Casio Exilim EX-S500

Opinion: Only had it a few days, but seems simple to use and a very convenient size/shape for pocket or bag. Appears well made and controls/menus are fairly intuitive.

Compared to my previous 'shirt pocket' camera, a Minolta Dimage Xi, the images are brilliant and the 'Best Shot' feature is very handy. It will be interesting to see how this 'card' sized camera stacks up against larger models with similar performance specs. However, I'm quite happy since it takes great stills and 30fps 640x480 MPEG4 movies, a battery charge lasts for ages, 8mb of built-in fall-back memory and it's still quite light, unobtrusive and always handy.

Opinion: I fell in love w/ a friend's Casio EX-S100 one time while I was hanging out at his place and he had it lying on a table - but the image quality wasn't quite there w/ the 3 megapixels, so I held out for more. When they announced the EX-S500 I knew I had to have it.

I've used it for two days now, and have shot around 150 pictures.

Put bluntly, image quality is good, and everything else is great.

Image quality is more than acceptable to me. I'm no professional photographer....just a guy with a poor memory looking to have everything down so he can look back in 5 years and reflect. They're very good pictures and also very clear...I recently saw some pictures on some other site (dcviews or dcimageresource or something like that - pictures of china town and of a statue etc - some of you will know what I mean, if you've been tracking the S500 threads like I have been) that scared me - but the pictures I'm taking are far better. I don't know what their problem was.

Movie quality is also good. Haven't heard any whining noises or anything crazy.....image quality is better than I expected from a camera like this, but nothing like what George Lucas is using.

I've always hated other digital cameras w/ their millions of buttons and wheels that have 6 or 7 different things on them and you don't know what any of them do, etc. Casio has simplified all this - it has a wonderful user interface...still feels like I have a good deal of control, though...simple yet powerful.

The thing just FEELs like quality. Feels like a nice tough piece of metal, nice and solid. Very slim so I can slip it into the pocket on the front of my shirt (also very light so it doesn't pull the pocket down or anything).

Very fast startup and picture taking time (sorry, I'm sure theres some technical terms for this). I can bust it out really quickly and get somebody's picture before they're the wiser. Makes for more candid shots and also I get a lot of elusive people on camera who would otherwise turn away, make a face, etc. Got a great shot of one guy in particular today who would never willingly have a picture taken.

The Flash...the flash is powerful! People have commented about me blinding them (as I said I've been ninja-photographing, getting 'em unawares). Many of the pictures taken inside seem to have unnatural skin tones (lighter than usual) because of the powerful flash. Doesn't bother me, but I'm sure some DSLR jockey would be disappointed.

I don't know anything about Lens Error (seen people complaining about Z750 and this) and I'm not going to try. They had an option to make it so the play/record button wouldn't turn on the camera - I disabled that as soon as I found it out of precaution but had already carried the thing around for two days in my pocket before I noticed that option, and never had the thing turn on unexpectedly.

For my needs, the EX-S500 is perfect...I couldn't ask for much more...except maybe the next version they come out with, 8 megapixels and higher quality movie, etc :-)

Opinion: I have researched the 750, all other competitors and first thought I would buy the canon sd400. but instead I bought this little jewel and couldnt be happier. I have taken about 1000 pics so far and have a few blurred images (mostly my fault). This is by far the best little, best built, camera in terms of having something you can carry with you all the time!

I am really impressed with the instant on feature. one of the reasons I liked the camera is the video and sound only recordings. Recording to mpeg4 compression is the greatest, it means I can get almost 4 times the video in the same space and once I push the transfer button on the dock, the videos pop up in the windows video player ready to go - a no brainer!! I was a little disappointed in the quality of the speaker/sound coming out of the camera, but once I transferred the files to the computer, the sound was quite impressive! I am so glad I held out for this camera. and thanks to Ken Rockwell (kenrockwell.com) for his insights into the genius of CASIO!!

I bought a 1gig high speed card and love it. I take this camera everywhere! (the 750 is just a little bigger, but enough that I wouldnt take it with me.) I have caught so many little opportunities because it was in my pocket) it is so small that half the time I forget I have it.

I also found the coolest case for it at the local stationary store-most business card holders fit it great! I chose one made by Johnson&Murphy for about $30. It slips in one end and doesnt make it much thicker (the Casio one makes it too bulky-in my opinion)

I love this camera (by the way I am a research animal and spent way too much time looking - but am so glad I did)

Opinion: I wanted a small but good camera. This camera is really great. Very fast (no shutter lag), excellent and blazing quick focus what do you want more ?

The anti-shake only boots ISO, which sometimes can help, but the integrated NoiseReduction in camera is not very powerfull: This is good because I can use NoiseWare or NeatImage and get excellent results !

In bright light, I take excellents picture.
In low light, I take excellents pictures using the flash. Not weak, not powerfull, the flash gives excellent portraits.

The program modes are well designed. Never had an out-of-focus picture yet, always the right shutter speed was selected by the camera.

The Pan focus - hyperfocal - is a great mode to take action shots.

Video mode works great.

My preferred camera so far (Got a Coolpix 2100, Minolta A1 and this little Casio) even the other I have are really good as well.