On the top of the camera there is a small power button with a larger button to take the pictures. These are very accessible and easy to use. There is also a lever which you sort of flick from side to side in order to zoom in and out.
As expected on the back of the camera there is the viewing panel, along with two vital buttons: one to take pictures and one to view the pictures you have taken. To the side of the screen is a menu button, allowing the user to change settings including; REC: continuous, self-timer, AF area, anti-shake, L/R key, quick shutter, audio snap, grid, digital zoom, review, review, memory. Quality: picture quality, sound quality, ev shift, white balance, ISO, metering, filter, sharpness, saturation, contrast, flash intensity. Set up: battery type, startup, file no, world time, adjust, date style, language, sleep, autopoweroff, rec/play, USB, video out, format, reset. To navigate around there is up, down, left, right and enter keys. As you can tell there are what someone might think are excessive amounts of options. But don't let them overwhelm you, as you use the camera you can experiment with different features at a time. This is all providing you are not a camera expert, then of course I'm sure you would enjoy the vast array of options. If your like me and your not, Casio have handily provided a wheel with yet more options. However these are much easier. You just turn the wheel, which slides easily and safely clicks into place. The wheel includes: a general photo taking mode, voice record, film record, manual exposure, shutter speed AE, aperture AE (the latter 3 I have yet to understand), easy record mode and best shot.
It is best shot mode that I want to concentrate on. Quite honestly it is amazing. Some clever designer realized that there would be a lot of general digital camera users with no technical knowledge so they inputted pre programmed options. For example there is a moving water mode, which sets the camera up with the perfect settings for taking a photo of moving water. There are numerous options to choose from and is so useful for ease and to save time picking settings.
*This is another amazing feature of the camera: it has an excellent zoom. I found it most useful to take landscapes shots and to focus in on detail, like high up on buildings.
*The 7.2 megapixels are more than enough. It produces excellent high quality pictures up to I think a3 size, which is massive and excellent. So if I wanted I could make posters, or frame my own large photos. You can also choose to lower the resolution so that you can fit more photos on the camera.
*The screen is a good size. It could be a bit larger, but I think this would affect the size of the overall camera, which would be detrimental.
*My conclusion is that this I one of the best all round cameras. It is pretty inexpensive to buy, and is well worth every penny. It has excellent flash, which is very bright. The camera also feature anti-shake features so if you don’t have the most steady hand, like me, it compensates. Clever.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: Value for money. Big LDC screen. User friendly. Variety photographing mode. Disadvantages: Small view finder. Eat up the battery pretty quickly.
Advantages: Value for money. Big LDC screen. User friendly. Variety photographing mode. Disadvantages: Small view finder. Eat up the battery pretty quickly.