Review of Casio EX-F1

I have been looking forward to this camera for a long time. When it was first mentioned in development last August, I eagerly followed all the news I could find about it. When Casio requested user input on features late last year, I gave them my advice. And when the camera finally appeared in the U.S. earlier this month, I was one of the first to buy it.

Already a few reviews have come out, and I expect even more thorough coverage is yet to come, outlining all the nifty features. Because of this, I am not providing a comprehensive coverage of the camera here. When I first launched my digital nature photography website 10 years ago, around the time such sites as dpreview were getting started, I decided it made more sense for me to just focus on my own impressions of a rapidly developing field, centered especially on applications to wildlife imagery. My digital photo site has undergone a few permutations, and this review will also be cross posted on my digital nature video website, http://rockfowl.com/ - as video is my current major focus.

I have a background in science, so if an imaging device is unique and offers a new way of looking at the world, I’m in. I enjoy being on the bleeding edge, so that should be kept in mind in reading these comments. However, I will try to note specifically with real examples how this camera is not just for geeks but also an incredibly valuable tool for everyday photography and videography. I am not writing this with any affiliation with Casio, so my opinions have nothing to do with any free review units or other goodies (sigh).  But in the interest of full disclosure I do own a Casio watch I like quite a bit, if that tilts me toward brand loyalism.

As an early adopter, I am going to provide a review of my own experiences with this camera. Just to be upfront, I don’t quite fall into the category of typical user. I am not a soccer mom- I have a kid, but she doesn’t play soccer. Well, we occasionally do kick around a jumbo exercise ball on the lawn… ahem, that’s a topic for another time- and venue.

Is the Casio for everyone? Definitely not. Does it have a unique niche? Yes! And for me the excitement is that in developing this new camera paradigm, Casio is blurring the lines between still and moving images. And that is a line that to me seems artificial, and should be erased sooner rather than later. Already many still cameras shoot videos, though not at this kind of resolution. And consumer and prosumer camcorders have shot stills along with video for a while now, but until the current generation, these are certainly not a replacement for even a low end point and shoot. So already, the imaging world is changing. But with this camera, I think Casio is making the boldest statement yet that categorizing our imaging devices as cameras or camcorders is arbitrary, and eventually we will all just have one piece of equipment.

I am a nature photographer. So for me, clearly, there is a value in capturing the exact microsecond of action. But in a larger sense, I am not unique in my camera needs. Anyone with a kid or pet is also a wildlife photographer of sorts. Before I switched to all digital photography in the late 1990s, and every press of the shutter had a tangible cost in film and developing, I missed many unique moments in my child’s life.

When I got my first two digital cameras back in the late 1990s, I went from taking a roll or two of film a month to 60,000 pictures in one year. I was officially crowned the most prolific shooter of the Nikon Coolpix on one of the dpreview forums. I was giddy with the freedom to shoot and instantly review my photos, and got a bit carried away. Now, several generations further along with digital cameras, I have never gone back to film.

The EXF1 will not replace my digital SLR- I have a Nikon D200 with an attached GPS unit, and that is a perfect combination for me not only in taking but also sorting my pictures by place- one more piece of metadata to help with the virtual filing. I also shoot most of my straight HD video with a dedicated camcorder- my current model is the Sony SR12. That isn’t to say the Casio doesn’t take good still images or HD video - it does a pretty good job at both. I have used it to take still images I really like, and HD video that looks very good. There will be many times I will only carry this camera, and then having a jack of all trades beats carrying either a camera or camcorder, as I typically do now on short hikes.

The real reason I got this camera was my need for speed. My special interest in imaging, both still and video, is wildlife. And if anyone has ever tried to film animals, whether it is Fluffy chasing a ball or a neighborhood squirrel terrorizing the birdfeeders, it is surprisingly hard to catch the right moment. If I had a dollar for every still photo with the intended subject either at the edge or totally out of the frame, I could give Bill Gates a run for his money. Well, maybe a walk- and if I had more like a thousand dollars per missed shot- anyway, you get the point. And if I shoot video, the action can happen so fast the moment is just a blip as Fluffy flees with the ball or the squirrel makes an acrobatic leap off screen in a millisecond.

