Casio Exilim EX-H10 {Spring Event Review & Giveaway #24}

After many years of lugging around a bulky camera, I am finally able take advantage of the great benefits of having a compact camera with the Casio Exilim EX-H10. I had no idea what I was missing! With the portability of this camera I can easily carry it within my bag without it adding to my already heavy load. Now I can capture moments that I wouldn’t typically be able because I wasn’t willing  bring along my much larger camera.

With an extra long battery life you won’t have to worry about running out of power. So far I’ve taken hundreds of photos and haven’t once had to recharge the batteries. Gone are the days of digital cameras that suck down the batteries and require extra money and effort on your part.

Unlike many compact point-and-shoot long-zoom cameras, the EX-H10 can take up to 3X more shots than average from a single battery charge; that’s over 1,000 shots from a single charge. This combined with a ultra wide angle 10X long zoom make it the perfect travel companion. Its unique Landscape Enhancement Mode includes a mist removal feature to clear up hazy scenes. The EX-H10 can record high definition movies in 720p quality.

The EX-H10 can take beautiful shots without having to do a thing besides point and click. All of these outdoor shots were taken with no skill or additional knowledge required. It doesn’t get easier than that!

And just in case you were wondering, I have not altered these images in any way. Yes, they looked that good right off the camera!

CASIO EX-H10 FEATURES

Dynamic Photos

Crop a moving subject out of a series of images and insert it into another image. The camera automatically will take the moving subject from a 20 consecutive image series. After inserting into another image, the series creates the impression of movement. Just make sure to have the subject against a uniform background or the camera will have a hard time distinguishing. Visit the Casio Dynamic Photo Site to learn even more about this fun feature.

Make-Up Mode

This mode starts by recognizing the faces in the image and does retouching. Make-Up Model makes adjustments to smooth skin in images and soften facial shadows from sunlight. Choose from one of twelve levels of skin beauty using different strengths of image processing. You have complete control and can view the results in the LCD monitor.

Face Detection

The camera locates faces anywhere within the monitor screen area and optimizes focus and brightness.

Landscape

Eliminate mist or make your the colors even more vivid in your landscape shots with amazing high-speed image analysis.

Best Shot

My favorite feature is Best Shot. With one handy button on the lower right, you can select from 38 different options for whatever you are currently photographing. They include such options as children, self portrait, flower, fireworks, pets, twilight, sports, soft flowing water, and so many more. With the crystal clear pictures it makes it fairly painless to locate choose the perfect option. If you would prefer the camera to do all the thinking for you, simply choose the auto best shot.

On a recent trip to a local park I decided not to touch my camera options and instead just point and shoot. I ended up a bit frustrated and most of my pictures turned out like this.

While still certainly cute, it took much to long for the picture to actually be taken and I kept missing the shot I was after. Instead I got a lot of body part pictures and so few faces! I also experienced a long delay in between with this message popping up.

Once I got over my annoyance I switched it over to children. This worked so much better to catch my boys in action instead of being just a second or two late to capture the moment.

My very favorite best shot feature is the ability to take fabulous shots of food close up. I enjoy blogging recipes and getting a great looking picture of food has always been difficult. Typically I was forced to take over a dozen pictures that ended up blurry only to get one decent shot. With the food best shot option on my Casio, I can get gorgeous shots like this the first time!

Sometimes I’ve found that the best shot feature doesn’t work any better than the auto feature. In fact, in this example below it is actually easier to read the text in the auto version versus the best shot: text, even with me taking multiples of the same picture. As with anything you need to experiment what works best. If the picture isn’t the way you’d like, try another option and see if it produces better results.

Having a camera with the ability to record video is an absolute must for me. You never know when the opportunity will arise where you need to catch something on video. I like that I can eliminate the need to carrying around that nuisance called a video camera. Just don’t move the camera much or zoom in and out a lot or you will get the shakiness found in my outdoor video.

Learn about even more awesome features by checking out the Casio Exilim EX-H10 features page.

Here are a few technical specs for those much more camera educated than myself. For even more see the EX-H10 Specificiations sheet.

Resolution: 12.10 Megapixels
Lens: 10.00x zoom
(24-240mm eq.)
Viewfinder: LCD
LCD Size: 3.0 inch
ISO: 64-3200
Shutter: 4-1/2000
Max Aperture: 3.2
Mem Type: SD / SDHC
Battery: Custom LiIon
Dimensions: 4.0 x 2.4 x 1.0 in.
(103 x 62 x 24 mm)
Weight: 7.3 oz (206 g)

Overall: I am thrilled with my new camera. While I still get annoyed with occasional slow response time between pictures, the additional features along with its portability has me sold on the benefits of the EX-H10.

Buy it: The Casio Exilim EX-H10 retails for $279 and can be purchased for a nice discount currently at Amazon or check the “where to buy” section of the Casio Exilim website for more retailers.

{ Giveaway }

I have a Casio Exilim EX-H10 to give away to one of my very lucky readers!

MAIN ENTRY: Tell me which feature of the Casio Exilim EX-H10 you would be most excited to try!

Want more entries? (Are you kidding? Of course you do!) After answering my question do any of the following and leave a comment telling me what you did. Each is worth one entry unless otherwise noted. Your comment is your entry so please leave the appropriate number of comments for each extra entry.

-Spring into Spring! Enter the jill-e designs camera bag giveaway at The Shopping Mama & tell me below!
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Win the Casio Exilim EX-H10 Camera, a $279 value! @babylovingmama from @Casio_Exilim http://bit.ly/aAzjmW #giveaway PLS RT!

-Add my button to your blog
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-Blog about this contest and link back here and to Casio Exilim (3 entries)

This contest will end on 5/19/10 at 11:59 pm CST. U.S. residents only. The winner will be drawn via random.org and will have 72 hours to respond to winning notification email before I draw another winner or do a live giveaway.

Disclosure: I received a sample for the purpose of this review but no other type of compensation was received. This has no bearing on my completely honest review above. The opinions and experiences I’ve shared with these products are my own and yours may differ.