

Very happy with my purchase. I found out about this camera through the CNET review of digital cameras. They gave it a great rating as well.

I got this camera over the cannon mainly because of the MPEG4 video and image stabilizer. However, this camera does 640x480 at 4 MBPS, which is same as the other cameras which do not support mpeg4. so i think mpeg4 is just a marketing gimmik, it wraps the video under mp4 headers but does not do enough compression.

The image stabilizer in this camera is "digital", kindof like the digital zoom. It is quite ineffective and pictures without flash are quite blurred.

The image quality is okay during the day, but is quite bad and grainy indoors, specially during night. The main advantage of camera is its size. There are also some preset recording settings which are quite good, and has features like "whiteboard photo" which automatically corrects the whiteboard image even if its taken from the side.

so to summarize:
pros: size, "best shot" modes, speed
cons: mpeg4 does not reduce size, optical image stabilizer is digital, picture quality quite bad indoors.

I bought a Casio camera three years ago. I stuck it in my pocket and took it everywhere with me. I captured unbelievable scenes because it was there when I needed it. It was simple to use, download and view photographs. I thought I would be happy with it forever until I saw the EX-S500 with the Anti Shake Optical Zoom. I had to have it. I have to say that, in addition, the color orange had an influence on me. I loved the idea of a camera in such a funky color. This camera exceeds my expectations for improvements, upgrades and convenience. It has a near professional quality to it. I have had such pleasure using it and I have taken some of the most memorable photos of my family and friends. What a way to build a tangible memory book! I would recommend this for anyone who wants a camera that will travel anywhere and photograph anything.

I'm interested in doing a personal photo journal, so I bought this camera (through amazon), as it is a small digital camera that I could carry around with me at all times. When I got it, I quickly found that the software in it was defective. Although I had a 1G memory card in it, the camera deleted the settings (i.e. date, time, flash on/off, etc) every time I turned it off. I called Casio tech support, and they advised that I just return it for a new one, which I did. Amazon was very good about it, and paid to have the defective camera shipped back to them, and sent me a new one immediately via 2nd day air. Probably this technical problem was just a fluke; I realize that with technology, stuff just happens sometimes.

When I received the new camera, my initial excitement quickly evaporated as I discovered that the camera was incapable of taking clear photographs. I did everything I could (adjusted light setings, flash on and off, held the camera as still as possible, etc), but unfortunately, none of the pictures I took were as clear as I would have liked for them to be. The worst was trying to take a photograph in a low light/indoor setting with the flash off. I personally dislike using flashes unless I absolutely have to, as they tend to wash out the subject matter. In low light settings without a flash, this camera took pictures that were honestly comparable to cell phone cameras. The dark areas are especially noisy, with lots of purple pixels instead of deep clear blacks.

All in all, if smallness is the most important thing to you, then I guess this camera is a good bet. However, if you are interested in taking pictures of outstanding quality, I do not recommend purchasing this one. I sent mine back in exchange for the Kodak Easyshare Z730, which I am far more pleased with (even though it is a bit bulkier).

If you're a pro or pro-amateur photographer, you're likely tired of carrying bulky camera gear, but wish you could have a "back pocket" slim camera with you always. That's the point of this gem: at 1/2" thick, it's about the highest quality in the slimmest design available.

Naturally, the "out of the box" configuration sets images up for mass market consumers printing on cheap home inkjets: too much contrast, with overbright highlights. But this camera simplifies getting the perfect exposure if you make three simple tweaks:

1. Turn on the real-time histogram function. This allows you to see the image exposure plotted on a graph, with dark shades at the left and bright colors at the right. If the graph hits the right, some part of the image will be overexposed. If it hits the left, something will be underexposed.

2. [optional] Change the default contrast value to -1. This will give you more exposure latitude -- brights will be a little less bright, and darks a little less dark, so more shades will fit in your exposure. It's easy to boost contrast after the fact, even free Picasa software will do it. But you can't get back over/under exposed pixels.

3. Assign EV (exposure value) compensation to the L/R (left and right) thumbpad keys. With this change, you can fiddle with the exposure on-the-fly as you're looking at the image and histogram. Typically, a -0.7 to -1.0 value will give you the brightest image without over exposing highlights.

With these three (or optionally, two) quick image quality changes, the results will satisfy even a pro photographer enough to warrant keeping this wallet-thin camera glued to the hip.

