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(More customer reviews)This camera is perfect to store in your backpack, briefcase, or front pocket. It is very small and very solid. It starts up very quickly, and is ready to go. The 2" LCD screen is wonderful, and it has great battery life. When I first received the camera, I was careful about using the LCD, but after a while, I used it liberally. I purchased an extra battery and battery charger, so when the battery starts to run low, I swap in a fresh one, and I am ready to go. No need to remember to dock it each evening. But, the dock is very nice, and works great. The LCD screen is really wonderful when you are on-the-road. It is large enough and crisp enough to show people your pictures with ease.
The camera is very speedy. The time between pressing the trigger button and taking the picture is about 1/2 a second delay. It takes about 2 second to complete a shot, and you are ready for the next shot. Viewing images is also very fast, even at 4MP.
The camera is a pro-consumer camera. It has some advanced image options such as White Balance and EV Shift. The standard 3x optical zoom is great. The images are very clean. The digital zoom is not so great. 12x images (3x optical, 4x digital) are good enough to identify, but they are blurry...which is understandable. The camera is so small, I realize you can't fit the optics for a much higher optical zoom. Having some optical zoom was important to me, which is a great feature of this camera. If compact high-level optical zoom is important to you (more than size), I hear the Panasonic Lumix Digital DMC-FZ10K (12x optical, 3x digital) might be a good option (it is larger to support the optical zoom lenses).
A note on picture taking. The images this camera produces is really effected by the image options. The White Balance especially changes the coloring of the images. For example, on a sunny day at the beach, setting the White Balance to "Sun" makes the images look great. At dusk, setting the White Balance to "Shade" produces better images. If you are lucky enough to get this camera, you should spend a little time getting comforable with the images options. To make things easier, Casio has pre-programmed different configurations for night, day, scenery, portrait, etc. These configurations make it easy to get a great picture. You can also create your own 'canned' configurations.
It also has a few cool options like the ability to superimpose a background (you take two pictures to get one), and the ability to take half a picture, and then a second half, so if you are traveling with a buddy, you can each be in the same picture. There is also the ability to create HTML pages with thumbnails to copy to your website. Overall, it has some impressive features in such a small device. Make sure you get a memory card. The internal memory card is insufficent. I am very happy that Casio supports the SD/MM cards, rather than some proprietary format like Olympus.
One thing that does disappoint me is that the camera does not support video. I figured since the Z3 did, the Z4 would. I am not too disappointed, since I plan on getting a second camera at some point, but if you only want one digital camera, you might consider a different camera which supports video (perhaps even the Z3!). Also, the camera is not the greatest in low light conditions (early evening)...where the picture can get grainy in zoom mode (without flash).
Overall, if you want a very portable camera, this is such an awsome device. It really amazes me. If you are more concerned about image quality over portability, you might consider other cameras. I plan to purchase another larger digital SLR camera such as the Canon Rebel 6.3MP to use when image quality is most important. I have a friend with a larger Sony camera, and he rarely uses it because it takes time to pull out of the carrying case. He also does not like to carry it around all of the time. I, on the otherhand, yank the Casio Z4 out of my front pocket, and am ready to go in seconds. He might have somewhat better pictures (subjective), but I get much more use out of my camera, which is a better investment in my opinion. Why buy a camera that you barely use? Actually, now he is thinking about getting a Casion Exilim as well.
In closing, I am very happy with my purchase. It is a pleasure to use, and my money was well spent. After having this camera, if I only planned on owning one digital camera, I would be very happy owning the Casio EX-Z4.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Casio Exilim EX-Z4U 4 MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom and Dock
EXILIM EX-Z4U, the latest addition to the EXILIM Series of card-size LCD digital cameras. The new EX-Z4U features a CCD with 4 million effective pixels plus a high-performance 3X zoom lens.EXILIM is the digital camera that has totally revolutionized digital imaging, with a new design that makes it easy to enjoy the advantages of having your camera anywhere you go. Its combination of outstanding portability and high performance has made the slim, card-size optical zoom EXILIM the pacesetter in the shift to compact and thin packages in today's digital camera market.The EX-Z4U packs the first high-resolution 4-megapixel CCD of the EXILIM lineup into a stylish and thin card size body. The result is a powerful 3X optical zoom camera that be taken just about anywhere.
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