Casio QV-5700

Opinion: I'd like to call it a "canon G4", very sharp, fun to use.

Tried, but finally headed for the Olympus c-50. Same ccd size, the bigger one with larger lens does not have too many advantages. Moreover, c-50 is only a little more pricey, but fully manual in a small size.

Opinion: Very good camera, i've been using it for last two weeks and it takes excellent quality images and has all manual controls and 5 mpix.

Opinion: Excellent camera! A few things I would like to mention in here:
- BESTSHOT MODE, over 100 professional presets
- Use 4 AA size of batteries
- Use Compact Flash as the Storage Media
- 5 Megapixels photos
- Big Bright Canon Lens F2.0
- ISO 50 to 800
- Bulb
- Full Manual operations etc.
I would call this camera 'Canon G4' (because of the 5MP), it has allmost all the features Canon G3 does. I can acquire top quality photos without any effort.

Opinion: It is not as good as Minolta D7, not to say later prosumer grade 5Mpix. I purcahse it because my D7 broken and Minolta charge me too much to repair, HK$2800!

The first thing I am interest on is the ISO800 with f/2.0. Originally I think I can shoot at very dark like street corner at night. Also read about the battery performance from its elderly brother QV-4000 and comparison on this web. I read through the data sheet and several reviews. It seems to me that it is a nice camera. I have played it for half an hour before purchase. But I couldn't see operation manual in package as Casio save paper and changed to PDF in CD, and therefore, I have not enough details of operation before paid.

*I know clearly that this is a 1/1.8" sensor and should not be compared to 2/3" sensor.*

Few things that is good to me at this camera:
- pretty small in size and total black in color, much better in snapshot when compare to shiny-silver awful case;
- use AA battery, no need to invest new sets of batteries;
- ISO800 really works though not as good as D7;
- f/2.0 also show good sharpness and save me from hand shaking at dark;
- numerous functions which is far more than enough in advanced point & shoot;
- able to add adaptor lens in front;
- quite good macro when compare to D7;
- flash intensity can be changed though not enough steps;
- instant histogram of brightness level;
- fully manual operation like SLR did;
- very very fine manual focussing with enlarge frame to likely 1CCDpixel to 1LCDpixel;
- top LCD show major settings and color LCD can be turn off;
- 2s self timer save me from purchasing shutter release cable;
- good price, HK$4380 (with local warrantee service).

After purchased, I got not enough time to do a details test. Few tests basic on my most common shooting at below:

1) Indoor with room lights only:
ISO800 & f/2.0 give 1/40s shutter which is bright and fast, no hand shaking problem. Flash works even in ISO800 with less than 2ft distance, Minolta D7 fail to lower the output even in few feet distance (always over expose). Preview on LCD is quite accurate when compare to my CRT and Photoshop, histogram also quite match.

2) Bright sunny day and shooting building and sky: I have tested it with different ISO and TIFF/JPEG. The metering is better than D7, D7 quite usually burn up shadow. The Mosaic pattern is quite a lot obvious than any of my digital camera in 100% view, D7, Canon A40, Olympus C-2000. But still, it resolve some very fine details in which my eyes is just barely can see. This is marginally the same as my D7 doing in resolving power, may be due to less zoom ratio on the lens design. TIFF show that ISO50 looks like D7's ISO100 JPEG-FINE.

3) Sunset at sea-side park: As usual, DC get quite bad sunset photo when compare to film camera with slide film. The blue channel is the most in-accurate when compare to film. This QV-5700 also face the same problem. Even worse is the pal in color by quite a sum of over expose. The metering is pretty much likely stick very close to 18% grey and yet burn the deep color to pal, this is not a good matrix meter should be. The Saturation +2 setting works together with -0.7EV give quite good image. I have a shot with sunlight point straight to CCD at sunset. The flare and reflection is strange to me, a portion of different square sets which is not related to original scenary. Canon lens, included my A40, show very bad flare control when compare to D7, not to say my Pentax SMC and large format lenses.

Later on, I will test the ability on slow shutter and ability on BS functions.

.ps Someone in Hongkong has a test with the best shot function and find bug there. After using BS and go back to normal mode with long expose, the JPEG will have some rubbish info at nearly bottom area. He had checked the other camera and still got the same bug.