New toy... for Daddy...

Bought a Casio Exilim S600 compact camera (or as Casio calls it, a card camera). I've always been strongly against compact digicams, mainly because the sensors are tiny (compared to an APS sized sensor in most SLRs), and hence leads to noise, small dynamic range, and increased possibility of reduced sharpness.

However, this time I capitulated as I needed video, and specifically looked for cameras that can shoot VGA video (640x480) at 30fps. Other requirements include being able to take decent still pics (so a dedicated videocam was out...), being small enough to pocket, takes SD cards (so Fujis, Olympuses, Sonys were out). Final candidates were the Canon Powershots (too big), Ixuses (too pricey), Nikon Coolpixes (hopeless) and Casio Exilims.

I currently own a Canon A80, which was fantastic as far as compacts go, and offerred lots of manual controls too, but ultimately let down by its inability to shoot decent video, its large size, and tiny screen.

Saw a used Exilim S600 on sale, did a lot of reading up on the net, and so far the reviews I've read has mostly been favourable. Good video, good stills, takes SD, great battery life (though proprietary battery) and fantastic built quality! And for the price I bought it, it was beyond reproach. Picked it up Saturday after I dropped off wifey and babies at 1U. Had to go to Taman Sri Sentosa to pick it up, and in the process getting lost couple of times...

The condition was excellent with only a few small wear marks on corners. First impressions were very good, very very solid (it's made of stainless steel after all...), large bright screen, and it looks really good. Here's a pic I took off Steve's Digicams site, where I read one of the reviews. Yes, mine's the same color too.

Casio Exilim S600 Blue...

Started shooting as soon as I got home, and pictures appeared nice and vibrant, though I haven't gotten around to really looking at them yet. Videos were good, with decent exposure and very smooth due to the 30fps.

***Update 1: I subsequently sold this off for about the same price I bought it, but threw in a charger I bought off Ebay for RM5. Got another S600 on Ebay for the same price I sold this at, plus shipping from the USA! It included the whole package, box, cradle and everything. Only difference was this one is plain stainless steel, no paint on it, which I prefer.

Replaced with this...

So far it's seen quite a lot of use, and usual compact pitfalls aside, have performed admirably. Parents took it on holiday with them and were absolutely delighted with it.

***Update 2: Sadly, this was lost on a trip to Eastern Europe by my parents in October 2008. The camera aside, it was worse as it contained all of their holiday photos, and they only lost it in Dubai on transit for a flight home. Suspect it was a pickpocket...