PROS:

- Slimmest (1/2" thin!) quality for the money
- Burnt orange color welcome after blacks and silvers
- Fantastic image quality for its size after above tweaks
- High quality MPEG4 (use free MSFT MovieMaker, PSP9, etc., to downsize for sharing)
- Photo-album slideshow mode when docked
- Calendar layout of thumbnails to quickly locate recent pics
- 30+ "best shot" groups of presets for almost any picture situation
- Make your own additional image presets or groups of presets to add to the "best shot" menu
- Whiteboard/scanner/business card mode that makes paper or whiteboards white and fixes perspective to appear straight
- Excellent battery life

CONS:

- Camera needs the base to sync w/ computer or recharge (-1 star for this, sorry)
- "Full flash" recycle time is long (because the flash is remarkably powerful)
- Some bodies seem to have a soft-focus problem (but I've only seen this with bodies purchased at retail warehouses, not ones purchased from camera stores)

So far, this digital camera is meeting all expectations based on reviews I've read about it. The best part is that everyone who sees it (of course, I got the orange model) get very excited by its small size and the unusual color. The ask me what brand it is, so Casio is getting very good mentions from me.

The software that came with the camera isn't very intuitive or robust. I'll be buying a download and editing package shortly.

I have had this camera for two months. I bought it to take to Cancun instead of my bulky camera, and I love it! It is so small and slim that it will slide right into your back pocket and you forget that it's there (but not the best place to carry it!) I keep it in my purse at all times, and I've used it almost daily. I am definitely a point and shoot kind of girl, and this camera makes that so easy. No waiting for warm-up, no lag between pics. It has so many settings to choose from (and they're easy to understand!) that one of them is bound to be perfect. I usually just leave mine on the automatic setting, but you should probably put it on anti-shake if you're not using a flash indoors or your picture might not turn out as sharp as you would like.

The camera is very easy to operate -- even a caveman could do it :) It takes decent videos too. I don't know how long you can video, I guess until your memory card is full. I don't think the camera limits your time.

If there are ANY problems with your pictures, it is really simple to correct them, including red eye, color, etc. by downloading the free program from [...]. Flash distance seems to be just fine, and it also takes good pictures when it's dark.

Charging the camera on its little dock and getting the pictures onto your computer is so easy that even I can do it, which is saying something! This is the kind of camera I could give to my mother and say "figure it out", and she actually could.

Great camera, takes quick pictures with ease. Contrary to professional reviews this is one of the best ultra-compact cameras on the market.

this is the second casio camera i have had, and while it is small, i have had lense problems with both, the service offered to solve my problem was both slow and poor. in addition, it is a hassle to take the base along with you to charge. give casio products a swerve if you are at all rough with your treatment of cameras.

I have always wanted a digital camera but i wanted something that wasn't clumsy, that wasn't low resolution, that wasn't heavy and up until i bought this tiny cutting edge (in the sense that it satisfies consumers needs) item. It is small, doesnt use up too much batteries, comes in with a BUILT-IN memory, is very light, almost transparent thin relative to other cameras and has a lot more specifications than its peers. As a comparison the Sony T7 model is much more expensive but doesn't have all the specifications that this specific camera has. The most significant one was the shutterspeed setting which can be set to a smaller period of time in EX-S500. The Sony T7 is slightly thinner but slightly larger in other dimensions. Casio Exilim has made my college life fun and certainly satisfies my requirements. If i put it in my shirt pocket, it doesn't make it sag like any other camera... I don't think there is anything else that can be expected from a small digital camera.

I had problems with my orange casio 2 weeks after i bought it...pics too bright. So I sent it back to Casio Repair in NJ. They repaired it and said it was a lens issue.

A month later it broke again..this time the screen didnt work. I sent it back again and after a month they sent an invoice for $225 to repair the "lens". I tried explaining to them that I had no problem with the lens but they refused to listen and said I daamged it.
One of the reps hung up on me. Than I tried the supervisor...she was even worse..nasty and rude.

Then I tried numerous Casio #'s but no one would help. Finally I was given the contact info for the big honcho. I wrote a certified letter to him that he signed for on 11-14-05. He never called me so I started to call him early last week. Most of the time his voice mail was full. I have left about 6 messages and he has yet to call me back.
What kind of customer service is this?

Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere for a camera. They are flimsy and when (believe me it is WHEN) they break down, the service is horrid.
I am not taking this up with the BBB and will post the results.

I bought this camera 1 week ago. Although it is cute and compact however I had problems taking pics with it. [...] Hello my red Sony 7.1 mp. The only reason I rated it a 2 is because it is compact cute and colorful.

I purchased the Casio back in November. The first time I used it was at my parent's anniversary party, which was in a restaurant at night. I was having to take pictures where the setting was so dark, I could not see the image in the viewfinder, I am a photographer and brought my Nikon D-50 along just in case. So not to lose any moments, I used both cameras for each picture I took (getting a sore neck from the D-50!) I plugged both cards into the photo kiosk at a local retailer, and am absolutely unable to tell of any difference in quality. Now folks, I paid $1,000 for the D-50 and Nikkor lense. This little casio has been with me at bars for birthday parties, concerts with crazy lights, even high school sporting events. I can honestly say it is the best camera I have ever owned. I have dropped it a few times, and it has held up very well. I would recommend getting a clear screen cover for the display screen on back as to avoid scratching it. I ended up paying $8.00 for a PSP screen protector kit, and cut down to fit. I have 3 more screens in storage now. The best feature is that when you turn the unit on, in under a second, you can snap a picture, and it will turn out great (came in really handy at a recent rock concert). It is no bigger than a wallet so I am able to carry it everywhere. I did much research on this purchase and am extremely satisfied by my decision. I would highly recommend. I also have several technical Casio watches, and I have always been very impressed by Casio's superior customer service. If you have windows XP, you won't need to load the software on your CPU, I have found it easier to use windows media. I would recommend saving the manual on your desktop (250+ pages) in a pdf file. I actually printed it out, and learned the things this camera can do are limitless.

