Thursday, November 8, 2007
Comparison Review: Casio EX-S770 vs. Casio EX-Z75
Posted by Jeremy Charette in "HARDWARE" @ 07:00 AM
More Money, More Features
The EX-S770 is more expensive than its cousin, the EX-Z75. What will that extra money get you? Lets take a look:
The differences seem pretty small, but I can assure you, the build quality is light years apart. The EX-Z75 has a cast housing with a brushed aluminum look on the front. Most of the buttons are made of plastic, and feel a bit wobbly during use. The tripod mount on the bottom of the camera is molded plastic rather than machined metal. The wrist strap mount sticks out from the side of the housing, and may catch on clothing or other objects if you don't have the wrist strap attached.
Figure 2: As you can see, the controls and finish on the EX-S770 are much nicer.
The EX-S770 by comparison has a polished metal case, with metal and chrome plated plastic buttons. The buttons have a more positive feel than the EX-Z75, and the zoom toggle in particular feels more sturdy and tactilely responsive. It has dedicated buttons for the display options and video recording function, where the Z75 does not. The wrist strap attachment is flush with the body, and isn't noticeable when the strap isn't installed.
The LCD screen on the back of the S770 is only slightly larger, but it is nearly twice as bright, and since it has double the pixel count of the Z75, the images displayed are much sharper and clearer. It also adjusts brightness automatically to compensate for ambient lighting conditions, and is bright and clear even in direct sunlight. The Z75 display becomes somewhat washed out outdoors.
The Z75 doesn't have an auto-focus assist lamp, and has trouble focusing in dark conditions. The S770 has an orange focus assist lamp to light up subjects in dark rooms or at night, and had no trouble getting a good focus in these conditions during my tests.
To recharge the battery in the Z75, you have to remove it from the camera and insert it into the included battery charger. Dead battery? You're going to have to wait to sync those photos. The S770 carries no such burdens. Plug it into the included docking cradle, and it syncs and charges automatically.
Various menu items are selected using a four way toggle on the back of each camera. I enjoyed the fact that many frequently accessed features such as type of flash, ISO mode, and focus mode are available without having to dig into the menus. You can set the cameras to cycle through various modes by pressing up, down, left, or right on the toggle switch. The one thing that made no sense to me, however, is why it wasn't setup this way right out of the box. You have to enable this feature in the menu in order to get quick access to these modes through the toggle switch.
I did prefer the four-way toggle button on the Z75, finding it easier to manipulate than the one on the back of the S770. I could place my full thumb on the Z75, vs. having to use my fingernail to toggle through the menus on the S770.
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