Casio Exilim EX-S880

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http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/digitalcameras/0,39030233,49292459,00.htm

Reviewed 12 September 2007

Reviewed by Will Greenwald

Usually, newer versions of cameras offer noticeable upgrades, such as more advanced processors, higher-resolution sensors and more features.

Sometimes, though, this 'next big thing' turns out to actually be worse than what came before it. At just around £185, Casio's Exilim EX-S880 joins this group, falling short of the standard set by the EX-S770.

Design
At just 18mm deep and weighing only 145g with battery and SD card, the EX-S880 cuts the same ultraslim, ultralight profile as the EX-S770. It shares a layout almost identical to the EX-S770's, with small, flat buttons and a flat joypad clustered around a 71mm (2.8-inch) LCD screen while leaving ample space for a thumb to rest.

At just 18mm deep and 145g, the Exilim EX-S880 cuts an ultraslim, ultralight profile

On the other side of the camera, the EX-S880 sports the same 35-114mm-equivalent, f/2.7-to f/5.2, 3x optical zoom lens as its predecessor.

Features
The EX-S880 features an 8-megapixel CCD sensor and Casio's new Exilim Engine 2.0 image processor, compared to the EX-S770's 7-megapixel sensor and original Exilim Engine processor.

Beyond these two upgrades, however, the camera's hardware attributes are largely identical to those of the EX-S770; as stated above, both cameras share the same large LCD and 3x lens. The camera's menus and software-based controls keep the same convenient interface, while the new image processor and a few new features set it slightly above the EX-S770.

Face detection first appeared among Casio cameras in the Exilim EX-Z1200, but this is the first superslim Exilim S-series camera to offer the feature. Like the EX-Z1200, the EX-S880's face-detection system offers more than most other similarly equipped cameras.

Besides automatically detecting faces and adjusting the focus and exposure to suit it, the camera offers a family-recognition mode, which lets you record family and friends' faces ahead of time on the camera so the detection function gives those faces priority. It's a handy feature when shooting large crowds.

Like every other Exilim camera, it incorporates Casio's Best Shot Selector and a myriad of scene presets. Besides the usual portrait and landscape presets, the camera also offers a new YouTube Capture video mode. While Casio promotes YouTube Capture as a new, specialised mode, it's really just a 640x480-pixel, 30 frame per second MPEG-4 video mode, not unlike those found on most other snapshot cameras.

A bundled application lets you automatically upload videos shot in this mode directly to your YouTube account. While it saves the hassle of going through YouTube's uploading page, this feature is really only useful if you put videos on YouTube often, and if you don't already have a decent camcorder -- which would generally produce higher quality video than almost any still camera.

Besides taking still photos and shooting video clips, the EX-S880 can also store your documents. Casio promotes the EX-S880 as a data storage device, capable of holding information other than photos and videos.

Unfortunately, like the YouTube Capture mode, this feature is just a very slight variation to something nearly all cameras can do. Since the EX-S880 uses SD memory cards, you can store any file you want, as long as the card is spacious enough. It comes with a utility for moving data between the camera and your computer, but once again it doesn't really do anything you can't already do yourself, especially if you have a card reader.

Performance
In our performance tests, the EX-S880 showed mixed results. After a 1.5-second wait from power-on to first shot, we could snap a new photo every 1.8 seconds with the onboard flash turned off. With the flash on, however, that wait increased to 2.8 seconds.

With family-recognition mode, you can record your family and friends' faces ahead of time so the camera will automatically give them priority

The shutter felt responsive enough, lagging just 0.5 seconds with our high-contrast target and 1.1 seconds with our low-contrast target. In burst mode, the camera captured 10 8-megapixel photos in 9.6 seconds, for a disappointing rate of less than 1.1fps.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Typical shot-to-shot time

Time to first shot

Shutter lag (typical)

Casio Exilim EX-S770

1.3

1.2

0.4

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T100

1.4

1.2

0.4

Canon Digital IXUS 70

1.5

1

0.5

Casio Exilim EX-S880

1.8

1.5

0.5

Nikon Coolpix S50c

2.4

3.9

0.9

Image quality
Softness plagues the EX-S880's photos. Noise stays low through ISO 400, but becomes a blanket of snow at the camera's maximum of ISO 800. The camera reproduces colour fairly well, though it tends to oversaturate, making some colours look garish at times.

The camera's automatic white balance does a good job in most lighting situations but incandescent-lit shots can come out slightly too warm. Unfortunately, the massive softness nullifies most positive points, and Casio's noise-reduction processing only exacerbates what looks like a soft lens to begin with.

While the camera technically takes 8-megapixel pictures, very little appreciable detail finds its way past the blanket of blur, making things such as text and the textures of fabrics hard to discern when shooting at ISO 200 or above.

Conclusion
The Casio Exilim EX-S880 tries to slide by as an upgraded EX-S770 with a higher resolution and a different image processor. Unfortunately, it doesn't meet the standards set by its predecessor. While a new image processor usually means faster performance, the EX-S800 performs slower and photos are terribly soft compared to the older camera.

Alternately, you might want to look to another manufacturer. For example, Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-W80 is in the same price range and only a little larger in size, and it scored well in our review.

Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday