Casio QV-3500EX

Both Canon and Olympus have released impressive mid-range 'prosumer' cameras recently and the Olympus Camedia C-3040Zoom (reviewed issue 80, p160) stole the coveted A List position last month. Now it's Casio's turn to attack the market with its new flagship camera, the QV-3500EX. This features a 3.34 megapixel CCD and a fast f2-f2.5 maximum aperture lens from Canon, providing a 3x optical zoom from 7-21mm. On paper, at least, it should be capable of matching the Camedia C-3040Zoom on image quality.

As the QV-3500EX isn't an SLR there's no possibility of the fast aperture brightening the viewfinder. The image can be enhanced by the built-in dioptre correction, which can be adjusted for viewing with the left or right eye. However, the extra light coming through the lens enables the QV-3500EX to use its 60-1/1,000th-second shutter speed range to its full potential. The top speed is fast enough to stop the majority of action, while the slowest speeds should be enough for most users' needs.

The 3x optical zoom is equivalent to a 33-100mm lens on a 35mm camera and can be digitally enhanced to give a 12x maximum zoom. The lens has a closest focus of 60cm in macro mode with a fairly flat field, meaning the edges and the centre of the image are similar in sharpness - so copying paperwork is achieved without any problems. Focusing will normally be set to auto focus, but a stepped manual control is also available.

The QV-3500EX is equipped with a filter ring on the front of the lens for attaching a lens hood. With a bit of hunting you should be able to find a suitable hood, and it's advisable to do so. Flare can reduce contrast, which in turn affects the perception of sharpness. At the worst extreme, lens-flare effects can result in some shots being totally ruined or at least needing extensive work in a photo-editing application.

The QV-3500EX has a top resolution of 2,048 x 1,536 in JPEG or TIFF, although at this size you won't fit many shots onto the supplied 8Mb CompactFlash card. Given that the QV-3500EX is a 3.34-megapixel camera, it's disappointing that Casio has supplied such a small amount of storage. However, thanks to the CompactFlash Type II slot, the camera can accept IBM's microdrive, which increases storage dramatically, and Casio also sells the QV-3500EX bundled with a 340Mb microdrive for £596.

When recording JPEG you can choose normal, economy or fine compression, although greater compression will affect the final image quality. You can also elect to record at the alternative resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels, which is fine for quick snaps, but not for high-quality photos.

Connection to a PC is via USB and there are video and serial options too. However, as with all digital cameras, we'd recommend a separate card reader for transferring images to your computer.

At the top file size the QV-3500EX was impressive; we obtained some fine A3 prints, which revealed high sharpness and good contrast. We also processed the images through a high-street photo lab using 7 x 5in photographic paper. The images were previously adjusted using Adobe Photoshop for colour rendition, sharpness and size, but the results were equal to any good 35mm film camera. Interestingly, this is one of the first cameras to be compatible with Epson's Print Image Matching, which adds increased colour gamut information to the file, allowing PIM-enabled printers to deliver greater colour accuracy and also a wider range of colours.

Operating the QV-3500EX was something of a love/hate affair. It's chunky and therefore stable and can be held for reasonably slow shutter speeds. However, its menu system isn't the fastest to access, and the four-position control pad can easily be knocked without realising, which may lead to some shots being taken at the wrong settings.