Scott Hanselman

Mo and I picked up a new Digital Camera today. We'd been using a Casio EXILIM EX-Z3 for the last several years and were very happy with it. Sure there's lots of nice Pro-sumer cameras out there, but we wanted a small (purse or pocket) camera that we could take travelling without thinking much about it. Our Z3 was a 3.2 megapixel camera and was taken to four continents without a hitch. All the travel pics that I've posted to this blog and all the photos of Z have been taken with that it.

Naturally we look at Casio first, partially because of the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) and partially because the first camera worked so well.

We ended up with the Casio EXILIM EX-Z750 which appears to be very well thought of within this kind of camera.

Things we like about it

• 3x optical zoom. Digital zoom is useless. I'd like even more zoom, but 3x optical is still pretty good considering the camera is only 0.9in thick.
• Max 7.2M resolution which is 3072x2034, suitable for 8x10 but VERY nice for 5x7 photos.
• MPEG-4 movies at 640x480/30fps. We loved the movie support within the Z3, but it was only good for 30 seconds. The Z750 will take video until it fills up.
• ~300 shots per battery. We'll fill up the memory before the battery dies - important when you're taking photos in the bush.

Pleasant Surprises

• Has a "Whiteboard Mode" that will automatically de-skew photos of rectangular things. I'll be using this at work. Example below:
• 
• Has an "ID photo" mode which will be useful for Passport Photos, which we do more often than you'd think.
• It boots up in about a second, which is cool, and way faster than the old camera.

Stuff to Think About

• This are some big-ass files. At full resolution with fine quality, we're talking about 4 meg JPEGs. Gotta figure out what to do about that.
• It's still not that good at low-light and the flash sucks.

All in all, we're pleased. Now I've got a world-weary Casio EX-Z3 for sale in Portland with two docking stations, any takers?

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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