So Casio is offering me a unique opportunity for two things I really want to do- take a whole lot of pictures at around the time I know something interesting will happen, and shoot video in slow motion, to see how cool it really is when you see the details. These two ways of freezing the moment provide new opportunities for me, and others, to explore a new way of seeing the world. For this reason, I have already heard several people refer to this camera as a time machine. I agree with this paradigm, but there is another more sinister reason for such a name as well. If you aren’t careful using the camera, it will suck a lot of time away from you.

Given my tendency toward collecting as many images as possible, when I first started shooting with this camera, I would let the high speed movies run for minutes, hoping to catch just the right shot. That is, until I realized the full implication that a few minutes in real time translates into hours in slow motion. After once or twice looking at my footage for the same time I could have watched a longish feature length film, I have become more disciplined. I now shoot for a relatively short period, anticipating the action. Or if it’s unpredictable, I keep shooting and erasing until the bird flies, the kid jumps, or other decisive moment occurs.

In a similar vein, when I shoot at 60 frames per second, I review it quickly if I’m looking for a single shot and pull it off at the time. If I want the sequence, then I make sure I got what I wanted. Pressing the shutter and getting increments of 60 shots every time you press your finger means after a few minutes of shooting you can have hours of photos to examine. Since I am so accustomed to taking single pictures, or at most an occasional burst of up to 8fps with other digital cameras I have used, the Casio is forcing me to think before I push the shutter.

This camera requires some discipline- just because you can take hundreds of pictures in a couple minutes doesn’t mean you should- unless you like spending evenings and weekends glued to your photo editor of choice sorting through thousands of photos to find your child’s sweetest smile, or pet’s most charming expression. At 60fps, every nuance you want to capture will be there. Although the images are technically free, since you can endlessly reuse the SD card, the time to sort through them is not.  I now repeat this to myself several times a day. Still, I would much prefer the option of throwing pictures away than not having them in the first place. Sometimes you will find yourself in a situation where you only have a short time to take a good picture. Then, having 60 photos to choose from is better than one.

Looking at various online forums and reviews of this camera, I am surprised at how many people are complaining about the price and features of this camera. If you want to find a camera that shoots enough frames per second to be at all adequate for sports or wildlife photography, it will currently set you back more than the price of this camera. If you want to shoot at anything close to the high speeds of this camera, you can spend anywhere from nearly $9,000 to well over $100,000. And at the low end of that price range, the resolution is not much better than the Casio. An HD camera of comparable quality currently costs about the same as the Casio. So to me, based on the price of other cameras and camcorders, it is a major bargain.

Okay, so here are some specific ways of how this camera can come in handy, based on my own experiences. For example, a couple years ago I spent a long time (okay, I admit it, an hour) at the Museum of Natural History trying to get the ultimate shot of the amazing tongue of the blue-tongued skink. The hard part of this shot is by the time you see the tongue coming out, it is a little too late. This proved so boring to my mom and daughter they went off to see an IMAX movie, and I was still working on it when they had finished the movie. I finally got a couple shots that were pretty good. With the Casio- using prerecord mode-I would have pressed the button as I saw the tongue flicker out, and captured frames on either side of the time I actually took the shot, ensuring the ultimate shot- in one second. And if after reviewing it in another 25 seconds, it wasn’t quite right, I could take another burst of photos. I would guess after 3 minutes I would have better results than an hour with my Nikon D200.

Another real life example for me is family pictures. A few times a year, I get together with assorted relatives and take some photos to document the occasion. I can’t remember how many times these pictures have been ruined by one or two people with eyes closed, silly expressions, out of focus, the list goes on. Last week, I used the burst mode with flash, which allows a healthy 7 images per second indoors under poor lighting conditions. I also took a set of 60 images immediately after that bunch. With these two bursts, my only chance with a busy family eager to get on to the next activity, I was able to capture several great photos. With my previous camera, I would have had time to take a few or at most a burst of 8fps of photos- would those have been the right ones?

This is the camera I needed a couple years ago when a pair of bushtits nested in my yard. At the time I used my Nikon D200 and a unit called a Zigview, which can trigger a camera from motion sensing- which when I bought it two years ago alone cost $300. This is another function built in to the Casio. Basically, you set the camera to be triggered when a subject moves either into or out of the frame. You can also ask the camera to record photos right before or right after the motion, in case there are additional shots associated with it you may want. You can vary the sensitivity based on whether you have a fast or slow moving subject. Based on my experience with the Zigview, this is a very powerful feature for capturing fast but erratic wildlife, like hummingbirds visiting a known nectar source.

