Casio Exilim EX-S880 - Great Pics if the Camera Holds Together

On the lookout for something that takes better pictures than my i-Phone, I have been trying out several digital cameras owned by friends, and soliciting their opinions. My first camera audition was my friend Veronica's Casio Exilim EX-S880. It's small, thin and very cool looking. It has a 2.8" screen for previewing pictures. Woohoo! So far, so good.

The LCD here is big and super bright. That makes it easy to see in situations where I might not have been able to see other cameras' LCDs. The camera, sadly, does not have a viewfinder. You have to rely on the LCD. This is a battery suck hole. There are times I like to use a viewfinder.

The camera has 8.1 megapixels. For my purposes, that's more than I need. I don't tend to print out a lot of pictures. Mine are on line. Even so, with this resolution, I was able to get some remarkably clear prints done.

The camera has a 3x optical zoom and a 4x digital zoom which I'm told really does add up to a 12x digital zoom. I'm not camera savvy enough to understand the difference between the two. The zoom works quickly and the pictures are pretty sharp using it.

The camera, like most digital cameras, has a video camera function. Just push the record button. It creates a 30 frame per second video at 640x480 resolution. I have a video camera that does better. I've never found videos on still cameras terrific. Per Veronica, the software provided with the camera will allow you to automatically upload video to YouTube. That's a pretty scary prospect to me. I am not a fan of posting every moment of my life on YouTube and can see too many possibilities of my mucking things up and uploading a video not intended for anyone but family.

This camera allows you to upload maps, text files, email, web pages and the like to your camera. Your camera converts them to .jpgs. This will let you to look at themby pushing the data button on the top left of the camera. Personally, a 2.8" version of a picture I just took is helpful, but I find a map reduced to that size less useful.

My biggest ugh with the camera was the size of the buttons. Small cameras are nice but I still have to be able to push buttons with my normal sized fingers. The tiny power button on top was a total pain. The zoom button was difficult.

Having played extensively at Veronica's place with the camera, I asked for more feedback. She described this as her "home for holidays" camera. It takes excellent pictures. It doesn't travel well. She had one where the LCD cracked in the carrying case that comes with the camera. In talking to the salesperson, he says there has been issues with that....of course, this was only said after the replacement had been made and on a separate trip to the store.

Veronica has several cameras. This one takes some of the best pictures. I don't have more than just one camera at a time, and it has to handle some pretty hardy handling. A camera that has no viewfinder and that has an LCD subject to breaking? sorry, that just won't work for my purposes. The whole point in having a small camera is having the ability to toss it into my purse and go. Can't do that with this one. Can't recommend it.

The following items came with the camera:

- Lithium-Ion Rechargeable Battery (NP-20)
- Cradle (CA-34)
- USB Cable
- AV Cable
-AC Adapter
-Strap
- CD-ROM (2)
-AC Power Cord
- Basic Reference

The technical particulars (and I don't speak camera well enough to explain all of these):

* Effective pixels: 8.1 million
* Imaging element: 1/2.5-inch square pixel color CCD
* Image file format: Still: JPEG (Exif v.2.2), DCF standard, DOPF compliant
* Audio: WAV (monaural)
* Recording media: SDHC card, SD card, MultiMediaCard, MultiMediaCard Plus compatible
* Image size: 3,264 x 2,448, 3,264 x 2,176 (3:2), 3,264 x 1,840 (16:9), 2,816 x 1,728, 1,600 x 1,200, 640 x 480
* Movies: 848 x 480 (UHQ wide/HQ wide), 640 x 480 (UHQ/HQ/normal), 320 x 240 (LP)
* Still image data size: Built-in flash memory: 2 shots (fine), 4 shots (normal), 7 shots (economy); 1 GB SD memory card: 210 shots (fine), 393 shots (normal), 579 shots (economy)
* Movie data size: Maximum recording capacity per file: 4 GB; built-in flash memory: 10 seconds; 1 GB SD memory card: 18 minutes, 53 seconds
* Shutter release time lag: 0.008 seconds
* Image playback: 0.1 second per image
* Shot to shot time: 1.6 seconds
* Continuous shutter: 1.0-second intervals
* High-speed continuous shutter: 4 frames per second (maximum)
* Maximum aperture: f/2.7 to 5.2
* Focal distance: 6.2 to 18.6mm (35mm equivalent: 38 to 114mm)
* Optical zoom: 3x
* Focus modes: Auto, macro, pan, infinity, manual
* AF area: Spot, multi, or tracking
* Focus range: Auto: 15.75 inches to infinity; macro: 5.9 inches to 19.69 inches; manual: 5.9 inches to infinity
* Monitor: 2.8-inch TFT color LCD (14:9), with 320,400-pixel resolution
* Power: Rechargeable lithium-ion battery
* Battery life: Roughly 220 still images; 4 hours continuous playback; 5 hours and 10 minutes voice recording
* Warranty: 1 year parts and labor