This is the 3rd generation of Exilim cameras that my wife and I have owned, and I have to say we are very impressed with it. It has everything we came to expect in Exilim cameras...compactness, style, ease-of-use, long battery life, and good photo quality.

I have to say that it is remarkable how fast this camera is..as soon as you push the power button it is ready to go. The LCD is huge and beautiful. Also, the quality of the videos is AWESOME! You would think that the videos are being taken with a handheld cam...but no...its just this tina camera. :) Also, the audio quality is excellent with the camera.

One final note...it is true what they say about taking pictures of paper with this camera. If you take a picture of a page in the phone book, you can read the numbers on the page using the cameras LCD. The quality is awesome...it looks like the page was scanned. Very cool.

If I had enough money, I'd buy another one of these cameras for myself (b/c it technically belongs to my wife). :)

I used this camera for a week before I encountered the problem with the lens. I sent the camera to NJ repair center. They refused to honor the warranty claiming that I bought it from an unauthorized dealer and wanted $200 for repair. I threw this camera away and will never buy Casio product again.

While I am no professional photographer, I can honestly say this is a FANTASTIC camera! It takes pictures at lightening speed and the quality of the photos is fabulous. I love that it is so compact. The video quality is also very impressive. I've noticed that a few people said they bought it and it wouldn't work on a Mac, but that's not true at all. Mine works just fine. The audio is great as well. I would totally recommend this camera to people! I take it everywhere now and am always ready for a photo op!

I got this camera as a Christmas present and I'm just loving it! I highly recommend this product to anyone looking for a small, compact camera with excellent video and image quality. The video looks like it was done on a video camera, its very impressive.

I had this camera for five weeks when the silver ring around the lens popped off. I called Casio and they instructed me to send it to their repair center in New Jersey. I received an invoice from Casio stating it will cost me $170 to fix. After speaking with several representatives and leaving voicemail messages for management, I have not been able to resolve this problem. The repair center said my lens is broken (the lens is working fine - it's the ring around the lens that fell off) and the warranty does not cover lens and screen repairs. The warranty states the product is covered, except for the case and battery, for one year. Terrible product, even worse customer service. I will NEVER buy another Casio product.

I got a white casio exilim for Christmas, and it is great. It matches my iBook :) I took various pictures and videos including photos of Christmas lights around town, and they turned out great! The videos are of very good quality too, even better than my daddy's camcorder. Go for a 1GB memory card though because the high quality video setting will fill up a card pretty fast. And even the lower resolution setting for the photos looks great.

For those worried about Mac compatability, all you have to do is download a small patch called casio_avi.zip and the movies will play fine in quicktime. Google it and you can find it. iPhoto recognizes the camera with no effort from the user. The camera also shows up on the desktop as a drive so you can get to the photos and videos that way if you need to.

The box says that if you have a Mac, you can't review the videos on your computer. Untrue! If you download a program called VLC media player, you can view the .avi file the camera converts the video image into. Just another reason why this camera is perfect.

I have been a semi-pro photographer for the last 5 years now. I've had 4 digital cameras through the last few years including 2 digigal SLR's. Although I have a lot of camera equipment, I did not have a nice digital compact to take with me to go out on casual events. Who wants to lug around a SLR with 3 lenses to dinner with family?

So after reading several positive reviews, I thought I'd give this camera a try. I also purchased a Canon SD400 at the same time to comapare the two.

The Casio EXILIM looks great and is a very thin compact camera. Power on is very responsive as is the autofocus. It comes with a nice cradle as well.

Unfortunately, this is where the positive feedback ends. The quailty of photos is very sub-par for the price of this camera. My old 3.3 Sony Cybershot took much better photos in low lighting situations (which is a primary reason for me to have this camera). After 2 days of use, the lens cap stopped closing all the way (only the bottom half closed). My particular camera seems to be the exception to this problem but on top of the poor picture quality, I will be calling Amazon to make arrangements for a return.

If a nice compact camera with good quailty photos under low lighting is what you are looking for, I highly recommend the Canon SD400 (if you can live without a cradel).

I bought this camera for an easily carried point and shoot for my wife. We use Sony camera's now, but she needed to replace hers. I was drawn to the Sony T7. Loved the razor sharp LCD, but the pictures seemed soft. I used a pals to compare. It was about $100 more than the Casio. Not a deal breaker, but a consideration. The Casio had a great feel to it, and we liked the look of it better than the Sony. My wife loves the proportions and balance of the camera. She loves the orange color! The pictures are very sharp, and detailed. I have used only a few of the best shot modes, but there are a lot of choices. The movie feature is only of secondary interest, but most of the ones we have tried have been dark. The LCD is less detailed than the Sony. It is a nice big 2.2 screen. It still looks great. The controls are very easy to use. I like the external zoom, but this can be more problematic, than internal. The camera has a quick start up and times betweem pictures are faster than my older 5mp Sony. We use a high speed SD card which makes a big differance. The macro pictures showed a real detail differance. There was a strong color push to the Sony models, but the Casio was more accurate, and color correct.It was a close toss up, and required us buying a new memory card, but the pictures are just better than the Sony's. I just tried the T-5, and the T-33, and like the T-7, I loved the LCD, but the pictures were softer.

This small thin camera does mpeg4 avi video at 640x480 at 30 frames per second.

The key being 30 fps , a lot of cameras only do 15 ...

So your not only taking a camera with you on a trip your also carrying a video camera too! Granted its not miniDV quality but still great.
It will play back video on a mac by downloading the quicktime casio avi importer.

1gb sd card will do over 30 minutes of high quality video that can go straight to your computer for editing or whatever , not bad for the price !

This camera seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. It's a great looking camera and at 5MP it should have the resolution to make a decent a print. After using it for a few weeks I decided to return it for a refund. I'll simply list the S500's pro's and cons and let you decide for yourself:

PROS:
1. VERY nice looking camera. This thing will turn heads.
2. Large bright LCD. Very easy to read.
3. Excellent battery life. 200+ images per charge.
4. VERY small. I wanted a camera that would easily fit in a fanny pack on vacation.
5. Build quality is top notch.
6. Video quality is fairly good. Most cameras in this genre have video capability. This is an awesome feature that allows you to leave the camcorder at home when you don't want to lug it around.

CONS:
1. Terrible image quality. I bought this camera to replace a Canon S30 3MP camera. At 5MP the Casio SHOULD have a much better quality image...NOT. I was amazed at how marginal the image quality was. I compared several images taken with each camera and the 3MP images were better in each case. I tried the Casio at all ISO's and all image quality settings and nothing helped. If this was my first camera and I didn't know any better maybe I'd have been happy with this but it's not and I'm not.

2. This camera has a real problem with focusing in all but the brightest light. I found that only about 3 out of every 10 photos taken indoors under normal interior illumination were in focus. This was really getting me down. I did everything I could to help the thing focus. I kicked up the ISO to try to increase the shutter speed. I braced the camera on a knee or against a piece of furniture to steady it. I recomposed each image and payed close attention to the focus point(the camera shows you where it's focusing via two green brackets on the LCD display). Nothing seemed to help.

3. Phony "Anti Shake" technology. Don't be fooled by this marketing claim. There is NO image stabilization on this camera. I knew this going in but it still gets me that Casio makes this claim. Their "Anti Shake" technology consists of raising the ISO setting under low light conditions in order to get higher shutter speed settings. This is supposed to minimize camera shake but due to the exceptionally poor image quality at higher ISO's and the focusing issues mentioned above there is no gain here.

I really wanted to like this camera but, when it comes down to it, image quality is the most important issue in buying a camera. I am a professional photographer so maybe I'm a bit more critical of things like this, however, I'm comparing this camera to my previous point-and-shoot and not my pro gear. If you want a really attractive camera and don't mind inferior image quality then this camera is for you. If you want a high quality image I would recommend you look elsewhere.

I'll update this review later when I know more. I just wanted to bring attention to the fact that it doesn't come with a memory card. Don't forget to buy one when you place your order!

PROS: great video quality, super small size, quick start up time
CONS: horrible image quality

the image quality on this camera is BAD. very noisy pictures, expecially in low-light or no-flash situations. takes decent pictures outdoor in lots of light, but everything else...unacceptable. the video mode works really well though

This camera is by far the best camera i have ever owned. The sleek, compact design accompanied with the large view screen makes me want to go out and take photos! Speaking of which, it takes great pix! I have had very few blurred images.

I don't care much for the dock it comes with...used for charging and downloading...but a minor point. The camera charge lasts and pix are a breeze to download.

