Casio Exilim EX-Z30 3MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good for a start
Review: After borrowing my brother's digital camera for a trip this summer, I finally caved and decided to invest in my own. After a bunch of online research I settled on this, and I'm pretty happy with it. The only reason I can't enthuse unrestrainedly is because I haven't had the chance to figure out how everything on it works yet - and it has a LOT of features!

One of the best selling points for me was the size. This thing is TINY! Everyone remarks on it, and I love the fact that I can stick it in a small purse with room to spare when I'm at parties. And despite the overall size, it has a screen that's large enough to appreciate the composition of the photos you take, both before and after.

Another selling point was that it has a Pentax lens, and while I don't know much about cameras, that was a highly-recommended feature on some of the professional photography sites I consulted. Also, the body is mostly metal rather than plastic, making it hardier than some of the cheaper models on the market.

It has enough manual features on it that I can play around for different light effects, etc. But when I want a simple snapshot, it has not only a basic snapshot setting, but a couple dozen "best shot" features that automatically set the various light sensitivities and shutter speeds, etc.

I haven't really had the chance to test it in good outdoors light, since it's winter now and everything's kind of grey, but overall I've been pleased with the photos both in digital form and the few that I've had printed. Some of them have been a bit fuzzy, but I'm convinced that's from my own experimentation with manual settings.

Two other important features made this a smart investment for me: long battery life and speed. I have yet to find myself in a situation where I have run out of batteries in the middle of the day (as I did with my brother's camera a couple of times this summer). The startup speed is impressive - you can start to shoot almost immediately after you press the power button - and the recovery speed between shots is negligible. This is a feature that makes it an invaluable snapshot camera.

The only drawback I can think of at the moment is that 3MP is probably a bit low for the price I paid for the camera. But since I'm not likely to be making many prints that are any larger than the standard 3 x 5, I'm not too worried about that. The money, as far as I'm concerned, went into the construction and features I was looking for.

I think this is a great starter camera for someone who wants something light, portable, durable, generally easy to use but with lots of additional features to play around with to make things interesting. If I were more into photography, I'd obviously want something with more resolution, or an SLR. But as it is, I'm very pleased with my new toy!