Casio Exilim EX-Z77 Compact Camera

On a recent holiday to Las Vegas my wife decided that she wanted her own digital camera for shooting video as well as stills. We went to an electrical store but some items were out of stock due to the Labor Day weekend. After reading up on the specs and trying to keep the cost under $200 she settled for a Casio Exilim EX-Z77 compact camera.

Although not the highest spec camera she is pleased with it and has shot several videos already and the memory card (2GB) is not even half full yet. One great feature is the Best Shot (BS) button which you push to select any of the 42 pre-set “Best Shot” modes for video and stills. One of these is the YouTube mode for formatting your video ready for submitting to, you guessed it, YouTube. She has already uploaded a video to video sharing sites.

The Casio Exilim EX-Z77 is a super compact 7.2-megapixel camera with a huge LCD screen and a long list of features that even a novice photographer can master. The body of the Exilim EX-Z77 measures a mere 3.74″ (W) x 2.32″ (H) x 0.78″ (D) and weighing roughly 4 ounces. The EX-Z77 fits comfortably in the palm of one’s hand and slips into a shirt pocket without a noticeable bulge. The housing of the EX-Z77 is made of brushed, coated, and painted aluminum.

The LCD screen is 2.6″, has a 14:9 ratio and displays 479 x 240 pixels. The screen is more than three-quarters of the size of the entire camera, which makes it look even larger than it already is. Casio uses a smart combination of icons, images, and text to make for instantly understandable controls. Even if you’ve never used a Casio camera before, the menus are quite easy to follow. The LCD screen itself is coated in a relatively scratch-resistant plastic. However it can still be scratched by sharp objects if not properly treated.

The 7.2-megapixel sensor is certainly not cutting-edge as new cameras are being released with 10 megapixel sensors. That said, the numeric value of megapixels has less bearing on overall quality than the sensor itself. The EX-Z77 uses a 1/2.5-inch square pixel color CCD, which is good, but not great.

Stills are captured in JPEG/JPG mode, video is captured in QuickTime H.264, and audio is captured in WAV format. One of the coolest features of the EX-Z77 is its ability to shoot stills and video in standard format or the ultra-sleek 16:9 format. Casio felt it necessary to equip the Exilim EX-Z77 with a proprietary mini-USB jack, forcing users to keep yet another USB cable at hand. With so many other camera manufacturers using standard mini-USB ports Casio is not making it easy for its customers but it is still s good camera.

The Casio Exilim EX-Z77 comes ready to run with a Lithium ion battery but you will need to buy a SD Memory Card. A 2GB card will hold 100 minutes of video.