With its super-slim body, light weight, versatility, and excellent picture quality, the 5-megapixel Casio Exilim EX-S500 is a camera you can carry everywhere. What’s more, the hot colors and “electrical coating” ensure you’ll take it out of your pocket as often as possible to show it off (and maybe shoot some photos, too). It performs on par with our Editors’ Choice, the 4-megapixel Canon PowerShot SD300 Digital Elph (and its big brother, the SD400), though the SD300 retains its EC title.
The EX-S500 sports a 6.2- to 18.6-mm lens (a 35-mm equivalent of 38 mm to 114 mm) with f/2.7 to f/5.2 at its widest aperture over the zoom range. But unlike the recently reviewed Fuji FinePix Z1, the lens protrudes (as does the Canon SD300’s). The EX-S500 gives you 8.3MB of on-board memory, displays images on a large 2.2-inch LCD, and lets you record MPEG-4 video clips until your memory card is full. It weighs in at just over 4 ounces, and measures 3.5 by 2.3 by 0.6 inches (HWD). That thinness makes the EX-S500 incredibly portable, and the rounded edges give it a beautifully sleek look.

Outdoor scenic type shots when the light is bright and sunny proved to be the strong point of the Exilim EX-S500. On the whole these shots are fine and they compare well against other similar cameras, but the lens is not one of the sharpest around. Bright and dark areas of each picture are handled well and the colours are deep.

In the colour test the colours come out well. They have a good balance with no one colour being overly dominant. The colours also posses a natural feel to them.

The outdoor portrait also stands up well in comparison to other cameras. In this case I have used the flash unit to beef up the lighting a little. The shot was taken in November and by this time of the year shots like this one can appear a bit dull otherwise.

Indoors in lowlight I could not get the camera to focus sharply no matter what settings I used. Both the indoor portrait and the shot of beer bottles taken in almost complete darkness are blurred. If I was to identify one typical weakness with digital cameras it would be taking shots indoors in lowlight. Nevertheless I had hoped for better and I am still disappointed by the overall quality of these shots.

The macro shot produces a very good photo. There is nothing wrong with the photo at all. Levels of detail are good and the image is sharply focused.

This section of the review has been updated in December 2005. I would like to thank Paul-Henri Cahier for his help in resolving a number of focusing issues I had previously had with the is camera.

The Exilim EX-S500 has an average bundle. Inside the box, you’ll find:

The 5.0 effective Megapixel Casio Exilim EX-S500 digital camera
NP-20 rechargeable lithium-ion battery
AC adapter
USB camera cradle
Wrist strap
USB cable
A/V cable
CD-ROM featuring Casio PhotoLoader and PhotoHands, Ulead Movie Wizard SE VCD, and drivers
Printed basic manual + full manual on CD-ROM
Casio is one of the growing number of camera manufacturers who no longer include a memory card with their cameras. A year or two you’d see a 16MB (or 32MB if you’re lucky) memory card included with the S500, but no more. Instead Casio has built 8.3MB of memory right into the camera. That holds a grand total of TWO photos at the highest quality setting, so consider a larger memory card to be a required purchase. The EX-S500 uses Secure Digital and MultiMedia cards, and Casio recommends the use of a high speed SD card with the camera. A 256MB card is a good size to start with.