This gorgeous camera packs a 3-inch LCD and wide-angle lens.
(Credit: Best Buy)In the market for a new camera? Best Buy has the 8.1-megapixel Casio Exilim EX-Z150 for just $99.99. It's new, not a refurb, and a pretty sweet deal considering that it sold for $200 just last year.
I actually own this model, and I reviewed it for Wired last September. Here's a recap of the highlights, along with some updates based on months of real-world use.
The EX-Z150's wide-angle lens absolutely rocks, especially for snapping group photos in close quarters. I also love its mammoth LCD, which has spoiled me for anything smaller, and 4x optical zoom.
Unlike previous Exilim models, which forced you to wade into the menus to enable video mode, the EX-Z150 sports a dedicated video button: One push and you're capturing YouTube-ready footage.
In my original review, I was a little hard on the camera for being chunky, but the truth is it's really not. In fact, it's slimmer than some of Canon's popular pocket models.
Battery life is excellent, but it's a huge pain to have to take out the battery every time it needs charging.
Also, while I've found image quality to be quite good overall, videos often come out jerky. I don't know if a faster SD card would help, but this has proven very annoying.
Even so, if you're looking for a feature-packed camera that's attractively styled, easy to use, and reasonably pocket-friendly, the Exilim EX-Z150 for a hundred bucks (plus sales tax) is mighty hard to pass up.
