Casio Exilim Pro EX-P505
Pros
- Easy to use, wide range of features
Cons
- Picture quality is below average, amateurish software included
Bottom Line
The Exilim Pro EX-P505's combination of photo and video features sounds promising, but its image quality is mediocre on stills, and its video doesn't measure up.
-
Price
$ 949.00 (AUD)
Though Casio's 5 megapixel Exilim Pro EX-P505 point-and shoot takes both still photos and video, it doesn't excel at either. In fact, its picture quality was mediocre. That's too bad, because this camera is easy to use and has a great in-camera help system.
The camera may be small, but it lacks both the slim shape of a point-and-shoot and the features - such as an optical viewfinder, a flash shoe, and support for external lenses - that justify the heft of more-advanced cameras. The Exilim does, however, have a swivelling 2" LCD of the type that would be found on a video camera, and it's easy to hold in one hand. I also liked the placement of its four-way joystick and ten-mode rotating dial.
This fully automatic camera comes with an informative in-camera graphic display, though the manual may need to be consulted to decipher some of the icons - particularly when using manual settings or manual exposure-metering modes. The display is particularly handy at revealing the secrets behind the 22 still-scene settings, most of which are useful. The Sunset setting, for example, combines infinity focus, the red filter, and daylight white balance - who knew? - to produce a pleasing image.
Other informative graphic displays appear in the aperture-priority and shutter-priority modes, which are located on the rotating dial as well. Pressing the Set button gives you sample pictures that illustrate the effects of high and low settings. We also liked the graphic bar at the bottom of the LCD, which indicates when you're moving beyond the camera's 5X optical zoom and switching to the 8X digital zoom.
The camera's hallmark feature is video, recorded in MPEG-4-encoded AVI files. The five primary video modes are Portrait, Scenery, Fireworks, NightScene and Silent. NightScene improved our video in a low-light indoor situation, and Silent took Charlie Chaplin-style black-and-white, speeded-up video. The camera's Short Movie mode takes a series of five-second video snapshots. Or there's the Past-Movie mode, which creepily takes video of the five seconds before the shutter is hit. Video can be shot in high, normal, and low-quality modes; the first two of these modes record at 30 frames per second, while last records at 15fps. The maximum possible length of the video is determined by the capacity of the SD card in the camera, which must be bought separately.
Unfortunately, the camera hiccupped during our performance tests. In our image quality testing, it produced fair results, but its exposure was poor, leaving test shots overexposed, and the colour accuracy also left a lot to be desired.
Considering the camera's advanced video features, its software is surprisingly amateurish. Casio bundled Photo Loader 2.3 and Photo Hands 1.0 with our test unit. Photo Loader, a browser-based photo organiser, didn't play nicely with Mozilla Firefox, opening multiple browser windows to view photos and slide shows. The Photo Hands 1.0 editing software provides contrast, brightness, saturation, sharpness, resizing and rotation functions in an interface reminiscent of an animated cartoon. On a more positive note, the bundled Ulead Movie Wizard SE VCD, though basic, was pretty easy to use.
Brand Post
Most Popular Reviews
- 1 Dell U3223QE review: A winning debut for an IPS Black monitor
- 2 HP Spectre x360 16 review: The right 2-in-1 at the wrong time
- 3 Acer K242HYL review: An affordable monitor for any occasion
- 4 GeForce Now review: You bring the games, Nvidia streams the hardware
- 5 Asus ProArt PA279CV monitor review: The go-to for content creators on a budget
Latest News Articles
- Apple offers 6 months free Apple Music, Keynote holiday greeting card templates
- Adobe expands Creative Cloud M1 support, claims over 80% better performance than Intel
- GoPro delivers Quik solution for videos and photos
- Got a GoPro Hero 8? You can use it as a webcam for your Mac
- Canon embolden mirrorless offering with EOS R5 and R6
Resources
Macworld
What's new, plus best mac-related tips
and tricks
Business Centre
The latest business news, reviews, features and whitepapers
Videos
Watch our video news and reviews from around the world
Guides
Comprehensive buying guides, features, and step-by-step articles
PCW Evaluation Team
Pedro Peixoto
Aruba Instant On AP11D
Set up is effortless.
Cate Bacon
Aruba Instant On AP11D
The strength of the Aruba Instant On AP11D is that the design and feature set support the modern, flexible, and mobile way of working.
Dr Prabigya Shiwakoti
Aruba Instant On AP11D
Aruba backs the AP11D up with a two-year warranty and 24/7 phone support.
Tom Pope
Dynabook Portégé X30L-G
Ultimately this laptop has achieved everything I would hope for in a laptop for work, while fitting that into a form factor and weight that is remarkable.
Tom Sellers
MSI P65
This smart laptop was enjoyable to use and great to work on – creating content was super simple.
Lolita Wang
MSI GT76
It really doesn’t get more “gaming laptop” than this.
Featured Content
- Which Lenovo Laptop Should I Buy?
- Every TV in Samsung's 2022 line-up: OLED, Neo QLED and more!
- Top 10 best Android and Apple phones for under $600
- Everything you need to know about Smart TVs
- What's the difference between an Intel Core i3, i5 and i7?
- Laser vs. inkjet printers: which is better?