I'm very impressed with the EX-G1. I've been a long time user of Casio camera products, until an unfortunate camera meets water incident in the Caribbean forced me to buy a Nikon S3 which as performed well for several years, until it died. I bought a Pentax Optio WS-80 and was not impressed, neither with the cheap plastic feel, nor the quality of the photos. Blue sky almost always looked like cloudy sky. So, with Casio's new introduction of the EX-G1, I was intrigued to find out if the almost twice the cost as compared to the WS-80 was worth it. Jumping to the conclusion... yes, it's worth every penny. Here are things I like, and don't like. Slim design. Precision operation of controls. Interval shooting can be set to 10sec, 30 sec, 1min, 3min, and can record photos for 3, 10, 20, 30 minutes. The display can remain on during interval shooting, or you can configure it to be off (presumably to save battery power). The WS-80 didn't have a display on/off option, and the interval settings may be slightly more flexible, but it's insignificant. I also like the video record button, which with one press, starts filming. Casio's Best Shot mode is also accessed with a single button press. The WS-80 has the battery, memory, and USB port under a single cover, which was quite flimsy such that I believe a bad drop would render the camera less than waterproof. The EX-G1 has two compartments. The battery compartment has a substantial and solid stainless steel door that takes quite a bit of effort to get open; a butter knife might come in handy. Perhaps in time it will operate more easily. The memory and USB compartment is accessed via a thumb knob that pops open the compartment cover. I like the precision operation of this compartment, but am a little concerned about an accidental opening while snorkeling, as the thumb knob need only be moved about 15 degrees (1/8 inch) to open the compartment below. A better design would have been more of a screw operation requiring a full revolution. Then again, the real probability of me inadvertently turning the thumb know is probably unlikely. I do have some concern about the tripod mount being off center. I also like the gazillion programmable options to setup and customize the camera to my liking. For example, photo's can be shot in low, normal, or high detail, regardless of the size photo selected. Whereas the Optio WS-80 only took high detail photos in the 10MH mode. Small high quality photos are mostly acceptable for the photos I take. The USB interface is not "standard" such as what I use for my blackberry, or Motorola headset. It's just slightly different... would have been nice if it were the same as the other couple USB cables I have competing for USB ports on my PC, but that's not a big deal. For years I harped on a contact I have at Casio technical support to produce a camera with interval shooting... I'm happy it's here, and that it comes in a waterproof, shockproof design. Even the packaging (the box it comes in) for the camera is cool; it looks sort of like a rock. I do wish they included a printed manual (the included CD contains the manual). The Pentax Optio WS-80 is being returned, but for buyers on a limited budget, it may suffice; however, the EX-G1 is well worth the extra money.Update one year later December 2010: During the past year I've experienced the following. The flash and shutter release got out of sync, so all flash photos were nearly black. I sent the camera in for for repair, and they needed to replace the main circuit board, which was out of stock. I was leaving for a trip, so Casio jumped in and sent me a refurbished unit, which was a blessing since the original was quite scratched. Very good customer service! I've used it underwater in the Caribbean. Underwater shots look good. One problem, however, is that it appears in high humidity environments, and when left in the sun, condensation builds up inside the lens, thus all photos are foggy until the camera cools. An extended dip in the ocean, or cooling the camera in the shade seems to fix that problem. I've had no problems with leaks in the camera, but would caution that sudden contact with water, or swimming, may well put excessive pressure on the seals and force a leak. So, in my opinion, it is good to walk into water with, but don't dive into the water with it. Daylight photo quality is good. Night time photo quality is disappointing. I had a Nikon S3 which had a night mode where the flash would fire several times to illuminate the background, and always got excellent results, but the Casio doesn't have this feature, so the subject is illuminated, but the background is dark, even using the night portrait scene mode. I really like the compact slim design that is the best of any on the market. I like the actual buttons rather than touch screen technology used in some cameras. I look forward to the next generation of the EX-G1, whenever that might be.
Update January 2011: I'm back from my two week Caribbean vacation and want to report the "new" (actually replacement camera) performed flawlessly and some of the fogging problems I had with the first one must have been related to water leaking, because I had no issues with this one, in or out of the water. In summary, I suppose the original one must have had just enough water leak into the camera to allow it to vaporize and fog the lense and sensor??? Anyway, I continue to be very happy. However, night photos just aren't as good as I've experienced with other cameras, as they tend to be rather grainy, even with the night landscape or night portrait setting. Day photos are superb. I shot all at the highest / largest setting 12 megapixels.
