Casio Exilim EXP505 5MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom

I'm very happy with this purchase. I've had it for a month now and it has worked flawlessly. It takes great stills, on par with other 5mp cameras, but that's not why I got it. I wanted something that could do decent stills & videos so I wouldn't need my camcorder anymore. The vids are not quite as good as a DV camcorder, but I'll settle for 90% of dv camcorder quality for the joy of leaving the camcorder at home. Another thing tape sucks! It takes forever to get a movie on tape into my computer for editing/burning. Saving movies on a SD card rocks!

My only gripes are the included software and camera computer interface.

Each time you take a movie clip, it is saved on teh SD card as a seperate mpeg4 file. That's OK, except Casio doesn't include an easy way to link the clips together again. The included Movie Wizard software will let you link together clips, but you must save them as dv or mpeg1/2 files which are much bigger and the conversion process is very slow. I searched the net and found a program called avi joiner to quickly splice together mpeg4 clips.

As for the camera computer interface, I have had trouble moving large video files from the camera to my HDD. The process errors out and I get a message that the connection to the camera is lost. I have to cycle power on the camera and try again. I always get them off eventually, but it is a pain. I haven't tried it with a different computer, so it might not have anything to do with the camera.

But overall I am very happy with the EX-P505

Had this camera for about 2 months for a good trial, still images captured on the 5 MegaPixel sensor is acceptable not great, manual controls like aperture and shutter priority will appeal to the budding amateur looking for more options to practise true photography. The swivel LCD is a real bonus for taking photos above a hoarding crowd, but visibility is less than adequate in bright sunlight.

Some of the neat features include a built-in -2EV ND (Neutral Density) filter, a macro setting that automatically kicks in when focusing upclose, a 5 step incremental adjustment of flash intensity, which generally perform better than a normal compact, giving a decent 'throw' up to 6 meters. And not forgeting a very useful fast start-up time of less than a second, plus a good battery life for >200 shots on a single charge.

The 5X optical zoom lense perform well on photo. A point to note, the zoom isn't smooth but graduated in 5 steps, a real letdown. The lense will also accept 43mm add-on lense mount or filter, e.g. wide angle lense or a polarizer.

The best feature however has to be the 30 fps VGA MPEG-4 capture, with the HQ setting, a 1GB SD card gives you 30 minutes of excellent live action. An added feature lets you record video 5 seconds the shutter is press, nice! With a firmware update, this camera now accepts the newly introduced 2GB SD card.

In general, this camera packs a lot of features for its size, definitely worth a look if you want something that is light and compact yet has the tweaks only available on digital SLRs.

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I ordered the SanDisk Ultra II 2.0 GB and I use Windows XP and at first, I followed the directions to a "T" and it just wasn't working. I searched the internet to see if anyone else was having the same problem. I went to the CASIO website and there wasn't any information about it. Finally . . . I got this weird idea in my head, that "What if I change the "USB" in the Set-up menu to "PTP" (PictBridge), maybe it might work." I seriously tried everything and I was crossing my fingers on this one. And honestly, from what I was reading, it seemed that SD card readers weren't working either, and I didn't want to have to fork out another $30-40 for one if I wasn't sure it was going to work.

Anyways, I turned off my camera and turned it on after I had changed the settings and IT WORKED!!!!!!! You can either copy them directly using "Windows Explorer" to a different folder, or set it up to automatically copy the pics/video files to somewhere else on your computer. If you're using the "Photo Loader" Program (AWESOME that it automatically puts them in HTML form after you've put the pics in the library), you have to load the images through the program, which is really easy. (At least you can get your pics off the camera, now.)

It's small and compact, which is great during a day of sightseeing and not having to lug around a heavy camera. It sits perfectly in the palm of my hand and I have long fingers. It has grippers to stablize what you're filming/taking pics of. I love all the options for "Best Shot." The 40x zoom is great for a digital camera. The movie modes are great, too!! The microphone works great. I didn't have to buy a new camera case, because it fit perfectly in my old one. I love the way the LCD screen swivels, almost like having a little camcorder in hand.

Overall, the camera is great for someone like me, who'd like to experiment with "Aperture," "Shutter speeds" and manual focusing, as well just being able to take some pictures and be able to share them with friends and family easily.

My only real complaint is that the "Photo Loader" software only sends pics one at a time through the program. (It's just easier to open a message and attach them manually.)

I've also read that you can buy lens that attach, too. I'm not that advanced, yet. LOL! Anyways, check out for a more in-depth descriptions along with examples. (One of the main reasons I decided to get this camera was based on what I read there.)

Edited July 19, 2008: I have now had this camera for nearly 3 years and it still takes great pics and videos. And we've taken over 15,000 pics using it. Recently used it to take video of 4th of July Fireworks, and I love that I can cut scenes before I download them to my computer.

I've only bought SanDisk Ultra II 2.0 GB SD cards and every single one has worked in it. I have read online that cards bigger than 2.0 GB don't work with this camera, though. (Probably because the bigger cards were released after this camera was originally released.)

Before I got this camera, I always had to edit the pics I took, but this camera, I've only had to edit very few, and it's usually because I set the wrong settings prior to taking those pics. So, the hours that I've saved from editing pics has paid for this camera so many times over.

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I love this camera. The swivel view screen works very well when you want to take pictures at an awkward angle. As a photographer, I really need that.

The camera is tiny. It can fit in the palm of my hand, and my hand is rather small. It can easily fit into my purse or perhaps a large pocket, so you can take it wherever you want to go. It is not so small that it seems easily damaged, though.

The videos are the most amazing I've ever seen on a digital camera. Good quality and pretty high resolution. I love the fact that you can also hook the camera up to a TV to review your pictures and videos.

I've never had a digital camera with optical zoom before. It was so much better than digital zoom.

I think the main reason I love this camera is because it has an AMAZING macro focus. You can get the slightest little details in fingerprints, bugs, etc, etc.

I didn't like that if I accidentally plugged my camera in before installing the driver for it, it would never work on that computer. It makes it clear not to do that in the directions, but I had forgotten a few times.

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Mac users...

My opinion is that for a Mac user you can't get a better camera for the cash. Plug and Play with iPhoto.

This camera is the one to get if you want to spend less than $300. The quality of the images and feature set far out weigh the shutter lag. Super easy to capture those impromptu YouTube moments with this unit. I researched many and bought the Casio. Yes, a Casio (keyboards and calculators!). The EXP505 is a slick looking, compact camera that mirrors more exotic full size SLRs (I consider this camera to be a Point-n-Shoot). I agree with the others in this review section except for the dude that slams the Exilim for not going toe to toe with the big boys and the guy that had trouble with SD cards. Maybe he got a bum card or didn't format it with the camera before using. I have had no issue. Menu navigation is well designed.

Things to note: AVI video format. I believe QuickTime Pro will handle the conversion. LCD screen doesn't fair well in low light. Battery will cause camera to "slow down" flash recharge after awhile (I've had my camera for over 1 year much use).