Casio Exilim EX-S880 review

Casio Exilim EX-S880 Review

Reviewed by: Will Greenwald

Reviewed on: 12 September 2007

Usually, newer versions of cameras offer noticeable upgrades, such as more advanced processors, higher-resolution sensors and more features.

Sometimes, though, this 'next big thing' turns out to actually be worse than what came before it. At just around £185, Casio's Exilim EX-S880 joins this group, falling short of the standard set by the EX-S770.

Design
At just 18mm deep and weighing only 145g with battery and SD card, the EX-S880 cuts the same ultraslim, ultralight profile as the EX-S770. It shares a layout almost identical to the EX-S770's, with small, flat buttons and a flat joypad clustered around a 71mm (2.8-inch) LCD screen while leaving ample space for a thumb to rest.

At just 18mm deep and 145g, the Exilim EX-S880 cuts an ultraslim, ultralight profile

On the other side of the camera, the EX-S880 sports the same 35-114mm-equivalent, f/2.7-to f/5.2, 3x optical zoom lens as its predecessor.

Features
The EX-S880 features an 8-megapixel CCD sensor and Casio's new Exilim Engine 2.0 image processor, compared to the EX-S770's 7-megapixel sensor and original Exilim Engine processor.

Beyond these two upgrades, however, the camera's hardware attributes are largely identical to those of the EX-S770; as stated above, both cameras share the same large LCD and 3x lens. The camera's menus and software-based controls keep the same convenient interface, while the new image processor and a few new features set it slightly above the EX-S770.

Face detection first appeared among Casio cameras in the Exilim EX-Z1200, but this is the first superslim Exilim S-series camera to offer the feature. Like the EX-Z1200, the EX-S880's face-detection system offers more than most other similarly equipped cameras.

Besides automatically detecting faces and adjusting the focus and exposure to suit it, the camera offers a family-recognition mode, which lets you record family and friends' faces ahead of time on the camera so the detection function gives those faces priority. It's a handy feature when shooting large crowds.

Like every other Exilim camera, it incorporates Casio's Best Shot Selector and a myriad of scene presets. Besides the usual portrait and landscape presets, the camera also offers a new YouTube Capture video mode. While Casio promotes YouTube Capture as a new, specialised mode, it's really just a 640x480-pixel, 30 frame per second MPEG-4 video mode, not unlike those found on most other snapshot cameras.

A bundled application lets you automatically upload videos shot in this mode directly to your YouTube account. While it saves the hassle of going through YouTube's uploading page, this feature is really only useful if you put videos on YouTube often, and if you don't already have a decent camcorder -- which would generally produce higher quality video than almost any still camera.

Besides taking still photos and shooting video clips, the EX-S880 can also store your documents. Casio promotes the EX-S880 as a data storage device, capable of holding information other than photos and videos.

Unfortunately, like the YouTube Capture mode, this feature is just a very slight variation to something nearly all cameras can do. Since the EX-S880 uses SD memory cards, you can store any file you want, as long as the card is spacious enough. It comes with a utility for moving data between the camera and your computer, but once again it doesn't really do anything you can't already do yourself, especially if you have a card reader.