Rating: 
Summary: Awesome quick portable
Review: If you are looking for a digital replacement for your point and shoot 35mm, this is it. If you don't want to click 100 buttons and figure out 50 menus, this is it. If however, you are looking for the prints that you can oooh and ahhh about every detail in a closeup of nosehairs, this may not be the camera for you.So far I've been stuck inside with the Boston temperatures, but I've managed to take about 150 pictures in the week or so I've had it. To get good closeups, the flash is somewhat harsh, but if you use the red-eye mode, it seems much better. You can assign functions to the main control, so you can click from flash to red eye mode, to force no flash in a couple of clicks. Also, the other mode dial can control another feature of your choosing. Its a better UI for all of the controls than my Olympus C5050 (my photographer in me digital camera). Overall the quality of shots is good, not excellent, but I don't think they were meant to be excellent. The reason I bought the camera was for the fixed focus lens believe it or not. I didn't want to mess with a zoom, and this makes picture taking very fast as well. You click the button, it takes the picture. No lag as with other digital cameras trying to figure out what to focus on. Also, the movies are more useful than I first thought, good enough to send to grandparents and archive for future moments. I can't wait to take this outside when it warms up! I would recommend this as a 2nd digital, or as a primary digital for someone wanting a very portable, easy camera to use.
Rating: 
Summary: Almost perfect take-with-you camera but w/ quality problems
Review: If you even know me for just one day, you'd know that I love taking pictures. I have 2 other digicams (Olympus D450 and Canon S30, plus the Verizon vx6000 camera phone) and 7 or so film cameras. Having kids, I needed a camera that I will *always* have with me, regardless of the ocassion or what I'm wearing. I was very excited when the S3 became available and snapped up this camera about 8 months ago. 8,000 pictures later, I'm confident that I can give it a pretty much fair assessment. THE ROLE: The role for this camera for me is to be always available for group and family shots, indoors or outdoors. With it's size and speed, it fits that role perfectly. It's inexpensive enough that it's almost disposable, in a sense that if I lose it I would definately miss the pictures in it more than the camera itself. PORTABILITY: The reason I bought this camera is the convenience. As you know, It's very small. I carry it everywhere, including at home. You never know when the baby is going to do something cute! In that front the S3 is excellent. Very portable and always available. IMAGE QUALITY: Get real. With a tiny fixed focus, fixed focal-length lens, I didn't expect the S3 to have the same image quality as the $1000 Canon 300D DSLR or even my Canon S30. However, I was pleasently surprised. The image quality, especially for what I use it for, is excellent. For family, friends group shots, it's more than just okay. 8x10 enlargements is no problem. As I found it, fix focus can acually be a benefit (speed, huge depth-of-field). Having a video mode is essential for me, but read in pro/con section about the video. PRODUCT QUALITY: However, there are some serious quality problems witht this camera. First of all, over the length of 6 months, the lens got dirty internally, and small grey spots shows up in the same location of every picture. I could shake the camera and got the dust to move around, but I couldn't get rid of it. Then, the flash stops firing reliabily. Then, the case turns yellow in the front, where I rest my middle finger when holding the camera. Not wanting to part with it, I hesitantly sent it back to Casio. EIGHT LONG WEEKS and many phone calls later, I finally got the camera back. The dust is gone, the flash problem is fixed, and they even replaced the camera case. But the amount of time it took was no excuse - I missed the entire holiday season (Thanksgiving, Christmas) on this camera (I had others cameras to work with). So when I said that I've had it for 8 months, it's actually 6 months, plus 2 in the shop. Pros:
- The size is great
- Image quality is excellent for a fix-lens, fix-focal-length camera
- Fast (start-up, shotting, navigating through pictures)
- Conversation piece
- The most excellent www.exilim.jp site, especially the Exilim Avenue web magazine (in Japanese language)
- Movie mode which Casio eliminated in ther Z4U and S20U models. But see cons.
- Spare battery is cheap on eBay for about seven bucks each. I have 4 spares but rarely use it because the battery life is excellent (much better than my Canon S30)
- Inexpensive Cons:
- My camera lens got dirty internally. Until I sent it back to Casio, it had small grey spots in each picture and was very annoying.
- Over time, the camera case tarnished and turns yellow
- Repair services, if you ever needed, is SLLOOW. Took them 8 weeks to fix my camera
- No true thumbnail view of every picture (only calendar-view)
- Casio-branded cases not widely available in the US
- The video quality is quite low compare to the other digicams. The Motion JPEG artifacts is more apparent than with my Canon S30. However, once you convert it from AVI (MJPEG) to MPG (MPEG-1) with VirtualDub, the quality dramatically improves. It became VCD / NTSC quality and the JPEG artifacts actually went away. Most amazing. Overall, it's an excellent camera that I still carry with me daily. However, I would only recommend this as being your secondary, almost-disposable, take-along camera considering its shortcomings. I'm personally looking forward to the next batchs of Canon cameras in 2004 to add another one to my collection.
