Casio EX-V7 Review
Review Date: June 4th 2007
Author: Gavin Stoker
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 7 megapixel mode,
which gives an average image size of between 3-5Mb.
Noise
There are 5 ISO settings available
on the Casio EX-V7 which you can select at any
time if the camera is in the normal shooting mode. Casio's
compacts have in the past suffered badly from the bugbear
of image noise and,
as expected,
this starts to creep in from ISO 400, though even at maximum
selectable ISO 800 setting it doesn't ruin the shot. In fact
I'd go so far as to say the Casio EX-V7 has a better grip
on it than previous Exilim generations. Here
are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each
ISO setting:
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. Unfortunately you can't change the in-camera sharpening
level if you don't like the default look, so you will have
to edit the images later.
Chromatic Aberrations
The Casio EX-V7 did suffer
from chromatic aberrations during the review, but it was
generally well controlled. Limited purple fringing was
mainly present around the edges of objects in high-contrast
situations, as shown in the examples below.
Macro
The Casio EX-V7 offers
a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that
is 10cms 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.
Flash
The flash settings on the Casio EX-V7 are Auto, Forced Flash, Slow Syncro and No Flash
These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance
of 1.5m.
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Auto
Flash - Telephoto (266mm) |
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And here are some self-portrait shots.
As you can see, both the Flash On setting and the Red-Eye
Reduction option caused a noticeable amount of red-eye –
undoubtedly down to the fact that the flash bulb is located
in the no-no
position of directly above the lens.
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Flash
On (100% Crop) |
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Flash
- Red-Eye Reduction (100% Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Casio EX-V7's maximum
shutter speed is 60 seconds, which is excellent news if you're
seriously interested in night photography. The shot below
was taken using a shutter speed of 1/5th second, aperture
of f/3.4 at ISO 200. I've included a 100% Crop of the image
to show what the quality is like.
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Night
Shot (100% Crop) |
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Overall Image Quality
Like we found with Sony's similarly styled Cyber-shot DSC-T100, locating a lens
to the far edge of the Casio EX-V7's front plate means that
fingertips can
stray
into the edges of the frame without being noticed. The likelihood
is that if you hand the camera to someone new on holiday
for a shot of yourself and the missus, you'll get an image
back with a finger sized blob in one corner. Watch out for
such possibilities yourself however and you'll be rewarded
with
sharp, colourful images for the most part – with green foliage
coming out particularly vivid, and skin tones embodied with
a healthy hue. To be picky I did notice some softness towards
the edges of the frame at maximum wide-angle setting, and
again, at maximum telephoto images would benefit from some
additional sharpening. Results with anti-shake selected are
hit and miss, but then no system is 100% infallible and you
can at least review the image and fire off another shot if
the original doesn't satisfy. Casio's compacts have in the
past suffered badly from the bugbear of image noise and,
as expected,
this starts to creep in from ISO 400, though even at maximum
selectable ISO 800 setting it doesn't ruin the shot. In fact
I'd go so far as to say the Casio EX-V7 has a better grip
on it than previous Exilim generations. It's a different
story when it comes to flash however, which inevitably introduces
red eye whether
the red eye reduction setting is selected or not – undoubtedly
down to the fact that the flash bulb is located in the no-no
position of directly above the lens. That said, the effects
are nowhere as pronounced and unflattering as those delivered
by the Sony T100.
 PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Casio EX-V7 have been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.
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