Review: Casio Exilim EX-S880 digital camera

The metal-bodied EX-S880 is the latest in Casio's series of pocket-friendly cameras, squeezing a 3x zoom lens into a camera only 14mm thick, topped off with an eight-megapixel resolution.

Among the important features are the 2.8in widescreen for composition (there is no viewfinder), face-detection to ensure perfect people shots - with the intriguing ability to bias it towards members of your own family - and the bundled desktop docking station for downloading images and recharging the battery.

One of the camera's main selling points, though, is a video blog mode that optimises video for posting on Youtube. A top resolution of 848x480 pixels when shooting video is slightly better than most digital cameras.

Though it's a gimmick - as is the fact that the camera is available in three colours - it provides a useful differentiation for what is on the face of it just another point-and-shoot camera.

The literal lack of depth to the EX-S880 is also a bit of a worry, as it led, in our testing, to an unusually high number of images ruined by camera shake and visible image softness - something like half the shots we took.

Unfortunately the EX-S880 does not offer image stabilisation to counteract this, only a digital setting that boosts shutter speed and ISO sensitivity (ISO1600). We'd advise sticking to ISO400 to avoid image noise, though there is less noise than from previous Exilims.

And the EX-S880 is fast in use, the lens barrel extending in just over a second, and no noticeable shutter lag. Write speed - to an SD card (not supplied) or the small 11MB internal memory - is merely OK, taking two to three seconds to save a maximum-quality JPEG.

At the end of the day though we can’t escape the fact that, when it comes to image quality, the EX-S880’s swan-like feathers reveal an ugly duckling.

Vista compatible: Yes