Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 review

At a time when most camera manufacturers are obsessed with megapixel ratings, Casio's Exilim EX-F1 - its first ultra-zoom camera - is refreshingly different.

A 6-megapixel camera for over £500 seems perverse in 2008, and it's not even a digital SLR. However, the F1 is packed with unique, exciting features.

Its most impressive trick is a continuous mode that captures at up to 60fps - that's 60 6-megapixel photos in one second. It's limited to 60 in total, and can be adjusted to capture at 30fps for two seconds and so on down to 1fps for a minute. This is a lot of data to manipulate and store, so it's forgivable that it takes around 30 seconds to save 60 photos to an SD card. Another option is to browse quickly through the buffered shots and select certain ones for saving. A pre-record mode can capture up to 60 shots from before the shutter button is pressed; this is perfect for fleeting moments of action. Even flash photography rattles along at 7fps for 20 shots. These speeds are overkill for most purposes, but for sports and wildlife photography they're a fantastic advantage.

The EX-F1's video mode is just as remarkable, capturing at resolutions from 640x480 pixels up to 1,920x1,080, which is the highest we've seen from a stills camera. They're saved in the highly efficient H.264 format and include 44.1kHz stereo sound, which is a vast improvement over the 8kHz mono sound used by other cameras. A dedicated video record button means it's possible to capture a 6-megapixel still image midway through video capture. There's an HDMI output for viewing video and photos on an HDTV.

Our favourite video mode is High Speed. This captures video at 300fps and plays it back at 30fps for a 1/10th-speed slow motion effect. The 512x384-pixel resolution is a bit low and the high frame rate demands plenty of light, but the results are truly stunning. Further options capture 432x192 pixels at 600fps or 336x96 pixels at 1,200fps. These slow-motion modes are ideal for nature and sports photography, but they're also superb for scientific and artistic projects or simply for having fun with.

The camera's size and shape has more in common with SLR cameras than other ultra-zoom models. It's quite big and heavy, but this is offset by extremely comfortable handling and room for a 2.8in screen and a lens ring for adjusting focus or zoom. The 12x zoom is smaller than the 18x and longer lenses offered by rivals, but it's only the lack of a true wide-angle setting that counts against it. Priority and manual exposure settings are adjusted via a wheel around the navigation pad, and the shutter speed goes down to a super-fast 1/40,000s. Aside from the continuous modes, performance is a little disappointing, taking five seconds to power up and take a photo, plus two seconds between shots. Fortunately, autofocus times are quick.

The relatively low 6-megapixel resolution was probably chosen to help achieve such amazing continuous shooting speeds, but it's still plenty for most uses, including making A4 prints. Factor in the relatively large 1/1.8in sensor size and noise is kept at bay. However, while bright conditions produced smooth, sharp pictures, Casio's clumsy noise-reduction processing meant that indoor shots at ISO 400 and above looked grubby. The lens proved to be capable of sharp detail across its zoom range, but the autofocus struggled in low-light telephoto shots. Colours were pleasing, but tricky lighting conditions sometimes confused the white balance and exposure. Image quality was good, but at this price we'd hoped for it to be excellent.