I have had this camera for about a month and absolutely love it. It's very thin and looks great in the white color. I get comments from people all the time telling me that they love the look. 2 people have even told me that they are seriously thinking about getting one of their own. I totally recommend it to everyone.
I have done a ton of looking around at different available cameras and I found this to be the best in terms of screen size, ease of use and price.
It also offers an amazing bonus with a free memory card. It doesn't come with one so you will need to buy it separately. I opted for the price break on the 512mb and have found it to be perfectly fine and haven't filled it up yet. Deciding what amount of memory to get would depend on how much you plan on using it. I'd say I use it about twice a week and on a medium picture quality and it works out great. I wouldn't get the 256mb that might be too little.
Downloading pictures is super fast. The process is a bit weird to me but it doesn't have anything to do with the camera. I think it's more with my computer. I can download, transfer, copy to the computer, burn on CD or just view so there's a lot of options for you to decide to do.
It takes amazing pictures. I have taken over a hundred pictures and only one has been out of focus. The shots are very clear and crisp. You can focus very close in the play mode and crop the picture right on the camera. The 5 megapixes is a large amount. Really I would never need it, but it's great to have the quality there. The anti-shake is a good option if you or the subject is moving. It basically shows little snap shots instead of a steady stream of the action and you can take a picture.
The screen is huge and beautiful, very bright and clear. I was very nervous about scratching or cracking it but it has stood up to my not so careful use. I keep it in my bag with other junk like keys and loose change and it still shines like the first day out of the package. I heard that there's a plastic cover for the screen so I might look into getting that, or there's the little case you can get too.
It has amazing battery life. I have gone a couple of days without charging it with some light use and the battery was still almost full. It charges very fast too, it takes only about an hour or so.
I love the menu buttons. Other cameras seem not to care about their ease of use and organization. This one was very simple. On top of the back you choose to view your picture or take them or take a video, then down by the screen you get into the menu or your shot options, and then you can navigate around your options or pictures very easily around. There are a ton of features to play around with, from different picture sizes, different shooting options, shooting video, and I haven't got around to using everything yet.
The dock is fine. Not cute but light and when you want to download or see the pictures you just push the button on the front. I don't think it charges while you're downloading but it's easy to switch back when you're done.
It takes cute little videos. You can adjust the quality and therefore the amount of space it takes up on the memory card. The sound was not great but as long as you're not too far away, I'd say 6ft, you can hear everything fine. I haven't played it back on a TV, which you can do with cables that are included, but it looks like it would be easy and come out fine.
Overall I am very happy with my purchase (can't you tell!) and would highly recommend it. Other cameras just didn't have the large screen size, picture quality, or simple controller that I was looking for. It fits my needs perfectly.

i am a student and needed a camera to capture all the mad events that go on such as nights out, sports and the like. i angonised over buying a camera and compared it to the canon ixus (elph) and and even olypmus mju. i got the white one a few weeks ago and i am loving it. here are the best bits:

1. it looks fantastic... it wows everyone
2. its so tiny and light
3. the screen is HUGE!
4. the pik quality is excellent
5. the videos are simply fantastic... its like a camcorder.. and everything moves at perfect speed.
6. theres like 20 different types of picture setting.. not sure how well they work but good anyway
7. battery life is amazing.. you'd prob get two full days of shooting and watching on it before it will run down
8. videos have sound.. fantastic
9. value for money is brilliant... no other camera has the same range of features for the same price.. and amazon give you a free SD card which is even better
10. extremely durable! i dropped it three times on its first night out and not even a scratch on the casing or LCD!

all in all a fantastic camera, have yet to discover a fault with it!

After going through half a dozen cameras in as many months, including a Sony and Canon, the Exilim turned out to be a great fit. The battery life is long, the sync with my computer was a breeze, and the LCD screen is bright and clear. The only weakness is that the digital zoom is not the best and the unit is fairly "delicate". I dropped the first one and the lens casing immediately cracked and I had to buy another.

We needed a good, sturdy, compact dual-mode camera to use to capture images and video for our business; this camera has proven itself to be up to the challenge.

I've actively used the camera now for four months. I'll list its strengths, and a couple things to be aware of:

1. Takes outstanding pictures. Outdoor images are especially good.
2. Memory has not been a problem: We have three gig smart cards; and have yet to purge any material from them. We have the settings set for screen to screen; which makes a big difference. Probably have an 1.5 hrs of video and hundreds of pics on a card, only about 1/3 full.
3. Holds a charge extremely well. Have never had to be concerned about running out of power on the go; the cradle charges quickly.
4. The software provided is outstanding. Simple yet powerful. Easy to grab images from video.
5. Smooth, not shaky video quality.

Things to be aware of:
1. Indoor shooting, especially for the video, requires alot of light. More an assessment on decent lighting products on the market; I've found only either hotshoe attachments or plug in floods. I need a powerful battery powered light source, so I'm reduced to strong flashlights, not designed for image capture.
2. I have noticed some color adjustments occur in the video, however slight. For instance I'll be recording a stationary session, and the hue of the blue background will flicker or adjust. Its slight, but persistent.

A super product, for an image camera that does video as well. (Formfactor is great; can't beat the handy size.)

- GiddyupGuy

Unlike one of the reviewers below, i actually found that i could use the optical zoom while recording a movie! i have not seen this feature in too many little cameras and find it to be pretty neat.

