Everything else on the EX-FH25 looks to be the same. Similarly, the EX-FC150 will keep its 5x optical zoom, and sensor-shift image stabilisation. Both cameras will continue to do 720p video at 30fps.

The new models arrive in Japan on November 27; we’ll keep you posted on their pricing and availability. [Akihabara News: EX-FX25 | EX-FX150]

From what we can tell, you have a buddy hold the EX-FS10 while you hit balls at the range or on the course. The camera takes a look at the angles of your swing posture, then it chastises you with fierce blue and red lines. (Meanwhile, your buddy will purely use profanity.)

Otherwise, the Casio Exilim EX-FS10 is a typical, 9.1-megapixel camera with perks like 1000fps burst mode, 720p video recording and 3x optical zoom. No word on price, but I think it’s worth assuming that the camera is available only in Japan for the time being. [Akihabara News]

Sex and Brains

It’s got the same spacious image sensor as the G11—1/1.7-inch as opposed to 1/2.5-inch like most point-and-shoots. But instead of being built into a Panzer tank, it’s in the body of a hot German model. It’s an actual point-and-shoot: It fits in the pocket of your skinny jeans, but delivers, for the most part, the same wow image quality.

I wish it was slightly more square with sharper angles for an even more classic aesthetic, but it’s still pretty classy looking. The texture, which makes for half of the appeal, makes it a little slippery. The control ring around the lens is like the perfect scarf that ties it altogether. And despite being a bantam-weight shooter, it feels more solid than most cameras its size.

Lord of the Ring

What makes the camera really work is that control ring wrapped around the lens. By default, when you turn it, it adjusts the main setting for each mode — aperture in aperture priority, shutter speed in shutter priority, you get the idea. Using the ring function button on top of the camera, you can set the ring to adjust almost whatever parameter you want though, like white balance, ISO, exposure, even specific zoom intervals.

Truthfully, using the dial never feels completely seamless, because of way you’re forced to hold the camera. As a result of its pint size, there’s no completely natural hand or finger posture for spinning the ring. But, the control it manages to put at your fingertips is remarkable: In manual mode, I had aperture mapped to the main ring, exposure set to the control ring on the back (which, like the G11, is a little too small to have a settings d-pad stuffed in the centre of it) and ISO speed mapped to the shortcut button. The only real issue with that setup is that the ISO setting interface lags behind your input occasionally, so you sometimes overshoot the ISO speed you wanted.

Just a Little More Hardware Talk

There’s no viewfinder, so you’re stuck using the screen exclusively. The LCD is a little bigger than the G11’s, at three inches, though it uses the same number of pixels and obviously doesn’t swivel out. It too is easily viewable in sunlight, though I found a more of a difference, exposure-wise, between what I thought I shot according to the display and what I later saw on my computer, than I noticed with the G11. Also, there’s no flash hot shoe, like you get with the G11.

The battery’s small, obviously, so your picture taking is capped at a little over 200 shots, according to Canon. My days of shooting didn’t contradict that, for better or for worse—I’d get to half battery after around 100 shots and a couple video clips.

Finally the Photos (and Video)

Since it’s the same 10-megapixel image sensor as the G11, yes, you do get just about the same fantastic image quality, solid low-light performance (noise doesn’t start really kicking in til ISO 800, and even that’s totally usable for most stuff) and ability to shoot in RAW. The main difference is in the lens. The S90 has a faster lens that’ll shoot at F/2 wide open, meaning you rely less on that high ISO—up to 3200—to compensate for the lack of light. The oh-so-small price for this incredibly fast lens is that you lose a bit of zoom, since it goes out to 105mm, vs. the G11’s 140mm, but who cares? I can’t reiterate how big of a deal a lens like this is on this kind of point-and-shoot. That said, I seemed to get photos that were a touch less sharp than what I got on the G11.

