Casio Exilim High Speed · announced January 2013

The Casio Exilim EX-ZR700: the 18x pocket zoom that sold itself on speed

We found no other regional name for it; DPReview, PhotographyBLOG and Japan's Impress all call it the EX-ZR700.¹³⁵

In 2013 Casio stretched its High Speed Exilim to a 25 to 450 mm lens and 30 frames a second. A French site gave it a favourite-pick award at under €250; a Singapore reviewer called it a missed opportunity at S$599.

Launched

January 2013

Sensor

16.1 MP CMOS

Lens

25–450 mm, 18×

Card

SD, SDHC, SDXC

Battery

NP-130

Specs and sources

Meet the camera

Casio announced the ZR700 on 29 January 2013, together with the ZR400, as two more High Speed Exilims.¹³ The ZR400 has a 12.5x lens from 24 to 300 millimetres; the ZR700 an 18x zoom from 25 to 450.¹³ Impress, writing for Japan, gave 8 March as the sale date and put the expected shop price at about ¥50,000, with Casio's own price left open.⁵ For the rest of the world, DPReview and PhotographyBLOG both said that pricing and availability were not yet known.¹³ We found no price from Casio itself; what existed were shop prices that spring: HK$3,380 in Hong Kong,⁶ S$599 on HardwareZone's review page,⁷ about 12,000 rubles in Mobile-Review's⁸ and, in Clubic's June review, under €250.⁹

It is a small camera for its zoom: about 107 by 60 by 31 millimetres, 222 grams with battery and card.⁵⁸ Impress listed four colours, Mobile-Review and DCFever five.⁵⁸⁶ Reviewers disagreed about the material. HardwareZone called the metal body sturdy,⁷ while Clubic noted that metal covers only the front and called the hard plastic grips a lapse of taste.⁹

Why this one was interesting

Reach, and a wide start

Our ZR100 page lists 24 to 300 millimetres for Casio's earlier ZR100. The ZR700 gives up one millimetre at the wide end for 150 more at the long one (our arithmetic). In Clubic's tests the lens did not disgrace itself: sharper in the centre than Nikon's rival and, with one exception at full aperture, than Panasonic's, softer than Fujifilm's, Canon's and Sony's, with visible colour fringing.⁹ Mobile-Review, by contrast, saw no chromatic aberration even at full zoom.⁸

Speed on paper, speed on the bench

PhotographyBLOG listed Casio's figures for the ZR700 as a 1.4-second start-up, 0.18-second autofocus and 0.26 seconds between shots.³ Mobile-Review said the camera has the same two-processor chip as the ZR1000.⁸ Clubic timed it: start-up took 2 seconds, the gap between shots 0.45, shutter lag 0.05 seconds, and autofocus about 0.2 seconds at wide angle and one second at full telephoto.⁹ HardwareZone found shutter lag close to non-existent.⁷ Clubic's own timings came out slower than Casio's launch figures, though it still called the camera responsive.⁹

A camera that takes several pictures for one

Premium Auto Pro combines burst frames, depending on the scene, and Triple Shot records one frame before and one after the press.¹⁸ Clubic found the multi-shot modes well implemented, among them noise reduction, extended zoom, dynamic range and depth of field.⁹ It also quoted up to 45x zoom at 10 megapixels where Casio's launch material and Mobile-Review said 36x, a gap we cannot resolve.⁹³⁸

Older Casio compacts in our archive: the EX-Z1000 and the EX-Z75.

What was lost

Next to the ZR400, the ZR700 gave up battery: Casio rated the ZR400 at about 515 shots, the longest in the series, against 470 here.¹² Next to the ZR1000, announced the previous September, the ZR700 has a fixed screen, where the ZR1000's tilts up to 180 degrees.²⁴ There is no GPS and no Wi-Fi.²⁹ Clubic added missing bracketing.⁹

The dark: its weak point

Clubic's verdict came ISO by ISO. Up to ISO 200 the files beat Sony's HX50V and nearly matched Canon's SX270 HS. At 400 the smoothing starts. At 800 it grows and colour saturation drops to hide chroma noise, though the camera stayed cleaner than the HX50V's harsh contours; at 1600 a haze appears, and at 3200 the picture collapses; its closing verdict nonetheless credited careful image quality up to ISO 800 or even 1,600.⁹ Mobile-Review drew the same line: usable from 80 to 800, artefacts after that, 3200 only in an emergency.⁸ HardwareZone was harsher. At ISO 800 it saw images turn hazy and smudged, and a 100 percent crop at f/5.9 and ISO 320 looked not very sharp, so it would not recommend prints larger than 4R.⁷ Clubic said the RAW files give excellent results.⁹ At f/3.5 the shutter tops out at 1/1000, and the wide end offers only two aperture steps, so 1/2000 requires stopping down fully.⁹

Three photos from this camera whose sensitivity is stored in the file; they show what ISO 400 and 800 look like when someone else pressed the button.

On eBay right now

Live listings for this camera, supplied by eBay and updated automatically. We earn a commission if you buy through them.

The little wins

The rear screen, with the shooting display lit · Warum nicht ich · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

A screen people liked

HardwareZone called the display sharp and nice;⁷ Clubic counted it among the best in the group it was testing.⁹ Mobile-Review said it fades in direct sun, where readability falls by about 60 percent in its estimate.⁸

Real RAW

The ZR700 saves RAW as DNG beside JPEG,⁵ though Clubic found it reachable only through scene modes.⁹

Slow motion for fun

Modes run from 120 frames a second at 640 by 480 to 1000 frames a second at 224 by 64.⁸

Battery that lasts

Clubic called 470 shots the best in its comparison;⁹ Mobile-Review got about 450 with auto backlight and 250 to 300 shots plus 20 to 30 minutes of video in mixed use.⁸

The top plate with the mode dial and burst button · Warum nicht ich · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

Controls you can remap

Clubic liked a mode dial with shortcuts for HDR Art, Triple Shot and macro, a dedicated burst button, and a dial that can be set to exposure compensation, white balance, self-timer or manual focus.⁹ HardwareZone found the interface simple.⁷

How it drew the picture

In good light, reviewers were happy. Mobile-Review called most of its auto-mode shots excellent, with only some white-balance wobble in mixed light, and found the dynamic range wide, with detail in shadows holding in bright sun.⁸ Clubic described exposure, white balance and colour as reliable and realistic.⁹ HardwareZone was less kind: fine at small sizes, but not sharp up close, with detail falling away past 50 percent.⁷

Photos taken with this camera (EXIF model checked as EX-ZR700), from Wikimedia Commons, credited under each. Commons holds about a hundred photos in this camera's category, so this is a small sample.

Where it let you down

HardwareZone disliked the scroll wheel, which felt cheap, and the grip, which turns slippery in sweaty hands. It found autofocus-area selection buried in a sub-menu and tracking focus that struggled to lock on to cars or birds.⁷ Clubic found the tripod mount off centre, the single long menu tab unhelpful, and a 30-frame, 30 fps burst that then locks the camera for about 30 seconds.⁹ Its video was behind the competition: stabilisation weak, focus hesitant.⁹ Mobile-Review heard the zoom motor grind around 15x to 17x, like sand in the gears,⁸ and said video focus drifts slightly.⁸ On stabilisation HardwareZone and Clubic disagreed too: very good, even at full zoom, said the first;⁷ weaker than Panasonic's, said the second.⁹

What the reviewers said in 2013

Our reading: the verdicts track the price each reviewer saw as much as the pictures. HardwareZone judged it at S$599, Clubic at under €250.⁷⁹

The timeline

• Sept 2012Casio announces the ZR1000 (12.5x lens, tilting screen).⁴
• 29 January 2013ZR700 and ZR400 announced.¹
• 8 March 2013Sale date given by Impress for Japan.⁵
• 20 March 2013DCFever's review prices it at HK$3,380.⁶
• 6, 17 May and 28 June 2013HardwareZone, Mobile-Review and Clubic publish their reviews.⁷⁸⁹
• April 2018Photo Rumors relays a Nikkei report that Casio would leave the compact camera business; the unit had lost about ¥500 million in the year to March 2017. We did not find Casio's own statement.¹⁰

Should you buy one now?

Buy one if you want a pocket camera that reaches 450 millimetres, starts fast and is rated for about 470 shots a charge,² and you can live with soft detail at higher ISOs.⁷⁹ Skip it if sharp prints are the point. What it sells for now is a question for eBay's sold listings, not for us. Before you bid, check these:

• The name. Search the Casio Exilim EX-ZR700.¹
• The battery. It takes an NP-130, which Mobile-Review charged from USB or a mains adapter in about three and a half hours;⁸ spares are on Amazon ↗.
• The card. SD, SDHC and SDXC cards work,² and Mobile-Review lists Eye-Fi and FlashAir cards as supported.⁸ See our memory card guide.
• The controls. Test the scroll wheel, which HardwareZone found cheap, and the hard plastic grips, which both HardwareZone and Clubic disliked.⁷⁹
• The lens. Zoom the whole range and listen: Mobile-Review heard grinding near the long end.⁸
• The flash. It pops up from a lever on the top plate;⁸ check that it rises and sits flat.
• The port. Micro USB and micro HDMI sit behind a plastic flap on the side.⁸

If you are wondering why cameras like this are being hunted down again, we tell that story once, in Pictures that never left the card.

See recent sold prices on eBay ↗Shop on eBay ↗NP-130 battery ↗

Sources

1. Digital Photography Review, “Casio releases Exilim EX-ZR700 and EX-ZR400 High Speed compacts” (DPReview staff, 29 Jan 2013; says price and availability unknown)
2. Digital Photography Review, Casio EX-ZR700 product page and specifications (no full review listed)
3. PhotographyBLOG, “Casio EX-ZR700 and EX-ZR400” (announcement, 30 Jan 2013; says international pricing and availability to be confirmed)
4. PhotographyBLOG, “Casio EX-ZR1000” (announcement of the ZR1000, Sept 2012)
5. Impress DC Watch (Japan), Casio EX-ZR700 announcement, in Japanese (29 Jan 2013: on sale 8 March, expected street price about ¥50,000)
6. DCFever (Hong Kong), Casio EXILIM EX-ZR700 review, in Chinese (20 Mar 2013; HK$3,380)
7. HardwareZone (Singapore), “Casio Exilim EX-ZR700: It Could Have Been Much More” (6 May 2013; S$599)
8. Mobile-Review (Russia), “Обзор фотоаппарата Casio EX-ZR700” by Roman Belykh, in Russian (17 May 2013; about 12,000 rubles)
9. Clubic (France), “Casio EX-ZR700 : l'outsider plein de charme” by Aurélien Audy, in French (28 Jun 2013; under €250)
10. Photo Rumors, “Casio to exit the compact camera business” (24 Apr 2018, relaying a Nikkei report)

Photographs are credited under each one, all via Wikimedia Commons. Links to eBay and Amazon are affiliate links. Mobile-Review, Clubic, Impress and DCFever were read in their original languages (Russian, French, Japanese, Chinese) and paraphrased in English.