Rating: 
Summary: Oh my gawd! I finally found a digital camera I like!
Review: Ladies and gentlemen: I have owned numerous digital cameras. One brand broke after 6 months. Another stopped being able to focus. Another took [bad] photos. One was too big. One only took 15 pictures on a set of batteries... In my eternal quest to find "the" digital camera, I purchased this one. WOW! I had been looking originally for a 4 MP camera, but settled for this 3.2 MP camera because of the features. I was NOT disappointed! This baby is SMALL! Really small! Yet, it has a large picture preview screen! It has a flash. It has a rechargeable battery. It takes LOTS of pictures on a charge. It makes AVI files! The photos are of good quality! It links with Windows XP without having to install any software. It kicks ...! Get this one!
Rating:
Summary: Great camera but not durable at all
Review: Lovely camera, great photos while it lasts. Fits wonderfully in your pocket. But that's exactly the problem--the camera seems to be extremely heat or moisture sensitive. Though I was careful not to carry it with anything else that might scratch it, small "blooms" or spots gradually form on the LCD display and inside the lens, ruining both the viewfinder and the pictures. Perhaps this is the reason they have discontinued this model.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, Tiny, Lightweight, Take-Everywhere Dig Cam...
Review: My overall rating of this tiny digital camera has been positive so far. When buying a digital camera, I basically wanted to focus on shutter speed since my last digital camera, Kodak LS 443's shutter speed was so slow compared to Casio Exilim. I also wanted a lightweight digital camera. I also had a budget in which I didn't want to spend tons of money on a gadget in which will be replaced by a newer higher-tech gadget later on. And wanted a user-friendly digital camera in which I didn't need to carry their manual with me. Here were my reasons for buying this digital camera:
First of all, I bought this camera after my x-bf got his Exilim M2 which I fell in love and had to get my own Casio Exilim. It is such a small digital camera in which I take with me in purse and can snap a quick picture anywhere and anytime.
Second of all, it has a HUGE LCD display which makes it easier to see what your picture will look like when you are trying to center the picture.
Third of all, price of this digital camera was very reasonable compared to other high-end digital camera, like Sony.
Fourt of all, it is such an user-friendly digital camera that I didn't need to read the manual at all.
Lastly, I set my picture resolution to FINE in order to see the best picture quality and I love the fast shutter-speed. Keep up the great work @ Casio. I can't wait for S100 price to go down since that will be my next gadget purchase. It's too bad that Casio is not being sold in a lot of the bigger electronics store but more available online in which case, I bought it from Amazon.com site. I bought this camera last 5/2004 and it still takes excellent pictures. I take a lot of events pictures.
Rating:
Summary: miniature 3MP camera but compromises abound
Review: pros:
- amazingly small and light - truly pocketable at 3.5 x 2.2 x 0.5 inches, weighing in at 2.5 oz!
- all-metal body.
- 3MP resolution.
- full 2" LCD.
- fast startup.
- virtually no shutter lag since lens has fixed focal length.
- fast shot to shot times.
- allows a surprising amount of control, including manual white balance
- plenty of preprogrammed scene modes.
- handy dock for photo transfer / battery charging. cons:
- no optical zoom.
- mediocre picture quality - lots of noise, plus some blurriness and vignetting.
- high redeye occurrence.
- no macro mode.
- RAW and TIFF formats not supported.
- the LCD is a full 2", but is low resolution.
- no tripod mount.
- longest shutter setting is 1/4 second - with no tripod mount, it didn't make sense to have longer shutter settings.
- average movie mode.
- 10MB of on-board memory is definitely not enough - add $$ to your budget for more memory.
- so-so battery life.
- proprietary battery - again, a few more bucks for a spare.
- body easily scratched.
- manual is on CD. i'm very impressed with this camera because of the engineering that went into this miniaturization marvel. but the small size forces the user to accept mediocre picture quality. in the end, portability is only half the story. if you end up not being happy with the pictures you take because of poor quality, then the camera has failed in its mission. if you can find room in your pocket for a camera that will be half an inch thicker and weigh 2 to 3 ounces more, i would recommend the pentax optio S, casio's ex-z3, or canon's sd100. these options will deliver much better pictures and have optical zoom. i hope this helps you with your buying decision. peace.
Rating:
Summary: miniature 3MP camera but compromises abound
Review: pros:
- amazingly small and light - truly pocketable at 3.5 x 2.2 x 0.5 inches, weighing in at 2.5 oz!
- all-metal body.
- 3MP resolution.
- full 2" LCD.
- fast startup.
- virtually no shutter lag since lens has fixed focal length.
- fast shot to shot times.
- allows a surprising amount of control, including manual white balance
- plenty of preprogrammed scene modes.
- handy dock for photo transfer / battery charging. cons:
- no optical zoom.
- mediocre picture quality - lots of noise, plus some blurriness and vignetting.
- high redeye occurrence.
- no macro mode.
- RAW and TIFF formats not supported.
- the LCD is a full 2", but is low resolution.
- no tripod mount.
- longest shutter setting is 1/4 second - with no tripod mount, it didn't make sense to have longer shutter settings.
- average movie mode.
- 10MB of on-board memory is definitely not enough - add $$ to your budget for more memory.
- so-so battery life.
- proprietary battery - again, a few more bucks for a spare.
- body easily scratched.
- manual is on CD. i'm very impressed with this camera because of the engineering that went into this miniaturization marvel. but the small size forces the user to accept mediocre picture quality. in the end, portability is only half the story. if you end up not being happy with the pictures you take because of poor quality, then the camera has failed in its mission. if you can find room in your pocket for a camera that will be half an inch thicker and weigh 2 to 3 ounces more, i would recommend the pentax optio S, casio's ex-z3, or canon's sd100. these options will deliver much better pictures and have optical zoom. i hope this helps you with your buying decision. peace.
Rating:
Summary: Stylish - but the lenses could be better
Review: Pros:
Smallest high-res camera on the market
Great USB cradle for simple transfer of pictures
Takes nice close-up photos in good lighting
Crowd pleaser - sure to elicit oohs and ahhs, if that is what you are seeking
Very fast power up - turn it on and start shooting
Pretty good battery life
Nice 2" LCD
Very convienent Cons:
Lenses could be better for the price
Lack of controls (may be a plus for the beginner)
Battery takes longer than average to charge
Could be easy to lose from pocket Conclusion - there are many better quality 3 megapixel cameras at this price level, but you are paying for the size. If you are less concerned about absolute picture quality and want something that you might enjoy taking with you for a night on the town, this just may be your camera.
Rating:
Summary: Very nice
Review: Pros: - Great design. Very sleek. Large LCD is an attention grabber. - Portability. Very light and thin. The actual size is not as small as you'd think. But the lightness of the camera and it's thinness makes this maybe the most portable camera. You can just put it in your front shirt pocket and not feel like anything's in there. - Lots of cool functions. The best shot mode is awesome. It allows you to make your own settings, and use it at ease. ISO levels are pretty decent too, considering it's such a small cam. - I thought that the quality of the pics were very good. I'm merely a beginner, so this may not mean much, but I really thought this cam took some nice pictures, and I didn't even set it at the highest resolution. Perhaps, if you are really into photography, you may notice, but if you are, you probably would want to go with the SLR's anyway. Cons: - Too small? Well, this is actualy a good thing, but because it's so portable, it's really easy to lose. I actually lost my first Ex-3 on my first week, then bought another one, only to lose it again! Luckliy, I found it the second time around, but it just shows u, how easy it is to misplace it. - Lack of a good case. First, it doesn't come with a case. You have to buy it. But even the ones that are out in the market, are not that great IMO. The cases make the camera bulkier, kind of beating the purpose of having this camera. - No Zoom. Yes, there's digital zoom, but like everyoneelse in this site has mentioned, is practically useless. You mind as well just take the picture normally, then zoom it up in photoshop. It'll give you pretty much the same effect. I found zoom to be quite a necessary feature in photography, after i played around with my friend's zoomable camera. - No burst mode. yes, it's really fast and easy to turn it on and take a picture, but you still have to hold the camera steady for like a second or two, before it actually takes the picture. For example, if you wanted to take a picture of someone who didn't want to (hehe), you would probably take a picture of them on a surprise, but by the time the camera actually takes the picture, they'll have their hands on their face. So it's not 'instant', as I thought it would be. I think for it to be instant, it needs 'burst mode'. Comparable Kyocera cam has this. - The recharger/USB port is cumbersome. It's nice when u have it at home, but if you were travelling, you'd have to carry that whole cradle with u, just so u can recharge ur batteries. Conclusion: Suffice it to say, I bought the camera again for the second time, after I lost it the first time. This should tell you how much I like the camera. It's really the most portable camera out there, outside of those 1 mega pixel spy cams, and its features and sleek look, make it a true winner. But for my next cam, I'm going to make sure that it has zoom capability and burst mode.
Rating:
Summary: So thin...so many resources...fits my front pocket.
Review: So thin...so many resources...fits my front pocket.
Great Lcd screen...great resolution!
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