Casio Exilim EX-H15 review

The 14 megapixel Exilim EX-H15 is the latest in a long line of compact travel zoom cameras from Casio and it boasts some impressive features. However, at just under £200, it faces a lot of competition from established competitors including Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-TZ10, Samsung’s WB650 and Canon’s PowerShot SX210 IS.

It’s part of the company’s H series of ‘high speed, high zoom’ cameras and sits in between the EX-FH100 and EX-H5 which we recently reviewed. The EX-H15 is available in four colours – silver, black, pink and brown – which all have the same chrome accenting. We’ve got the pink version here, which we have to say is not to our personal tastes.

The H15 includes Casio’s new Exilim Engine 5.0 processor, which promises to improve the camera’s operational performance by 30 per cent. The 10x optical zoom lens gives you flexibility for a wide range of photographic scenarios and ranges from 24 to 240mm in 35mm equivalent focal lengths.

Despite the EX-H15’s impressive operational speed, its headline feature is actually the lofty 1,000 shot battery life. We filled a couple of 4GB SDHC cards with images taken on the EX-H15 and there were no signs of it running out of juice, meaning there’s no need to worry if you’ve gone on holiday and forgotten the charger!

This battery does add some bulk to the H15, but at 29mm thick, it’s no more cumbersome than its competitors with similar focal ranges and is still pocketable. It tips the scales at 206g with both battery and SD card installed, giving it a robust feeling. The small hand grip also helps make the camera easier to hold, giving you something positive to hang onto – a lot of compacts these days do away with protrusions in favour of sleeker lines, which often makes them more delicate to hold.

The buttons on the back are large and well-spaced, giving the user access to most of the important controls without having to adjust their grip on the camera. Shooting modes are accessed via the BS – or Best Shot – button, and there are more than 40 scene, subject and art filter modes to choose from. These automatically optimise the camera for the type of photographs you’re trying to take, but there’s very little in the way of manual controls. There is a dedicated video recording button, though.