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Casio EX-F1 Camera Review
by Ralph Nuss

CASIO EX-F1 Exilim High Speed Camera Review
The Perfect Camera for ATV Enthusiasts?

We constantly meet people seeking advice on how to take better pictures. A lot of point and shoot cameras out there simply do not have the speed and quality needed in the world of photographing ATV's. When we caught wind of CASIO's new Exilim EX-F1 Camera we thought it would be the perfect camera for anyone wanting to go out there and get some nice pictures of their friends.

CASIO EX-F1 Camera Review Photo Casio Exilim F1 Camera Screen

CASIO's Exilim EX-F1 High Performance / High Speed Camera

The CASIO EX-F1 boasts some very impressive never before seen features which are perfect for our Sport. To Start off, the EX-F1 can shoot at an impressive 60 frames per second at full resolution. It can also shoot High Definition video and Super Slow-Mo Videos. The feature that sticks out the most is that It can actually take pictures before you click the shutter so you never miss that perfect shot.

60 Frames per Second:
CRF450 CASIO EX-F1

Ryan Fisher taking a berm for the camera. The 60 fps mode worked flawlessly for capturing riders through fast berms.

This features is very cool but at times is almost overkill. I found that shooting at around 20-30 fps (frames per second) was more than enough. The main problem when shooting 60fps is that the camera has to save a lot of pictures which can leave you with the “Busy” screen when you really want to take another picture. Although the camera is setup to let you save only the frames you want out of the 60, it still leaves you with a lot of downtime in between shots. Don't take this the wrong way, you wont ever be disappointed with the speed. You have it when you need it and when you don't you can go down to a lower setting.



Pre-Record:
This is the function most people are excited about. When you half press the shutter, the camera will start taking pictures at 60FPS and saving them into the buffer. Once you finally press the shutter down all the way it will take 30 more pictures in the next half second. The camera then keeps 30 frames from before you clicked the shutter, and 30 after. This is great for catching riders in berms, or flying through the air. I would imagine that this setting would work very well for catching some Quad Freestyle action because you would never miss that perfect moment when a rider has the full extension on a trick.

Casio Exilim High Speed Camera CASIO EX-F1 Camera - Polaris Outlaw

Not only will you capture the perfect shot with the pre-record function, you can actualy capture several good images in one shot. With the CASIO EX-F1 High Speed camera set to pre-record and shooting at 20fps, the image on the left was shot before the shutter was pressed and the image on the right was from after.

CASIO EX-F1 Camera - Youth Rider

CASIO EX-F1 High Speed Camera Photo

I should note that the pre-record setting also works at other speeds so you are not locked in at 60FPS.

CASIO has also just released a new Firmware Upgrade enabling you to use the pre-record function for all of the video modes. I have not yet tried this out but the most important part of this is to see that CASIO is devoted to making the best product and even updating it with more features as time goes on.

Pictures, Overall:
Overall the CASIO EX-F1 is a very capable camera. The picture quality of the camera is good and should not disappoint the average user. It is defiantly not at the same level as some of the pro-sumer Digital SLR camera but still does very well. I had a few complaints as such as the lack of a real light meter which made it nearly impossible to shoot on Manual mode and I don't know how anyone is really expected to. Hopefully a firmware update could solve this because their very simple “light meter” does not do the trick.

EX-F1 Exilim Camera
Action EX-F1 Camera Shot

The results may not look 100% proffesional but with enough practice your images will still look very good. Surely good enough for photo albums or sharing on ATV Social Network sites.

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