Product Reviews

Most of Casio's cameras are compact, but the Exilim Card EX-S770 range takes miniaturisation to the extreme. At just 19mm front to back, it's the slimmest zoom camera we've ever seen, and its low-profile buttons and minimal design mean it will fit into the tightest of pockets. However, it's not the most comfortable camera to hold and we wouldn't recommend using it one-handed for fear of dropping it. The slim design also takes its toll on battery size and life, with just 217 shots from a single charge in our test.

The S770 uses the same screen and button layout as Casio's 10-megapixel

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EX-Z1000, which we reviewed in our ultra-compact camera Labs test, Shopper December 2006. It's a neat system with quick access to the most commonly used settings and the 2.8" screen is extraordinarily bright. The power button is recessed to avoid accidentally switching it on, but the camera and playback buttons are power buttons, too, and these run the risk of being pressed accidentally.

Image quality was reasonable in our tests, but fell short of what we'd expect at this price. The manual ISO control ranges from 50 to 400, but the camera uses ISO 800 in low light to keep shutter speeds fast enough to avoid blur. It's a sensible technique, but the pictures are grainy and the camera seems a little too quick to jump to this setting. In middling lighting, we found we could get sharp shots with less grain by setting the ISO speed to 400. Otherwise, image quality was unremarkable, with slightly less detail than the best 7-megapixel cameras manage and a tendency towards under-saturated colours. However, well-balanced exposures meant results were never disastrous.

The Exilim Card S770 is a decent camera, but its slimness has its downsides and pushes up the price