The Casio Exilim EX-Z750 digital camera shows strength in three areas that will appeal to beginning photographers: a thin camera body, a large LCD, and an easy-to-use docking station. Throw in the Exilim EX-Z750's 7.2 megapixels of resolution, which allows for high-quality prints at sizes up to 16x20 inches, and it's tough to find much to dislike about this digital camera.

The 2.5-inch LCD occupies most of the back panel; it could be brighter and sharper, but it is at least easy to see in outdoor lighting. The Exilim EX-Z750 also has a separate optical viewfinder, which is a handy addition if you prefer a viewfinder to an LCD for framing your picture shots.

You'll find a 3X optical zoom lens on this model, which is the industry average. The lens captures high-quality photos, both indoors and outdoors, regardless of the lighting conditions. You'll certainly be able to make some high-quality, sharp prints with this digital camera.

The response times are very good across the board. You can shoot your first photo about one second after pressing the power button. You won't notice the shutter lag, even when using the auto-focus. Best of all, the shot-to-shot delay is 2 seconds, even when using the flash, which puts the Exilim EX-Z750 near the top of digital cameras in this price range. The basic continuous-shot mode can capture about five photos in 5 seconds.

Beginning photographers will really appreciate the fact that Casio includes the a docking station with the digital camera. With many digital camera setups, you have to pay an additional $50 or more for a docking station.

Although the 8.3MB of built-in internal memory is handy, you won't be able to store too many high-resolution photos using internal memory alone, so you will need to purchase a memory card. Another potential area of added expense will be for a second rechargeable battery as the Exilim EX-Z750 can run from a proprietary battery only.

Finally, the Exilim EX-Z750 has a few manual-setting features that will appeal to intermediate photographers, such as shutter or aperture priority. Its combination of many beginning features along with a few intermediate features makes it a nice digital camera that can grow with photographers as they gain more skills.


Pros: High resolution, very good photo quality, camera package includes docking station, very good response times
Cons: LCD could be sharper, additional cost for second battery and memory card

Warranty
1 year