Rating: 
Summary: BIG DISSAPOINTMENT
Review: I bought this camera 3 months ago and since then i have kept it indoors. Despite the minimum usage this camera had undergone it broke TWICE! the second time i was informed by the service technicians that the lenses were broken and had to be replaced - i had to pay additionally 300 Euros !!!!!!!
Stay away from this junk!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this camera
Review: 4 Megapixel no way! Takes .5 megapixel shots at best even at highest quality. Speckled pictures with distorted color is the best this camera can do. Don't let the small size fool you its no excuse for the poor picture quality. The workmanship on the camera itself is subpar and fells like a cheap plastic kids toy. This camera is nothing but junk. Don't waste your money, buy something else.
Rating: 
Summary: Conveniently Usable
Review: PROS - Digital convenience, 'pocket' size, battery life, 4.0 MP, 2" LCD, Movie Feature, great macroCONS - problematic color reproduction, lag, intense flash, cradle BOTTOM LINE - I recommend this camera to all who want a very compact digital for convenience, don't mind correcting color & are willing to pay the price. I'm writing this review in March 2004 on my first digital camera, the EX-Z4 purchased in December 2003. I bought the gray market non-USA (not Z4U) version on eBay because I wanted the 1-minute movie feature. The 1-minute movies with sound are excellent. They look clear and natural at 14-fps only limited by the 320x240 pixel size. You can shoot as many 1-minute clips as you have room on the memory card. The manual says you can have longer movies with a larger SD card but I haven't seen that with my 256MB card. I use a 256MB SimpleTech ProXTM Secure Digital (SD) Flash Memory Card, with write speeds up to 10 megabytes per second. I was hoping the fast write speed would reduce the lag between shots. Not sure if it has but I sometimes miss shots in quick situations. This is usually due to auto focus lag and write speed lag for 2nd shot. I read that it's fast but is it fast enough? IMHO, Yes for the casual user, no for more serious needs. The color reproduction is not always very accurate. I was a professional photo developer for 5+ years and acquired a very good eye for color balance. (A tip for noticing correct color balance is to look at shadows. They don't reflect as much color as white and usually should be colorless.) Most always noticeable as blue in flash situations the color in normal daytime use is also inconsistent. It's nothing that Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro can't correct with ease. Although not convenient when you want to run over to the local drug store and print a few right off the SD card. I think you might be able to correct the color at the print kiosk.
I also just downloaded the firmware update on the Casio web site in hopes to fix the poor color reproduction. I will update this review when I have a chance. Also the flash is very strong sometimes causing people to blink or have red eye. The only other inconvenience is that you need the cradle to charge the camera as well as transfer via USB. Not that big of a deal to me. This camera gets used a lot because it's so small it fits in the front pocket of my jeans. It starts up quickly and is ready to shoot on a whim. You can put a lot of pictures on a 256MB card and you can quickly erase ones you don't want. The battery seems to last so long that I don't even realize it uses a rechargeable. So basically the camera is very convenient and therefore a good value for most of your point and shoot needs. The 4.0 MP picture quality is sharp and with the highest setting 2304x1728 on fine you can print even larger than 20"x 30". You get good creative ability with the zoom which is 3X optical (35-105mm) and 4X digital for 12X combined zoom ability. I notice the digital zoom requires a solid tripod or lots of light to maintain sharp clarity and focus. There is even a limited form of depth of field (aperture) control with the custom shots settings. The macro feature allows you to focus as close as 6cm and has awesome clarity. I also wouldn't want to have a smaller LCD viewer than the 2" on this camera, which does a very nice job. You also get a self timer, audio recorder, alarm clock, nice calendar sorting feature and a bunch of programmable custom shot settings. I couldn't hold out for the Sony DCS-T1 5.0 MP at the time I got the EX-Z4. I would guess the Sony is better, because of the resolution, a Carl Zeiss Vario compact optical zoom lens, 2.5" LCD viewer and superior movies. Hopefully better color reproduction too.
Rating: 
Summary: Buyer Beware! - Decent camera, bad service & false warranty
Review: The LCD screen began manfunctioning within the fourth month of light use. CASIO support now states that "lens and screens" are not covered by their warranty despite what is stated in their products and their website.
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointed in the Casia Exilim EX-Z4
Review: Before buying this camera I read many reviews and looked at some very impressive galleries. My comments are: Positives:
1. Small, light and compact.
2. Large LCD screen although too few pixels.
3. Ease of use
4. Excellent macro results. However, the negatives and inherent quality faults outweighed any positive as follows:
1. Within a week of getting my first Z4, the electronics malfunctioned and resulted in the camera 'freezing' every time I used the right arrow next to the select button.