The battery life is fantastic and so an optical viewfinder is hardly missed.

So far i've been able to record over an hour of movies on my 1 GB SD card at the highest quality setting (640x480 @30 fps) with plenty of space to spare - the mpeg 4 compression is a boon indeed.

The screen is large and very readable which is a much appreciated fact by ppl who need reading glasses.

So far i didn't think the image quality was stellar, but this is probably largely due to the fact that i haven't really played around with all the different settings yet. Eveneso, the images are much better than my previous HP camera.

One other con is that i felt the software provided with the Casio was not as user friendly as that which was provided with my (now retired) HP camera. However, i bought the Exilim in China and it's possible the software supplied elsewhere is different.

This is an excellent choice if you want a point and shoot, quick shot camera. The number of 'best shot' settings are more than enough.

This camera is very well built and feels like a quality product. This camera is show chic....I have strangers that want to touch it and check it out, which is a bit strange. Everyone thinks it's very cool looking and they want to steal mine.

The digital image stabilization is a joke, however. It's a gimick.

I 100% recommend this device. I have had Canon and Sony digital cameras...this one BY FAR is the BEST in build and picture quality and it is so small, I can carry it anywhere, without a problem.

I believe this to be a very good camera, it excedes all expectations except: the screen.
This camera has a lot of cool functions but it also needs to have the best care in the world. Just two weeks after I bought the camera, the screen got busted because it is too sensitive and don't think I didn't care for the camera because you are wrong, I took real good care of it, I even got it a hard case but I guess it wasn't good enough.
with the exception of the screen being too sensitive, I would rate the camer with a little more than 5 stars but seeing as how I can't review my pictures because I have NO screen and, also, I can't use any of the "cool" functions because there is absolutely no way for me to see the menu(again NO screen)I would now rate it with a star-at the most.

I received this camera as a gift. All-in-all it's been a great little camera. I love the pictures it takes, and I love the light weight and slim size.

I did, however, have one major frustration in the beginning. The camera comes with 8.5 Mb of memory built in. In other words, you sneeze and you run out of memory. So I looked through the manual to find specifications for adding memory. It said nothing -- nothing about upgrading the internal memory or purchasing an external excessory. I searched the web, including the product web site, and still found nothing useful.

The camera's only visible port was a "connector" (as ambiguously described in the manual) that connected to the camera's cradle and nothing else.

I thought it was incredible that a 5MP camera would only come with enough memory to take 4 pictures at a time, so I knew there must be some way to add memory. Finally, my brother found it. There's an extra sliver of space submerged inside the battery compartment for inserting a memory card. The trouble is, it's not identified in the manual, or even on the camera itself. The only hint you have is a row of trademark logos on the manual's cover that includes an "SD" logo. And that's only useful if you notice it AND you happen to know what it means.

We still had no idea how much memory we could safely add, so we guessed. I purchased at Best Buy a SanDisk 256MB memory card, that seems to work just fine. It might be possible to go up to a Gig or more, but I really don't know. Casio is evidently keeping all that information to itself...

this camera is wonderful. i have only one thing to add... iunless you read the *TINY* print on the back of the box you will not realize until it is too late that the movies you can record w/ this camera are difficult (not impossible, but quite a hassle) to play on a Mac. The camera integrates seamlessly with iPhoto and OSX itself (of course) but encodes the videos in some odd form of .avi file which Quicktime will not recognize. it IS possible to view the movies on a Mac w/ the proper codec and an odball viewing program... but not, as far as i can tell, to convert them to a native Mac format. Sort of a bummer, as I was looking forward to making movies with the thing (and the quality of said movies is GREAT, by the way... and the sound that that tiny little hole that is the microphone is spectacular for what it is) but guess I'll have to settle for taking great pictures instead. other than that gripe (and the terrible manual) I have no complaints. This is a very very good camera. You can check out some pictures I've taken with mine at blackmagicplastic.blogspot.com if you'd like to see what it is capable of...

This is a great camera. Photos, ease of use and features all make this camera a best buy. I have been using a Sony PC 5 and this camera is so much more compact. The EX-S500 has a great screen and an easy to use menu.

I have already taken hundreds of pictures and haven't had any problems.

The video works very well. It is not the quality of a camcorder, but the thing is so small that I use it constantly for video. I can take 30 minutes of video at the highest quality setting on an empty SD card. The video looks fine on my TV, somewhere between a VHS and MiniDV in quality.

I don't do much printing, so I can't make any comments on print quality.

This camera would get 4 stars if you could connect to the TV without the dock.

Get this and you won't be disappointed.

I owned an Exilim S2 2mp camera before this one, and both of them have far exceeded my expectations ... the Best Shot features are universally helpful, the battery life is near-infinite, the picture quality is absurdly good, and the screen is large and brightly lit. Easily the best camera I've owned, and very reasonably priced for 5mp plus uber-sleekness.

