Product Reviews

Last month we praised Panasonic's TZ2 for its 10x zoom lens in a body barely bigger than that of the average 3x zoom compact camera. Casio's EX-V7 lens has a 7x zoom, but at 26mm thick and 149g the camera borders on the ultra-compact category. As with the TZ2, the maximum aperture is smaller than usual at f/3.4, which means less light hitting the CCD and, as a result, darker, grainier or blurrier pictures depending on how you choose to resolve the issue.

Optical image stabilisation is built in to tackle blur from camera shake. This is a particularly useful feature in high-zoom

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cameras, and one that goes some way to counteracting the aperture issue. It didn't seem as effective as similar features in Canon, Panasonic and Sony cameras, though. The mode dial includes aperture priority, shutter priority and manual exposure - a rarity in compact cameras. However, manual exposure is a little unwieldy, with the ISO speed defaulting to 64 and limited feedback as to how exposures will come out.

The EX-V7's video mode is one of the best we have seen, with AVC (MPEG4) widescreen capture at 848x480 pixels, stereo sound at CD specifications and a working optical zoom. Still image quality tests revealed reliable colours in a wide range of conditions, despite a tendency towards under-saturation, and reasonably low noise at ISO 400. Other 7-megapixel cameras manage sharper detail and more flattering colours, but nothing here gave us serious cause for concern.

As we went to press the silver EX-V7 cost up to £250, but the black version is considerably better value at £200. We would prefer the TZ2's superior image quality and even larger zoom, but the EX-V7's ultra-compact design and fantastic video mode make it worth consideration.