Product: Casio Exilim EX-Z40 Price: $3,280 Pros: Small, stlyish, nice display Cons: Average photos, cumbersome cradle
The natural trend for consumer cameras is to go smaller. And small is one thing that Casio has always been good at. The Casio Exilim EX-Z40 is an attractive and compact camera that slips into a pocket and takes minutes to learn how to use.
The four-megapixel camera uses the same lens Panasonic uses in its compact Optio series - the SMC Pentax Lens Zoom lens. This offers a 5.8mm to 17.4mm 3x optical range, which Casio says is equivalent to 35mm to 105mm on a 35mm film camera.
The lens is impressive for a compact camera but, as the Optio has been around for a year, it seems surprising the technology has not advanced.
Despite the lens, we were not blown away by the picture quality. The pictures are not too bad for a pocket camera, but most people would probably expect clearer, more detailed results from a four-megapixel device.
On the back of the camera is a lovely, two-inch LCD, a nice change from the tiny screens often found on cameras in this segment. The display can also be used for tiny slideshows and users can zoom in on pictures or videos.