Casio EX-H5 Review

4.0

November 26, 2010 | Mark Goldstein |

Buy a Exilim EX-H5 12.1 Megapixel Compact Camera - Silver (6.9 cm 2.7" LCD - 10x Optical Zoom - Optical IS - 4000 x 3000 Image - 1280 x 720 Video - HD Movie Mode)

Lowest Price: N/A

Buy a Exilim EX-H5 Silver Point & Shoot Digital Camera (12.1 Megapixel - 4.30 mm - 43 mm - 2.7" Active Matrix TFT Color LCD - CCD - 10x Optical Zoom4x Digital Zoom - Optical Image Stabilization - 24.50 MB Built-in Fl4000 x 3000 Image - 1280 x 720 Video)

Lowest Price: N/A

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 5Mb.

The Casio EX-H5 produced images of average quality during the review period. The Casio EX-H5's main drawback in terms of image quality is noise, with ISO 200 showing some noise and slight blurring of detail. The noise and loss of detail get progressively worse as you go from ISO 400 to 800, with the fastest settings of 1600 and 3200 being practically unusable.

The Casio EX-H5 handled chromatic aberrations fairly well with some limited purple fringing effects appearing in high contrast situations. The 12 megapixel images were a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpen setting and either require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you should increase the in-camera sharpening level.

The night photograph was poor, with the maximum shutter speed of 4 seconds not allowing you to capture enough light for most situations. Macro performance is also below par, only allowing you to focus as close as 7cms away from the subject. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and good overall exposure. Anti-shake works well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range.

Noise

There are 7 ISO settings available on the Casio EX-H5. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting:

ISO 64 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)


ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)


ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)


ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The Casio EX-H5's 10x zoom lens offers a versatile focal range, as illustrated by these examples:

24mm	240mm

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can also change the in-camera sharpening level to suit your tastes.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Casio EX-H5 handled chromatic aberrations fairly well during the review, with some purple fringing present around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.

Example 1 (100% Crop)	Example 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Casio EX-H5 offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 7cms away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.

Macro Shot	100% Crop

Flash

The flash settings on the Casio EX-H5 are Auto, Flash On, Flash Off, Soft Flash, and Red Eye Reduction. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (24mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (24mm)


Flash Off - Telephoto (240mm)	Flash On - Telephoto (240mm)

And here are a couple of portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Auto setting or the Red Eye Reduction caused any amount of red-eye.

Flash On	Flash On (100% Crop)


Red-eye Correction	Red-eye Correction (100% Crop)

Night

The Casio EX-H5's maximum shutter speed is 4 seconds in the Night scene mode, which isn't good news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 4 seconds at ISO 64. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.

Night Shot	Night Shot (100% Crop)

Anti Shake

The Casio EX-H5 has an anti-shake mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the same settings. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here are some 100% crops of the images to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are much sharper than with anti shake turned off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.