Here’s a gallery of some stuff I shot, which you can compare to G11 sample photos and ISO tests (spoiler, they look great):

The video’s still 640×480, and still quite good too:

Buy If You Need a Tiny-But-Great Camera

I know, it’s $US430 — way more than most point-and-shoots cost in this day and age. But the amount of picture power this literally slips into your pocket is almost unbelievable: Outstanding low-light performance for a camera this size; a speedy lens; full control rings, plural; and yep, RAW. It’s the soul of what makes the $US500 behemoth G11 great, packaged in a true point-and-shoot. You lose some power and some pro tools, like the swivel screen, a (shitty) viewfinder, faster burst shooting, hot shoe, some zoom and a custom mode or two, but you’re also shedding a ton of bulk, meaning you’ll actually take it everywhere. And the best camera’s always the one you have with you—for me, that’s this camera, which just happens to be an excellent one all by itself.

G11’s awesome image sensor plus a fastfastfast lens means awesome photos

Looks like a serious little camera (it is)

Did I mention I love this camera?

Control ring can feel awkward

More battery life and 720p video would be nice

[Canon]

The G11 is Canon’s top-of-the-line point-and-shoot. It occupies a sorta strange spot, towering over the average point-and-shoot in basically every metric—image quality, size, weight and price—but sits just below entry-level DSLRs and more recently, micro four thirds cameras.

So, there are two ways to look at the G11: It’s an amazing street camera. More discreet than a DSLR, but more powerful than a run-of-the-mill point-and-shoot. You can’t stuff it in your jeans pocket, but that’s fine, because you want to sling it over your shoulder anyways. The other way is that you can buy a more versatile entry-level DSLR that’s not much larger for around the same price, especially if you step back a generation or so.

It’s all about your priorities.

H-h-h-h-hardware

Everything about this camera is just — solid. The full-metal jacket makes it feel indestructible, while the shape evokes the classic cameras you feel like you’re supposed to be taking photos with. It’s thick, remarkably so, in part because of the flip-out swivel LCD screen. And it’s definitely more along the lines of a rangefinder-style camera than a typical point-and-shoot.

The real magic of this camera lies in the dedicated control dials. You’ll find three on top — exposure compensation, ISO speed and shooting mode. They feel cramped and tiny at first, but the snap they make as as you rotate them is surprisingly deep and satisfying. Having these settings at your fingers at all times is so much of why the G11 feels like a camera that’s a step above point-and-shoots, a tool for creating photographs.

The back dial is the most frustrating part of controlling the camera — a ring surrounds a four-way d-pad with a button in the centre. Ultimately, you wind up pressing buttons on the d-pad when you’re trying to rotate the dial to adjust shutter speed or aperture, or simply pressing the wrong button because it’s so small. The menu system, otherwise, is a pretty standard Canon setup, which looks a lot like the G10’s — it’s not dead simple, but it’s not overly complicated either, and a couple minutes of fiddling will reveal all of its secrets.

The viewfinder is utterly depressing. I want to use it, badly. It just feels intrinsically wrong to hold a camera of this calibre out in front of me to shoot, not up to my eyeball. Meanwhile, the G11’s viewfinder is so small, and the coverage is so bad (you can see the lens through it!), that it’s nigh useless, like trying to compose through a pinhole.

One of the shooting modes, quickshot, sounds like a good idea on paper, but is ruined by this viewfinder. The camera constantly adjusts parameters while waiting for you to take the photo, so you can fire off instantly without worrying about missing the shot. Unfortunately, you have to use the minuscule viewfinder in quickshot, and I wound up botching far more photos than I did nailing them.

So, you’re pretty trapped to using the decent flip-out swivel LCD display. Honestly, I probably would’ve preferred the static-but-larger 3-inch version on the G10, to the 2.8-inch, 461,000-dot display on the G11.

The LCD is really bright, though, and perfectly usable in direct sunlight with a wide viewing angle to boot. But the video feed is not quite crisp enough on it to use it for manual focusing — in this mode, a zoomed in box appears in the centre of the display as you spin the back dial to bring it into focus. The experience of focusing becomes a bad iPhone game.

Can we talk about the photos please?

