If you've paid even limited attention to the digital camera market in recent years, you know that ultra-thin models are very popular. With thin being "in," Casio is well positioned with its Exilim EX-S500 digital camera, which measures only 0.63 inches in thickness, making it one of the thinnest units available.

Casio's engineers had their work cut out for them, squeezing a 3X optical zoom lens into this ultra-thin digital camera. But the lens works extremely well, with smooth movement through the zoom range and with sharp photos in most lighting conditions. The main problem indoors is this digital camera's built-in flash. Unfortunately, it isn't strong enough to illuminate subjects more than 9 feet away.

The EX-S500 offers an interesting movie mode that's different from other budget-priced models, through which the digital camera automatically records video, even if you don't press the Record button. When you do press Record, the EX-S500 automatically tacks on the previous 5 seconds of video to the front of the file, in case a key moment occurred just before you pressed Record. You also can capture still images while recording video.

Response times are slightly above average for the EX-S500. You can shoot your first photo in less than 2 seconds after pressing the power button. Shutter lag is less than one-half second. Shot-to-shot delays begin at approximately one second and continue in range, up to 6 seconds depending on picture quality, flash, and memory card used.

The EX-S500's 2.2-inch LCD screen is larger than most in this price range of digital cameras, but it's not as sharp as we'd like to see. That's unfortunate, because the LCD screen serves as this digital camera's only viewfinder. The LCD is very bright, though, both indoors and in direct sunlight.

The EX-S500 is easy to use, offering a large group of 30 preset sample scene modes, which allows you to match the exterior lighting conditions to the closest scene mode. The digital camera then automatically matches its settings to those lighting conditions, creating the best possible exposure.

Not surprisingly for a digital camera aimed at beginners, the EX-S500 has no significant manual-setting features, limiting its appeal among more experienced photographers. Also, long shutter exposures (longer than 0.125th of a second) aren't possible with the EX-S500.


Pros: Easy to use, extremely thin camera body, many interesting features not found on similarly priced models
Cons: Built-in flash is weak, no significant manual-setting features, LCD could be sharper, long shutter exposures aren't possible

Warranty
1 year