I'm an engineer and tend to agonize over buying anything electronic. My criteria for my first digital camera were: decent photos, camcorder replacement, pocket sized, durable, <=$330 and lots of nifty features. I am quite pleased by this purchase after two weeks... it seems to work as advertised and has enough tweaks in the various menus so I can usually get the photo quality I want. Plop it in the small adapter/charger (provided), connect the USB to your PC and the camera appears as an external drive to the computer and simple to access/copy/whatever. I haven't bothered with their supplied PC software. Caveats: use the wrist strap to avoid dropping it; the internal memory is worthless, so get at least a 256M memory card. Enjoy!

All in that is so good who I can't describe here! Buy this camera and then yourselves will be able to enjoy it.

I have owned the Nikon S1 and a Canon Powershot S400, and I liked the Exilim S500 the best. The Exilim is the smallest, the best-looking (though the S1 looks great in black), and by far the easiest to use. This is perfect as a point-and-shoot camera, and will certainly produce better images than the Nikon. I found the Nikon S1's photos to be grainy in low-light. The Powershot models have problems with the LCD cracking, and my friend experienced this first-hand with an SD300. This problem may have been fixed by now though.

I do have a couple nitpicks... First, the white version of the camera is not that white. It's certainly not iPod white as depicted in the Amazon photos. Second, the camera does not allow for a lot of manual functions compared to the other models I tried (especially the Canon Powershot).

When buying this camera, I would recommend also buying a few other things. First, make sure you get an SD card. I bought the RiDATA 1GB 66X SD card for under $40 on Newegg.com. Second, I would recommend getting a small case for it. I bought a tiny Quantaray case at Ritz Camera in my local mall. And finally, I would recommend finding a clear film to place over the LCD. I couldn't find one that didn't slightly defile the image on the LCD, but I 'd rather have an LCD with no scratches than a scratched screen.

Overall, the Casio Exilim S500 gets a 5/5 rating from me and I would recommend it for anyone looking for an ultra-compact easy-to-use digital camera, and doesn't mind not having a lot of features and a large manual to sift through.

Very lightweight and small. Can fit it almost anywhere. Pictures are very clear and antishake option is wonderful. I love the ability to take a picture during a video shoot. Highly recommend this camera!

What a great little camera. I can keep in right in my purse so I have it with me all the time. I never have to say I forgot my camera again. Takes great pictures too.

This camera is extremely easy to understand and use and it takes wonderful quality pictures. Only a basic knowledge of photography is needed to operate the camera, but the features are there for those who want a more in-depth camera. I highly recommend this item.

We've had this camera for 6 months. We loved it. Then the ring around the lens popped off after simply turning it on; it could not be reattached. The machinery inside was exposed. Casio took it back since it was under warranty, but, after we sent it to them, we were told that the lens ring was not covered. Even with their warranty in hand that stated everything (excluding the battery and power cord I believe) is covered, Casio insisted we pay nearly $200. In addition, we have been waiting 2 months to get the camera back (we still don't have it). We're so very frustrated. I would pursue them legally if I could justify the expense and effort. We are using the only alternative left to us of warning people about Casio's actions.

This is by far one of my favorite toys I own. It is the perfect size to take out to capture amazaing quality photos of your family, friends, social events, recreational trips, ect. I get so many compliments on it and the anti shake feature makes a huge difference. I have had no problems since I ordered it in January and highly recommend it to anyone who wants quality in a compact size!

I LOVE my new camera! It can go with me anywhere because it is thin and light and oh so attractive. It also is easy to use and takes great photos. The basic functions are well laid out and intuitive to learn but there are alot of subtle features that take some figuring out. I wish the complete user manual was actually printed and not provided on a DVD. You may want to print out the darn thing so you can study it at leisure.

The screen is hard to see in bright sun but that is true of all cameras. I was also impressed how much I was able to capture using the low light setting and NO flssh. Am still playing with the "best shot" features and some of the options like Sepia and Black and White. The nice thing about that it shows the image with the tint or in black and white.

All in all, I am a happy camper, this camera is all that I need for a long while!

At first I really liked this camera. It was nice and small and took decent pictures, although everything was white-washed when I used the flash.

After using the camera a total of 4 times in under 2 months, the belt that operates the extension of the lens slipped off track while I was zooming in for a shot. I assumed that since the camera came with a one year warranty, I would be ok. Not so.

Casio wanted to charge me $220.85 in order to put the belt back on track. They said that since the problem had to do with the lens, it wasn't covered under warranty. The lens wasn't cracked, I never dropped the camera, and it was in otherwise perfect condition. I tried explaining this multiple times whenever I could actually reach someone in customer service, but they insisted that they didn't have to honor the warranty. Not only that, but they wouldn't send the camera back to me unless I paid $8 for the return shipping!

I strongly suggest buying a different brand of camera. I now use a Nikon that was half the price of the Casio, and it takes great pictures. Not only that, but I had my Nikon in my flak jacket for two months while in Iraq and it still works perfectly fine.

