By tech maven (Wellesley, MA USA)

One reason I wanted this camera was to have the use of the wide range (7X)optical zoom to shoot movie clips. I gave the camera a pretty good test on a recent trip to Hawaii, and I found, surprisingly, that that feature was more useful for snapshots than movies.

The stills came out quite good; always in focus and well exposed. But the movies, while better than with previous Casios, were somewhat disappointing. For one thing, the anti-shake stabilization that they tout was not very useful; in fact, it may have produced a jerkier picture when panning than when it was turned off. It may however, have helped on long zoom still shots.Secondly, the movies default to Quicktime format for playback. Even with the latest version, while the resolution was good, the picture tended to tear when the camera was panned, at least on the Windows computers I tried it on. This didn’t happen if I opened the clip in Windows Media Player, but that was a nuisance, and the picture was darker than it should have been.

Overall, because of the quality of the stills, the long zoom range, and the fact that the lens stays within the camera at all times, I did like the camera. If the problem with the tearing could be addressed, I would like it even better.

By E. D. Hill “rdbadave2″ (Kansas)

I had read reviews on the EX-V7 saying the antishake was not perfected. I had hoped the V8 would have the fixes. From my experience, it has!Very easy to use and, for my non-professional eye, does a great job with both stills and videos.

My only minor complaint is that I get more red eye with this camera than I did with my previous EX-Z4. But with software fix available, it is not a concern for me.

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