2. This camera also had problems focusing and pictures mysteriously disappeared during download.
3. Picture quality was often poor with excessive 'noise'. I exchanged this camera in mid February 2004, and within two days have experienced the following fault:
1. Excessive blue tinge on all the pictures, regardless of whether a flash was used. Downloading the Firmware upgrade 1.02 has not improved or solved this problem. All pictures taken with this camera are unusable. Correction of the white balance will temporarily solve this problem until the camera is turned off when this correction is lost. My advice is that until Casio have seen to their quality problems, this camera should be given as wide a berth as possible. I will now return this camera and try exchange it for a different make - possible the Canon A80. As a last comment, Casio, while having a very informative web site, do not appear to have an easily assessable customer care line or comment/feedback section.
Rating: 
Summary: Width and Height of a Credit Card
Review: Take a credit card out of your wallet right now and look at it. This camera is the same width and height as the credit card and a little less than an inch thick. And it's only 4.55oz including the battery! And it has 3x optical zoom! Amazing! I don't use the software because it so easily works with Windows XP. As soon as I plug it into the docking station and hit the USB button, a dialog appears on my screen asking me what I want to do with the camera. I choose to open a folder to view the pictures as thumbnails. You can even have Windows XP automatically do this every time. I then select the photos and hit cut (Ctrl-X). Then I paste them to my hard drive. It's that simple and it's fast. You will not be disappointed with this camera.
Rating:
Summary: Slick little camera with a big screen
Review: BENEFITS (my opinion):
Even though the Z4U does not have movie or AV cables, it's a nice camera because of the many neat features as well as being ultra small.
1) Camera SIZE & LCD - as advertised, this little camera is very compact. Go to the Casio Exilim site to view the demo. The size of the camera shown in the demo is exactly the same as the actual camera. The LCD, though lower in resolution, is still a plus. No more squinting at a tiny LCD.
2) BUTTON PLACEMENT - Before buying, I held and handled the Minolta Dimage 3.2mp, the Pentax Optio 3.2mp, and the Canon Powershot S400. Of the four cameras, the Exilim Z4 'felt' the best to me. I liked how all of the buttons were placed on one side of the camera (rather than all around) and the large LCD was placed on the other side. I can hold the Exilim comfortably in one hand (with camera strap on) and press the
buttons while someone else is viewing the pics. My big thumb doesn't get in anyone's way. It works the same when I'm taking pics; I can press the buttons for options I need without blocking the LCD.
3) NO rotating "WHEEL" - Thankfully, the Exilim has no wheel button to rotate for optional features. In a big camera, it's not as bad, but for an ultra compact camera, I found the wheel to be a nuisance. If you have big fingers, you have to use your fingernails (if you have any) to rotate the wheel.
4) LOOKS - Of the four cameras I looked at, the Dimage looked the plainest. The Dimage has similar zoom features, but there is no physical telescoping lens-- all of the zoom is done with its special optical non-telescoping lens technology.
5) PICTURE QUALITY - The Powershot S400 appeared to be the best in all low light situations; the Dimage the worst. The Exilim, if used correctly, will take good photos in low light with less purplish 'noise'. DON'T use the digital zoom in low light situations because it enhances the noise factor. On the other hand, the Exilim takes excellent outdoor photos. I guess the downside of an ultra compact camera is that photos in low light situations do not turn out the way you expect in some cases.
4) BESTSHOT mode - The Bestshot templates (21 of them) are excellent. Examples: B&W, Sepia, Coupling shots (split screen 'ghost' image), Pre-shot (background 'ghost' image), Night Scene, Twilight, Sundown, Natural Green, Collection (for toy photos).. and more. Besides Coupling and Preshot, you really don't need to use the templates because the camera does a great job without them.
5) SELF TIMER - 10sec, 2sec, and x3. I found the x3 function VERY helpful. In group shots, the camera takes three consecutive photos without having to run back and forth to the camera. The first delay is 10sec and the remaining two shots have a ~5sec delay. This feature helped me pick out nice shots. Also, the large LCD screen makes it a snap to position and center a group shot on a tripod.
6) Power Saving Mode - The sleep mode and power off mode are handy in saving battery power.
7) AUTO FOCUS - The time it takes for the camera to focus in Autofocus mode is very quick. However, Exilim doesn't take close-up shots in Auto Focus mode very well, so use Macro mode and the close-up photos come out great. Make sure to press the button halfway to focus before fully depressing to snap the shot.
