Casio Exilim EX-Z850
Setting the Ultra-Compact Bar

Who would have thought that a company known for making cheap watches would be the ones to set the standard when it comes to the ultra-compact digital market? The Casio Exilim series gained a lot of attention during its inception due in large part to the production of cameras that could literally fit behind an every day credit and be completely obscured. Minox spy cameras eat your heart out.

Several years later and in walks the Exilim EX-Z850, Casio’s latest flagship ultra-compact sporting an 8.12 mega-pixel CCD, 3x optical zoom lens, and a 2.5 inch TFT rear display that nearly takes up the entire backside of the camera. Combine that with a host of user selectable modes, increased ISO ratings, and Casio’s own anti-shake technology and you have what looks like on paper to be a little gem of a camera.

I’ve always felt incredibly small digital cameras like this are a bit of a mixed bag. Yeah sure you have the convenience of a camera that quite literally fits into the same places you normally put your wallet; but how usable is it really when the camera is so small it takes a user with miniature hands to even operate it?

When looking at the camera head on my point becomes clear. There is no hand grip of any kind and the rear display takes up so much of the body that it’s nearly impossible not to put your thumb all over it. The Exilim EX-Z850 may impress your friends when you pull it out, but certainly won’t give you any Zen like feelings when operating it.

But I digress, just because a digital camera this small isn’t for me, doesn’t mean it’s not for everyone. I can see the Exilim EX-Z850 being put to serious use by photographers needing a glove-box they can pull out when scouting locations – especially with the new option to dial up the ISO to 1600. Don’t expect good results at this setting, but documenting a location for a potential shoot such things really aren’t that important.

I also have to give Casio credit for packing in a huge feature set that will remind you why digital photography can be so much fun. There is a host of pre-set scene modes that produce interesting, if somewhat varied, results. The camera also sports fully manual, aperture priority, and shutter priority shooting. Put this into an all metal body and tie it up with a far above average shutter lag and the Casio EX-Z850 presents itself as a camera that demands a bit more respect then its tiny size would imply.