In my experience, Casio makes a low quality camera and doesn't honor their own warranty.

While crackin' a beer and havin' fun with friends, it's always nice to capture the moment.... This is when I whip out my Casio Exilim! Not only is it great with friends, but with family as well. It captures the moment so well, you can take a picture of a moving fan and it comes out crystal clear. With all the different settings, whether your in a bar, on the lake, making a short video, or just goofing around, Casio is the way to go. I myself love the fact that I can take it in my purse everywhere I travel without it being an inconvenience. The small size is one of its many features.
In addition to its petite size, there aren't many buttons so operating it is no extra hassle. My friends are always snatching my camera to see how the picture came out. One thing I would change though, would be the fact that the last picture taken should be displayed on the screen for a longer period of time. Yet, getting the picture to pop back up is no bother. Like I was saying, it's easy to operate.
At one point, I had a significant project due for school, which included making a video. I had to interview many different people and instead of carrying around a huge camera, I was able to complete the assignment with my Casio Exilim! Even the people I interviewed that mumbled were still heard. It picked up the sound great and came out focused as well.
Another great feature is the fact that it takes an SD card to store the pictures. SD cards are very popular and can be used for many different things. I am able to take pictures with my camera, slide the card into my cell phone, and store the pictures there. This comes in handy when I want a great picture to be the screen saver on my cell phone. With this feature, everyone is able to enjoy the moment.
There was a time I ended up breaking the screen and Casio did replace it for free. For this to happen, I had to be a good talker. But, it can be done. Also, the price is very comparable and reasonable. Since having my camera with me at all times, my friends and I are able to look back on many great memories. We know they were great because we have the pictures to prove it!
When deciding on a camera, choose Casio. It's small, light weight, great quality, very versatile, and the smart way to go. Before you know it, your photo albums will be full and your friends will be begging you for the doubles. So go on, capture the moment.

I bought this camera for [...] after my Canon A70 became defective. I name it "Xiao Bai" which means "Little White" in chinese. Compared to my old Canon A70, Xiao Bai is really light and fits into my jacket pocket nicely, although I usually put it in my camera bag (bought separately). I am not a professional photographer but I do take a lot of pictures especially when I travel around. Xiao Bai takes great pictures most of the time, but I am not quite satisfied with pictures taken at night. When I was trying to take some pictures of a parade at night, the pictures turned out to be dark and blur. Xiao Bai is also slow at start up if flash is on. The anti-shake function doesn't impress me very much either. Because it is too thin, it is not stable if I try to stand it on random surfaces when I use the self-timer function.
On the other hand, Xiao Bai does have some good quality. It is pretty-looking and have lots of interesting best-shot modes (potrait, scenery, party, natural green, pet, fireworks, food, twilight etc). It also has a slide show function for the pictures taken. Another excellent point is its video quality and duration. I can take up to 1 hour high quality video with my 1GB memory card. I once took a video while biking around my campus and it turned out great. I love travelling so its light weight really helps lighten up my backpack.
Overall, I think this is a great camera for normal consumers. Xiao Bai is my new company whenever I go now and I love him so much!!

I love this camera. It totally fits in your pocket, works awesome, and girls love it.
I do recommend 2 things for it, a traveling case and you can buy a protective cover to put over the LCD screen. I bought mine used and it works just as well as my older and larger digital.

i love my new digital camera! it is awesome and amazon is the best!

Its a great little camera to take everywhere!Has many cool features, just make sure you read the manual in order to know how to use them.

I wanted a small camera that could take high quality pictures and this was a good choice. One thing I would strongly suggest is to checking the price on the 3MP exilim before buying. I have done tests between the 3MP exilim and 5MP exilim print photos, and unless you are really going to be printing a lot, just get the 3MP (there is NEVER a reason to get the 5MP vs 3MP if you plan on sharing pictures online and not printing). I can't believe there is a 10MP exilim out now, because the limitation in quality is at the lense, not the digital resolution.

The exilim picture quality is equal to or better than all peer cameras, but there are some things that bug me about this camera:

1. You can't put this in your pocket because the power button accidently gets hit, and then the gears grind trying to push the lense out. You have to use a case to stop the power button from getting hit, which makes it no longer small and awesome. It is poor design.
2. The Lithium-ion battery is proprietary... and it is possible to put in backwards. Another design flaw (I hope the battery never dies cause they are probably very expensive to replace).
3. The cradle is annoying. I don't know if this was done to help reduce the camera size down or what, but I would much rather have cords then a cradle and cords. It is a piece of light plastic that is a pain to have to take with on trips where I will need to recharge.
4. The digital display screen protrudes out and gets scratched easily. I have 2 friends who have Exilim's and they both have scratches on the screen as well. It does not get in the way of taking pictures too much, but again an indicator of poor overall design.

If you are not completely sur