Value & Verdict

Casio Exilim ZR100 review – Value

Casio products are often well-priced, if not with a tendency to ‘undercut’ the competition in terms of price. Although the ZR100’s suggested retail price is £300 that’s not too bad at all considering all that’s on offer here: 24mm wideangle coupled with 12.5x optical zoom, that new back-illuminated sensor, Full HD movie and high speed shooting.

Weighing the ZR100 up against something like the Fujifilm F550 EXR with its 15x optical zoom and there are a fair number of similarities, including the asking price of both.

Casio Exilim ZR100 review – Verdict

The ZR100 is indeed a step forward in Casio’s portfolio. While the company seems to have spent much of its promotional time talking about the HDR Art mode – something we, quite frankly, don’t care for even one little bit – there are loads more top features here that ought to be given far more credit. Although the menu systems are a bit clunky and some options are a little too tucked away, there are far more positives to speak of…

The back-illuminated CMOS sensor produces great images from ISO 100-400 and close-up macro works a treat. Although ISO 800 through to ISO 3200 are much softer the results are better than a number of competitor compacts out there.

The ZR100’s autofocus system is also generally very on the ball and the AF Area modes know which areas of interest to focus on. Add to this manual controls, a reasonable (if not over-compressed) Full HD mode that can utilise all of the 24-300mm (12.5x) optical zoom in real time during recording and there’s very little missing from this release.

If you’re looking to buy a decent compact with a wide ranging zoom for £300 then the Casio ZR100 certainly doesn’t do a bad job and would be worthy of a place on your shortlist.