Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera

Comments about Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera:

I don't know a lot about photography but I bought the Ex-F1 for it's video recording capabilities. I haven't played around with taking still pictures too much but I love the high speed video features. I coach sports and the the 300fps, the 600fps, and the 1200fps are of all good use to me. What you see gets smaller the higher the fps but I will use all of these settings. It could use extra lighting but I am currently filming with out any under fluorescent lighting and it is no problem. Playing back the video to my student is fast, I love how simple it is to switch to playback and how easy the pause, fast forward, and reverse buttons work. It is also very quick and easy to save and play on a computer, where all the files are in .mov format, played by QuickTime. For high speed video, I highly recommend this product.

Comments about Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera:

If you need to analyze something in slow motion, then this camera is for you!!!

Comments about Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera:

I purchased this camera after much deliberation and investigation of what's the best and affordable tool for sports motion analysis.
I purchased EX-F1 mostly for motion analysis (tennis). I used it indoor and at 300 fps with a SDHC (16 GB - 30 MB/S) memory. The quality of the image is very good considering indoor illumination. At 600 fps the image is a bit grainier. Surprisingly in HD mode (indoor) at 60fps the image is excellent and can be used for motion analysis as well (because of the high frame rate).

Comments about Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera:

It was used to do component analysis where high-speed video was needed, but not extremely high speed.

It does a great job at that, but requires a TON of light to focus in close to something, even on macro mode.

Comments about Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera:

The camera is amazing, but have excessive noise in high ISO. And the use of high speeds requires high ISO, what limitates professional use of the camera.
Printed Manual is useless and pdf is confuse.
No Mac version of controller soft.

Comments about Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera:

I use this principally for taking family pictures and videos and for golf swing analysis. It's outstanding for all of these uses. The documentation was spotty (better on the enclosed CD). Also, it does not come with a memory card; must be purchased separately.

Comments about Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera:

I bought this specifically as a Rugby Football coaching tool. The 300 frames per minute videos play back so clearly, so slowly, and with such control that the visual animals, that all sports' persons are, can see instantly how to correct a skill. No useless chatter needed. This feature should work for all sports' coaching. I used it all day last Saturday to record the close finishes at a rowing regatta. It could do the same job at an athletics carnival to record places in races. This camera is unique at the moment. It punches like a heavyweight within all of its multi-tasking abilities. The LCD screen is bright enough to use in daylight during playback, and there is instant access to each shot, through an icon, thanks to the high speed SD cards. At last, no tapes to rewind. The uses for sports are too many to list here. Because it is small, the coach can carry the camera to the corner of the field which he or she is using and provide instant feedback to those training, on demand. All other features work well, including the 5 shot bracket for HDR photos. This is a very clever camera, so very well thought out. It has a big battery to go all day, and an 8 GB very fast SD card, which I bought, never seems to run out despite having taken 50 or so high speed movies of 5 to 20 seconds length last week.It is unavailable here in Australia but [...] In one word: Wonderful!

Comments about Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera:

Let me state in the outset that I purchased this camera almost exclusively as a video cam, and I have not been disappointed. It may not compare directly to my XH-A1, but it sure isn't far behind--an astounding fact, considering the price. The clarity from the Sony sensor is phenomenal for HD video, and color is usually spot-on. I rarely have to do much tweaking with color at all in my NLE. It also lacks the annoying problem most of these still/video cam's have of rolling shutter.

Yes, there is the occasional artifact from the video compression (.mov files), but I'd much prefer to work with this than with AVCHD.

The downside is that, in over 20 years of camera use (and almost as many cam's) I have never found a camera with worse documentation from the manufacturer. It's a pity, because it does so many things so well. But to learn how to use it properly, you'll spend more time in user groups on websites than you will in Casio's .pdf User Guide. This is the only reason I haven't given it 5 stars.

Comments about Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera:

This is the holy grail of cameras and camcorders. I now can see the whole golf swing in its entirety not visible by the naked eye. The only flaw it has is that it is processes the shot from top to bottom, so there is some lag in the picture, but all in all you will never own a better camera for the price. If you are a golf professional, this is a must have. It takes great pictures as well. I love this camera.