With the G11, Canon pulled the bold manoeuvre of cutting megapixels—to 10, from 14 on the G10—in order to get better quality and low-light performance. It was the right move. Low-light images are definitely improved, and more detail is preserved up through ISO 800. Shots at ISO 1600 are definitely usable at web resolutions, which is pretty impressive for a compact camera. You should stay away from the special “low light” shooting mode though, which cuts the size of pictures in half to try to extract every ounce of light possible — it produced uniformly bad pictures.

The G11 has a wide-angle zoom lens with the same basic specs as the G10, starting at 28mm and going up to 140mm, which is versatile enough to shoot just about anything you’d want. I’m not sure, however, if it corrects some of the problems at the wide-end with the macro mode, though, since I didn’t have a G10 to compare it with.

G11 ISO Test Shots

The runthrough of the ISO range goes a couple ways — on programmed auto, letting the camera figure out what to make of the ISO setting I picked, and then another set where I dictated shutter speed, so you can see how much you gain (or lose, depending on your point of view) as you ratchet up the ISO setting.

G11 Sample Photos

Like past G series cameras, you can shoot in RAW, but if you do, you’re stuck with using Canon’s software to process it for the time being.

In a world where phones and gadgets the size of a jumbo pack of Juicy Fruit gum shoot 720p, the fact that video’s limited to 640×480 resolution on such a stacked camera gets a big frowny face. But, the video the G11 produces at that resolution is generally excellent (just compare to the video-shootin’ iPod nano). That’s because it’s packed with data — the bitrate averages around 10Mbps, which is more than the Flip Mino HD, at 9Mbps for 720p video. Sure, 720p out of this would be nice, but I’d take VGA video that looks great over HD video that looks like crap.

OK, but do I buy it?

I like this camera a lot. It’s what I’d reach for whenever I wouldn’t feel like tugging along a honkin’ DSLR, and I’d feel like I wasn’t sacrificing too much. The real question, I think, is how it stacks up against Panasonic’s Lumix LX3, which is in the same demographic—a lauded $US500 point-and-shoot—and outgunned the G10 in many respects (though the G10 tried to cram 14 megapixels onto the same-sized sensor the G11 only squeezes 10 megapixels onto). The slightly cheaper S90 offers the same sensor as the G11 as well, and inside of a pocketable body — though you lose perks like the dedicated control dials and a viewfinder, as far as that’s a perk on the G11.

If you do buy the G11, you won’t regret it — you’ll be too busy taking pictures.

Photographs are top-notch for a compact camera

Solid low-light performance

Built to smash into people’s spaces and live to smash again

It’s huge

The viewfinder is basically useless

Why the qualification? Because the $US600 camera is just part of a new ecosystem, including special plastic-lens-coated 3D prints (expensive!) and an eight-inch 3D-enabled photo frame (also expensive!). It’ll work as a regular 10-megapixel camera as well, though $US600 prices it well out of the “why not” range, especially when compared to the bevy of solid cameras available for much, much less. [Time via Digicam Review]

Other features include: a battery life of 1000 shots, a 3-inch LCD, CCD-shift image stabilisation,max ISO 3200 sensitivity, dynamic photo function that coverts JPEGs into a motion movie file and 720p video recording capability at 30 fps. All in a package that measures under an inch thick. The Exilim EX-H10 will hit stores in July for $US300.

CASIO RELEASES EXILIM HI-ZOOM COMPACT DIGITAL CAMERA WITH ULTRA-WIDE ANGLE 24 MM, 10X OPTICAL ZOOM LENS

World’s Thinnest and Lightest*1 Camera in its Class Features Battery Life of 1,000 Shots,*2 and an Advanced Dynamic Photo Function

DOVER, NJ, June 11, 2009 – Casio America, Inc. and its parent company, Casio Computer Co., Ltd., today announced the release of another groundbreaking digital camera, the EXILIM

Hi-Zoom EX-H10. With a thin, compact body and an ultra-wide angle 24mm, 10x optical zoom lens, this new model can take up to 1,000 shots*1 on a single battery charge – making it the perfect travel companion.