With my D200 and the Zigview two years ago, I still missed out on many special shots when it only took a maximum of 5 frames per second. And when I tried to shoot at the higher frame rates, the flash couldn’t keep up. The Casio will take 7fps with flash, and 60 with an LED light. If I had a real time machine, I would go back two years and photograph the birds at 60fps without flash, 7fps with flash, and gotten the exact moment I wanted. And I also would videotape them in slow motion, weaving their elaborate nest. I can only hope they will come back again this year- I am SO ready for them!

Although I haven’t used them much yet, here are some other really cool features in which the camera combines images in a way that depending on the situation may provide some really excellent shots. Digital anti shake is a feature that shoots multiple images at once and combines them to minimize blur in a final image. Digital panning sets the camera to a continuous shutter, and if you pan as you press the shutter, the camera will select from these and combine it to form a photo with a clear subject against a blurred background. Then there is focus bracketing, which allows you to shoot a series of images changing just the focus- that opens up some possibilities in the digital darkroom for some interesting image stacking. I have read the manual twice, and every time I see some new feature that I skimmed over before.

As for the video applications, since that is my major interest now, I am impressed with the quality of the HD video. And I am wildly enthused about the slow mo video. I even see an interesting application hybridizing still images with video, importing them into a video editing program. I like the Ken Burns effect, but after so much panning and zooming of a photo, I would like another way to integrate stills into video. The Casio EX F1 takes enough images per second to allow for a reasonable snippet of video length action. You can get 60 images in one second, or spread it out over 2 seconds at 30 frames per second, and so on. When I edit my videos, quite often a 2 second clip will do, depending on pacing. Given the relatively high quality of the still images, it gives one more tool for capturing unique moving footage.

In spite of my obvious enthusiasm, there are things I’d like to change. I would like more megapixels, a bigger zoom, a wider angle, less noise at high ISO, higher quality slow motion video, 120fps stills, 4K HD video, and that’s just the beginning. At this price point, that won’t happen. But I do have some quibbles, too. Maybe some of these are harder to do than I imagine, but I’m sure some could be implemented, if not in firmware, then in the Casio EX-F2.

I would like the camera to continuously focus in all modes. It would be great if it wasn’t quite such a narrow focus- now when I focus manually (and the focus ring makes an annoying grinding sound and feel- if anyone is listening), the subject goes in and out of focus with a quarter turn of the barrel. Plus, the resolution of the monitor screen makes precise focusing difficult (and it would help if it flipped up and rotated too- calling all Casio reps). Work on the low light capabilities. I know slow motion requires a lot of light, but anything to help this along would be great. I really like the 300fps and 600fps slow motion video. The 1200 frames per second requires so much light it is almost impossible to use- but thanks anyway for including it. I like shooting macro, but this camera doesn’t get great close up shots- I would like a super macro mode, since shooting things like insects in slow motion is an ideal application. Also, it would be nice to have the video focus button work the same as the photo shutter button, allowing focus when pushed halfway.

Anyway, I want to end on a high note, since overall I am thrilled with my new toy. I have had this camera less than three weeks, and already here are some of the things I have “seen” by shooting in slow motion. I have observed most of these dozens if not hundreds of times before, but never been able to really visualize the details because they happen too fast. I have seen the flap of a butterfly’s wing bend back a leaf, the intricate way a bird in flight navigates a maze of branches, just how slow a slug really moves (okay, in retrospect, this wasn’t one of the finer ideas I had for applying slomo mode), the way a bear feeding on grass created a gentle dance of swaying blades on a windless day, oval bubbles form with the swipe of a swimming otter’s paw, a pebble curve into a spiral shot into the air by the fury of a shrew in search of food, a bee poop (ewww, gross), beads of water fly from a swan as it was feeding, the delicate wing beats of a mosquito as it skims across a pond, the way snowflakes fall and water splashes, and the way a bee hovers to sip nectar from a flower, to name just a few that have especially amazed me.

I want to thank Casio for giving me the ability, through the EX-F1, to see an amazing new view of the world. And I also want to encourage them in the promise of this camera to break up the stale paradigm of still and moving images as two separate categories. I will be first in line for the EX-F2.