I had no troubles opening the battery or memory card compartments. The instructions are clear and simple enough on the quick start guide that the full manual isn't necessary unless you need more detailed info (FYI, the full manual does come with the camera, it's just loaded on the CD, as opposed to a hard copy). The battery took roughly an hour and a half to fully charge. The user interface is friendly, and the navigation buttons are intuitive and well designed.
The Best Shot options, the alternative to Nikon's "Scenes," are plenty and quite nifty including ones I've never seen before, like the Ebay and Dynamic modes. The EX-G1 also allows for adjustment of flash intensity, which makes it a plus when a standard intensity level simply doesn't cut it for the different environments the camera is so well suited for. The picture quality, in both color and filtered modes, is comparable to my Nikon, which I thought was great for its price. The movie recording mode works quite well with good contrast and a relatively high resolution. There're quite a few features that I haven't yet figured out how to work, but so far, the EX-G1 hasn't disappoint!
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This camera is not waterproof as advertised. It has 2 compartments. One is for the battery, the other for the memory card. The door to the battery compartment requires 2 hands to open. The door to the memory card compartment opens seemingly on its own. It is a knob with little cogs located in very close proximity to most of the other controls for the camera that evidently turns easily without the user being aware. Unfortunately it opened the second time we had the camera in the water. This occurred while we were on our honeymoon and as a result we lost the pictures we had taken thus far and were left without the camera we had purchased expressly for the trip.Casio refused to do anything for us stating that it was due to operator error. We were told that we "must have opened the compartment door." Why we would have intentionally opened the compartment door prior to entering the water is beyond me. We are now out $300, a camera and many pictures that cannot be replaced. Up until the time this occured we were very excited about the camera and had been showing it off and talking it up to family and friends. Now we are left with a very poor opinion of Casio, their products and their customer service.
I see that others have had the same experience with this camera in th short time since its release. This indicates to me a design flaw in the location/mechanism for the compartment door. It is my belief that Casio should do the right thing, admit they have a problem and compensate those of us who purchased their camera in good faith expecting a quality product that would serve us for the purposes for which it was advertised.The design issue I have with this camera is the knob you see on the side of the camera, it turns to open the door panel to the USB/Memory card. This knob can be turned by accident and open without you knowing about it. This happened to me when I put the camera in my swimming shorts pocket and went into a pool. My moving around in the pool with my girlfriend caused the knob to turn, opening the door and destroying the camera.
I call this a design flaw, because the door panel that covers the battery requires a pry bar tool that you attach to your camera leash. It's a two hand effort to get that door panel open, yet the USB/Memory card panel can be open with just a brush to the knob. As I found out I can open it with no hands!
When I sent the camera to Casio's authorized repair center. They told me Casio has instructed them that any water that gets into this camera is caused by user error and the warranty does not apply. That is pretty presumptuous, the user is always the cause of the problem...
Moral of this story, beware of buying a newly released product as this is Casio's first entry into the tough and rugged camera line. I'm sure this will be fixed in time and then it's a nice camera to compete with Cannon and Olympus, but until then, I recommend staying away from this camera or you will be like me, out $300 and looking to buy another camera.
Spoke directly with Casio customer service today and they confirmed what the Casio repair had told me. If the camera fails because of a water leak, it is the fault of the owner and not Casio. One brand new Casio camera heading to the landfill...When you open the box and pick up this camera for the first time, you notice two things:
First: Its heavy. Not too heavy, but heavy.
Second: Its thin, much thinner than I expected it to be.
When you start it up, you are dazzled by the brightness and clarity of the LCD display.
I was used to smaller and not so bright displays.
I had to make changes to the saturation to get good pictures. The one picture of my sisters dog, Polly is after
I made changes to the settings.
I am pleased, amazed, at the video this camera takes, again much better than I had thought it would be.
I am a little disappointed at the quality of the pictures, not so much the color, but the whites. On my two GS Dogs
where the white blends into the black, the whites seem more like grayish and the blacks are blotted.
I will play with it more.
I also can't find the owners manual; I don't know if I lost it when I opened the box or if it did not come with the box.
Not that REAL MEN use owners manuals anyway. But it would be nice. Nothing on their website as of yet.
One more semi-negative thing:
Battery:
To charge it, you must remove the battery from the camera. On the Kodak, you just plug the mini-usb cable in and while you
are transferring pictures the camera charges. I had hoped, this would be the same, as it is very smart of anyone to allow this.
I guess not.
The good news is that you do not lose your time / date settings when you remove the battery.
Overall, for about three hours of use, I am pretty impressed with the camera. Its heavy and seems like it is put together
to last. I hope so for the money it costs.
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