Postmortem: Casio's Exilim FH100

by Game Informer Editorial on Jun 30, 2010 at 07:13 AM

This month’s Gear features the fantastic Exilim FH100 from Casio. Best described as a point-and-shoot with DSLR abilities, the FH100 is a great tool for photographers that want to ditch the gear bag. Along with shooting in RAW (more info here), the little beast also shoots 720p video and more interestingly high-speed video up to 1000fps. While this thing cannot match the awe and wonder of the Phantom camera, it is a pretty fun way to spend an afternoon.

Before I dive more into the high-speed video results, here are some pros and cons on the camera overall:

+ The camera can shoot RAW files in the Adobe friendly .DNG format
+ Shutter is fast and reliable, something most point-and-shoots struggle with
+ HD video quality is surprisingly good and even has stereo sound (most point-and-shoots have mono)
+ Independent record video and shutter buttons are helpful
+ Full manual control is awesome for the hardcore
+ High-speed video = fun, fun, fun
+ While heavy, the outer case feels very durable
+ Solid battery

- RAW processing slowish even on fast SD cards
- RAW photos stuck at ISO 200 or lower so dim lighting is tough
- Higher high-speed framerates have pretty awful resolutions and image quality
- Burst shot mode is unpredictable and hard to use
- Non-standard USB cable

You can also check out this sample shot set in a controlled environment. Some of the post processing is a bit weird but overall really a solid result.

Click here to see the full original.

And here are some out in the wild shots.

But the real fun with this camera is the ability to shoot high-speed. While you cannot shoot in HD when in this mode and the video quality drops as the speed goes up, it’s still a blast. I’ll let the videos speak for themselves.

[View:http://media1.gameinformer.com/media/video/2010/technick/slowmo/slowmo.smil:610:343]