Labs

Just 14mm wide at its thinnest point, the Exilim EX-S600 is another impossibly small Casio camera. Somehow, there's a telescoping 3x optical zoom crammed into the tiny body, along with a 6-megapixel sensor. On the back is a large2.2in TFT, albeit with a relatively low resolution.

Like every camera here, the layout is designed for right-handers, the direction pad falling under your right thumb. Oddly, you can only change flash and display modes with the pad. You'll have to delve into the menus for the self-timer, macro, EV shift, white balance and ISO settings. But while you're there, you'll notice other options, like sharpness, saturation, contrast, metering modes, focus modes and even flash intensity. Importantly, there's an anti-shake option, which uses a high shutter speed and sensitivity to reduce blur caused by shaky hands. Our testing showed it really worked, especially

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indoors where slower speeds without flash would otherwise induce blur.

A minor annoyance is that the macro mode is hidden in the Best Shot menu along with 31 other scene presets, although this is something you'd easily get used to. Of more concern was the poor design of the battery/SD card cover, which hinges next to the SD slot, making it tricky to remove the card.

The Casio performed well in outdoor testing. Noise was relatively low, and resolution and sharpness were good. Colours were well saturated and there were hardly any chromatic aberrations. The metering system ensured that highlights weren't overly blown out and only slight compression artefacts marred images.

Indoor shots weren't great, though. Even with a tripod, we saw poor focus, noise and compression artefacts, which led to poor detail levels. Our night shot had more artefacts, but white balance was spot on, there was little noise and the image was fairly sharp.

The macro mode was similar to the BenQ's, limiting how close you can go. Plus, colours were oversaturated, although you can tone this down. Movies can be shot at VGA resolution and we found clips were fairly good quality with low noise, decent sound and a smooth 30fps frame rate.

There's no video output on the EX-S600, but the docking cradle has both audio and video output. Combine this level of convenience with its very pocketable, lightweight design, and it makes a superb alternative to the Sony.