Comments about Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera:

The best camera for the money, grat for high speed events, manual is very basic you have to brouse and find the the stuff by spending time with the camera, is youtube ready you can also shot conventional video and high speed at 300fps-600fps and 1200fps, get the 8gb card, aditional batterie and a nice case to protect your investment

Comments about Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera:

I use this camera only for 1 thing 1200 fpm hs.

nothing else on the market within $10,000 does this.

that said this camera does a really good job with HS video. Not as good as a photron set up but close.
The camera works well in low (for HS video) light.

Comments about Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera:

I USE FOR PHOTOJORNALISM AND EVENTS.
WHIHT EXTERNAL FLAHS A GREAT RESOLUTION

SOME BUGGS, BUT I RESET THE MENU AND ITS OK.

Comments about Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera:

I use the high-speed function on this camera almost exclusively and have a dedicated DSLR for still photos. Obviously, there is currently no other consumer camera that can capture high-speed video at this price. However, the EX-F1 is not without limitations.

The zoom is fairly powerful and the LCD is quite readable in direct sunlight. The focus/zoom ring is also fairly useful, albeit a bit hard to get used to. In most situations, THIS CAMERA IS FAST. It slows down a bit painfully when shooting RAW but you can't argue with a 60 FPS JPG burst rate. The high speed functions of this camera are incredible. Despite the limitations in resolution (512x384 at 300 FPS, 432x192 at 600 FPS, 336x96 at 1200 FPS), the footage looks surprisingly good at the slowest frame rate and could be blown up to SD standards without much fuss.

There is room for improvement. The on-screen exposure controls are a bit of a nuisance, as you must toggle through aperture and shutter by first hitting "set," though aren't much different from your average point and shoot camera. When reviewing movie clips, you must use a strange fast forward/rewind control interface that is a bit sluggish. The multi-function scroll wheel on the back isn't as effective as it could be. In short, a touch screen would benefit this camera greatly. As far as image noise goes, things get fairly unusable after ISO 400. In dark situations, the grain gets pretty noticeable.

In short, the camera is wonderfully fast but rather inhibited by it's poor control interface. The Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 is a decidedly powerful consumer-level camera that is able to bring the functions of a HD video camera, low-level point and shoot and low-resolution high-speed camera into one package.

Comments about Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera:

This is a nice camera for the price. BUT it's big selling point is the fantastic frame rate at which it can shoot video. This is the main reason behind interest in this camera. The catch? It shoots Hi-Def at 1920 x 1080 (nice) and then jumps to 300 frames per second with a USELESS resolution of 512 x 384. The higher frame rates are still lower resolution.

A sweet spot frame rate would be 120 fps. So why is it missing? Pressure from manufacturers of hundred thousand dollar film and video cameras?

Comments about Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera:

I didn't get very far with this camera before finding a problem that made it a no-go for me. I selected this camera as much for its HD video capability as for its remarkable still capabilities. I expected the wide end in the HD video modes to be just barely acceptable to me - it's 36mm to start with, not very wide, and in HD mode the aspect ratio is 16:9 so the vertical field of view (always the problematic dimension for me) is reduced. What I didn't expect to find is that in HD mode, only the center part of the sensor is used, shrinking the field of view a further 20% or so. In conjunction with the HD aspect ratio, this means the vertical field of view is about 2/3 of what you get in the still and SD video modes. The wide end when shooting HD video is about 45mm, not 36mm - yet without exception, without caveat, the wide end is specified as 36mm. Nowhere in Casio's online specs, nowhere in the manual, nowhere in any of Casio's FAQs is this mentioned! The Casio tech support person I spoke to also wasn't familiar with it, though he spoke to someone who confirmed that yes, that's just the way it is, nothing to be done about it. I give this camera 1 star not so much due to the behavior itself - presumably it was simply necessary due to a technical limitation, and the camera has some amazing upsides - but because of the fact that this major disfeature is so notably undocumented, [...]

