The design and functionality of Casio's Exilim cameras has remained pretty consistent for years now, but supporting the old adage “If it ain't broke, don't fix it”, it's good to see that the Casio Exilim EX-Z19 sports a familiar and simple design.

It's a camera that, despite its relatively deep body (by today's standards at least), feels extremely dinky in the hand. This is down to its small width and height dimensions; it measures 92.5 x 55.0 x 23.2mm. It still manages to house a 2.6-inch wide LCD screen.

Look at the range of colours the Casio EX-Z19 is available in and you will see you could bag yourself either a Silver, Black, Green, Light Pink or Pink model. It's a compact camera that would appeal to a younger, more feminine audience. And, to be honest, as some of the function buttons are a little small and close together, people with larger hands and fingers may have some problems operating the camera.

Casio was one of the first to introduce easy access ‘Best Shot' modes and this reliable and quick-to-access function is present here, all within easy reach of a thumb. As well as Auto, Voice Recording and Movie there are 20 different dedicated scene modes including ‘Pet', ‘Soft Flowing Water' and ‘Auction'.

During shooting a display panel appears on the right-hand side of the preview, cramming in all sorts of information such as flash setting, white balance and face detection. Although all this information is displayed in a comparatively small space it's logical and easy to adjust using the responsive ‘set' button and directional control pad.

Alternatively, if all that technical information leaves you feeling too confused, you can change the camera to operate in ‘Easy Mode' where you only really have to contend with flash settings and the camera itself operates in full Auto mode.

If you feel a bit more confident with manual camera settings then you have the option of eight different white balance settings including ‘Overcast', ‘Shade', ‘Day White Fluorescent' and ‘Tungsten'. One of the most helpful features of Exilim cameras is that the preview of the shot that appears on the LCD monitor will adjust in colour according to white balance settings. So if you do want to venture from ‘Auto white balance' you will have a good idea whether or not the colour will look too warm or too cold.

As well as Auto ISO sensitivity, settings include ISO 64,100, 200, 400, 800 and 1600. The option of a low ISO 64 gives you the opportunity to capture some crisp outdoor landscape shots, provided you're photographing in daylight. A higher ISO range comes in handy when capturing low light, indoor shots.

To minimise blur and enhance portraits, the Casio EX-Z19 features both Face Detection and Anti-Shake settings that are easy enough to activate using the ‘Set' button. There are also quite a few nifty settings that you wouldn't normally expect to find on a camera of this price range. Adjustments like ‘Sharpness', ‘Saturation' and ‘Contrast' as well as ‘Flash Intensity' give you far more control over image appearance than your average budget compact camera.

If you want to get creative over image appearance there's a wide selection of ‘Color Filter' options. With these activated you can reduce the need to work with image editing software to give your shots an authentic vintage feel about them. Options like ‘B & W' or ‘Sepia' give good, contrasty monochrome images. Alternatively, there are some more basic colour filter tweaks available such as ‘Red', ‘Green' or ‘Purple', but these probably wouldn't be put to use as often.

Image quality on the Casio Exilim EX-Z19 is generally very good. Noise was a bit of a problem past ISO 400 but a good amount of detail was captured and colours were reflective of the environment and objects captured.

The camera makes quite a show of its YouTube capture mode and, by placing all video files shot whilst in this option in their own dedicated folder, it makes it very easy to locate and upload files direct to the net. Image quality in Video mode is good enough for viewing online, although sound quality isn't ideal. It's crisp and clear but there is an issue with low volume, even if you are recording close to the camera without any other background noise.

Verdict
The Casio EX-Z19 would make an excellent camera to take with you on a night out and would be trusty enough to take good quality 'point and click' photos that have very reasonable image quality, with little effort. It offers the best of both worlds; reliable, quick and easy Auto functions plus an impressive amount of manual settings for a fairly budget camera. Operation is pleasingly responsive and easy to control. Combine this with intuitive menus, nifty features like dedicated YouTube capture mode and a small portable body and you have a well-rounded, trustworthy compact.

Company: Casio

Contact: 020 8450 9131

Tags: casio youtube liquid crystal display casio exilim film speed image stabilization tft lcd camera