Casio megazoom has extreme battery life

(Credit: Casio)

Casio joined the list of manufacturers with a pocketable megazoom Thursday with the announcement of the EX-H10. In retail around mid-July, the $299.99 12-megapixel camera is fronted by a wide-angle 24mm lens with a 10x zoom with CCD-shift image stabilization in a body that's 0.96 inch thick and weighs only 5.8 ounces. Even more impressive, though, is Casio's battery life claim of a 1,000 shots on a single charge.

That number comes courtesy of low-energy requirements of the the multi-CPU Exilim Engine 4.0 circuitry and operational controls coupled with a high-capacity battery. Usage is based on CIPA standards calculated with the LCD monitor on; a full zoom back and forth every 30 seconds; the flash used every two shots; and the power cycled every 10 shots.

Underneath it all it's still a typical Casio camera, too, with a gazillion Best Shot scene modes (OK, just 38, but that's still a ridiculous amount), high-speed shutter continuous shooting, and 720p HD movie capture at 24fps.

(Credit: Casio)

[tek-ed]

most of the specs for this camera are pretty good, but the F-Number really sucks. The maximum is F-3.2. whoa! That really sucks...F-3.2 at 24mm and the minimum is F7.5. but that's only in Wide mode apparently...I'ld like to see something in the range of F-2.x
And if you look at the continuous shutter speeds, 10 FPS at 1280 X 960 for 20 shots (about 2 seconds worth) And then you look at the resolution settings for the camera...It doesn't list this resolution. It goes from 640 X 480 to 2048 X 1536. So how did they come to that value when the camera doesn't even do that resolution?
Hmmmmm, I smell "shenanigans".
ed

[joshua.goldman]

Yeah, sorry, I should've been more specific. It's Casio's high-speed shooting that drops the resolution to shoot faster. Of course, this also doesn't factor in the wait time it takes to store those photos once they're shot--generally anywhere from 10-15 seconds depending on the resolution. It's all digital trickery and number fudging. ;)

[make_or_break]

An aperture of F 2.x on a compact point-n-shooter at a $300 price point? You don't even see that size of opening on most general purpose zooms lenses for dSLRS.