Comments about Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera:

I have a fancy Nikon, but this thing is just fun - I took it to a Civil War reenactment and managed to get great hi res action shots - the thing shoots 60 frames a second clear shots. It also does 300 fps video - which is very cool, and provides endless entertainment for the family. I'm not going to get rid of the Nikon, but I find myself taking the Casio with me wherever I go... high ratings.

Comments about Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera:

I was waiting months for this camera to be available in St. Louis, but it never became available. Therefore I purchased it from B&H. I was reluctant to purchase it from a non local store, but B&H handled the transaction great.

Although I purchased the camera to do high speed sporting analysis, I first started using the camera around the house. My first high speed video was taken at my garden pond of frogs catching insects. The results looked like something you would see on the Discovery channel.

I am very pleased with the manual controls and the data save rate. But I did purchase a class 6 SDHD card, so it should be fast. The image stability is also very good, even when zoomed in on a subject.

The overall picture quality is probably not the highest around. However, since I use pictures and videos primarily for web upload, its still superb for that.

I keep carrying it my car wherever I go. It has been a while since I purchased a new digital camera, and now I look forward to taking pictures and video again.

Comments about Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera:

Not as fast a camera as I thought, but that's not why I got it.

Long save time for group shots.

Tested with SanDisk Extrme III 8GB as recomended above. I used it at 1600x1200, 1-60 (60 in one second, no flash), Best shot (Sports). I've set it to auto save the group, thinking that I could blast away quickly. However it takes about 23 seconds to save each group of 60, and when I just held it long enough for one, it still seemed to take a long time.
This camera is not ment for repeated high action capture. For example:
1)Soccer: You are only going to take pictures of your child when they have the ball, or only the when a goal shot is about to happen. This could be a good camera for shots that happen once in a while.
2)Tennis: You want to take action shots for all of your child's hits. This would be impossible. You would miss several hits in a row.

Perhaps I have a setting set incorrectly.
I am open to suggestions.

Also navigating the taken pictures take a while.
Using the "zoom out" feature lets you see 12 pictures at a time, but you have to press up/down three times to go to the next "page". Another camera that I have lets you go to the next page with just one up/down (it has a second level of "zoom").

Another feature that I would like to see is when reviewing a saved group. It would be nice to have an option to save the picures as if you had just taken them, also known as "select and save" (the pictures loop, and you can use the shutter to mark any picture(s) that you want to keep)

Perhaps these will be new features in the next flash update.


However, the reason I got this camera is for it's highspeed film. That works great!
Things to note:
1)The size of the film is reduced (as mentioned everywhere)
2)The higher the speed, the more light that you will need.
3)Fluorescent lamps flicker, and the camera will pick that up. I have film in room of fluorencents, and it looks like a disco show is going on.

Comments about Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera:

I bought this camera for doing highspeed video at work, with the camera being so new didn't really know what to expect and found that it performed beyond my expectations. The high speed video even though it is a small frame at 1200 fps is still very useful and works well under almost any lighting conditions. This camera is also very easy to use and you can give it to a person to use with very little instruction. The only downside I have found is the software for editing videos is worthless that comes with the camera and you will have to buy software to edit the video. It would have been nice if you had a choice of file formats for saving the video.
Battery life is very good, no need for a second battery. Haven't really used the still camera functions that much as I have a canon 40d which this camera doesn't compare to however the 40d can't do video.

Comments about Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 Digital Camera:

Excellent for any picture, action or still. In sports you get your choice of all the points in a motion, pick the best one and your Golden. In group or portraits, the same. Now if one or two in a group close their eyes, so what. You take 7 flash shots in one second. You eventually get a group with everyone looking with their eyes open and facing you. Out door groups even better as you can take a lot of pictures of one pose. Bride and Groom will certainly have the right expression. The 6 mg pictures are enough as the good photo online services can do a remarkable enlargement with their expensive programs if you need enlargement, wall sizes.
Although excellent, I have stopped using my Panasonic LZ50. This new camera captures the moment with no guessing.
Carl