At the heart of the new EX-H10 is the EXILIM Engine 4.0, which delivers higher image quality and lower power consumption in an even more compact package. The new Engine’s Multi-CPU*3 is specifically designed for high-speed image processing. Reflecting Casio’s quest for perfection, the new camera provides the best in basic photography functions – beautiful imaging with reduced noise and long battery life for many hours of use. A high-performance 12.1-megapixel model, it also boasts a lens with outstanding optical capabilities – from wide angle to telephoto – and it features a number of Casio’s totally original photographic functions.

Ultra-wide angle 24 mm, 10X optical zoom lens

Only Casio could find a way to pack a 10X optical zoom lens, large 3.0-inch monitor and a CCD-shift image stabilisation mechanism into such a slim, compact camera body, just .95″ thin, convenient for travel. With ultra-wide angle starting at 24 mm (35 mm film camera equivalent) all the way up to 10x telephoto zoom, the photographer is ready for any scene – from huge buildings and other wonders at tourist destinations to distant figures in a landscape.

*1. As of June 11, 2009, based on a Casio survey of digital cameras with a 10X or greater optical zoom lenses.

*2. When photos taken in accordance with Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) standards.

*3. A package comprising a high-speed dedicated image processing CPU in addition to the usual high performance CPU.

“The development of the ultra-wide angle 24mm continues Casio’s dedication to creating digital cameras that are packed with innovative features and new technology,” said Toshiyuki Iguchi, Senior General Manager of Casio’s Digital Imaging Division at Casio America, Inc. “This new feature gives our camera enthusiasts the opportunity to capture their extraordinary moments in a variety of shooting environments.”

Advanced Dynamic Photo function

Casio’s original Dynamic Photo function, which creates composite moving images using the camera’s own high-speed image processing technology, now does even more. When a moving subject is cut out of a number of images and combined with a different still shot that forms the background, the size of the subject can be changed to suit the background image. Next, the Dynamic Photo video can easily be converted in-camera into a Motion JPEG movie file. Moreover, moving graphics such as hearts and bouquets of flowers are included so that users can have fun decorating their still images using the Dynamic Photo function. Casio not only allows users to have fun taking and viewing photos, but also provides innovative new ways for them to create original images, right on the camera.

1,000-shot long battery life

Casio has reduced energy consumption by improving the circuitry and operational controls and designing a higher capacity battery, enabling the user to take 1,000 shots on a single full charge. The EX-H10 provides a convenient solution for people on the go. It’s possible to take 100 pictures every day of a 10 day vacation, without ever needing to recharge, eliminating the need to pack a charger. The long-life battery gives users approximately 11 consecutive hours of viewing on a single charge.

New Landscape Mode

The EX-H10 also features a new Landscape Mode for capturing beautiful scenic photography. Unlike earlier landscape photography modes, which enhance the saturation of an entire hue, users can now select between the Vivid Landscape option that uses image analysis to determine and vividly enhance only the most important colours in the landscape or the Mist Removal option that makes weather-affected misty scenes look clear and bright.

The new camera will begin shipping to retail in mid July. The EX-H10 will have an MSRP of $US299.99 and will be available in black.

That’s because it’s really teeny and the easiest to stick in your pants, and it pulls off the square form factor really nicely without being boring. I don’t think it’s quite as comfortable to hold as its slightly larger, more ergonomic-minded older brothers because it just borders on being crampy to use, but this will fit in your jeans pocket better than any other Canon camera (Sony’s typically been the master of truly pocketable point-and-shoots), and it shoots 720p video.

Unfortunately, it’s still using Canon’s old UI—a couple of the newer models have a slicker, more list-oriented menu style (more on that later)—but at least the button-layout is relatively straightforward. Oh yeah, the form factor really is the reason to buy this thing. Why? Every one of Canon’s new 12-megapixel cameras uses the same image sensor, and this only has a 3x zoom (the step up models have a 5x zoom lens).

PMA is an annual show where we get to see tomorrow’s digital cameras—the ones that’ll be populating pockets and purses for the rest of the year. We’ll be here for the next couple of days.