8) ISO - The Exilim does an excellent job in selecting the proper ISO (in auto ISO mode) versus if you set it yourself manually.
9) BATTERY LIFE & CHARGE TIME - On a two week trip, I did not have to charge the battery the entire time. Charge time itself took a couple of hours. CONS:
The learning curve on the Exilim Z4 may be high if this is your first digital camera. I already have an older digital camera, but I needed to play around with options/functions for a couple of weeks before I started taking serious photos with it. However, once I got the hang of it, I can use the Exilim with ease.
1) DELETING FILES - In the delete menu, 'delete' and delete all files' are on the same screen, so it is easy to accidentally delete all of your pics if you are pressing buttons very fast. This happened the first time I fiddled with the camera.
2) INSTRUCTION MANUAL - The contents of the Exilim box contains a 'brief' camera manual pamplet. You will need to refer to the PDF manual on the CD-rom or print it out in order to read full instructions.
3) CAMERA CASE - There isn't any...
4) BLURRY SHOTS - Easily avoided if you hold the camera steady, but a nuisance if you have never used a digital camera before. I learned to take shots with a steady hand when I first bought my old digital camera, so this was not much of a problem with me.. but my spouse is still getting used to it.
5) LCD SCRATCHES - to avoid scratches on the rather large LCD, I cut to size and stuck on a clear plastic overlay (used for PDA screens).
Rating:
Summary: EX-Z4U travel charger & cases
Review: The Casio BC-10L battery charger will charge batteries for the EX-Z4U (and all other Exilim cameras). You can buy this charger from the Casio Exilim web site (and hopefully soon Amazon!). The charger is about the size of a PCMCIA card, plus the inevitable (but not excessively large) power brick. The combination of a USB SD reader and the BC-10L is arguably the same size as the cradle and its cables, but with a charger and extra NP-20DBA battery, I find that I can leave the charger and cradle at home and only travel with the SD reader. I just swap batteries whenever the camera is running low. As a side note, the EX-Z4U is only slightly smaller than an iPod and fits nicely into many of the fabric and neoprene iPod sleeve-cases. I've been keeping mine in a Timbuk2 iPod case I found at an Apple Store. Of course if you're ordering from Casio's web site already, get yourself a EXCASE2 or EXCASE3. I like this camera a lot for the small size, decent optical zoom, great battery life and large LCD screen. It's a great camera to own if you want to always have your camera around and just want decent pictures. If you want to be Ansel Adams, get a different camera. ^_^ There are three big drawbacks I've noticed so far: First, the camera has terrible low-light performance (in comparison to a Canon S10 and a Kodak DC260). Pictures taken without the flash are dark and grainy, often with purple specks on them. Expect to use the flash all the time. Second, the camera ships with "medium" compression turned on. Presumably this is so you can put more than 3 pictures on the camera out-of-the-box (the built-in memory is small). However, I took 20 pictures or so before I noticed this and was annoyed by the compression artifacts on the originals. When you get the camera, make sure you turn the "Quality" to "Fine". And last, of course, is the lack of a movie mode in the US version of the camera. The EX-Z4U can even *play* movies recorded by other Exilim cameras, just not record them. Talk about adding insult to injury. Also, get the latest EX-Z4U firmware from Casio's web site if you don't already have it. The 1.0 firmware has some white balance problems which the latest version fixes.
Rating:
Summary: Great photo quality, easy use, tiny size!
Review: I did A LOT of research before buying this camera. My coworkers are so impressed with my new camera, that 2 of them have purchased the same model! Here are the major reasons I bought the Casio Exilim EX-Z4U: - Tiny size
- Excellent photo quality
- 3X optical zoom (I turned off the digital zoom)
- Ease of use
- Quick speed The only thing this camera is missing is the movie mode. This feature is available outside of the US on the EX-Z4, but not the EX-Z4U. PS - I picked this one over the Pentax Optio S4 because of the feedback I kept reading about the superior photo quality from the Casio Exilim EX-Z4U.
Rating:
Summary: Great screen, Great camera
Review: I've had this camera for about three weeks and have taken about 500 photos. The photos are terrific. The camera is a joy. I chose it due to its small size and large screen. Compared to the competitive products, the 2" screen is wonderful. My kids jump to see how each picture comes out and crowd around this little marvel. Battery life has been great. My only criticisms would be the software that came with the camera (both the casio and the kodak) is poor. You are much better off with a copy of acdsee. I would also like the ability to use a small travel charger and not need the cradle all the time. finally, the cradle is not usb 2 compatible, so I use my USB 2.0 card reader. I debated between this and the elf and have no regrets about my choice
| 
