Introduction
Product Tour
Overview
Casio has been known for producing cameras with a clean, stylish look, and this trend continues with the Z29; the brushed aluminum case looks attractive and should stand up to some rough treatment. The Z29 is available in black, pink, blue, silver and purple; we looked at the pink model.
The Z29 is available in a range of colors, including pink
Front
The Z29 doesn't have a ton of features on the front of the case; there is the lens, the flash (to the left of the lens) and a small indicator light below that. Under the lens is a small hole for the microphone that records audio in movies.
Back
The LCD screen is the major feature on the back of the Z29, but there are also a number of control buttons. From the top, we have the zoom controls, the playaback and record buttons, the 4-way controller and the menu and best shot button. The last button is Casio's equivalent of a mode dial; it allows the user to switch between the 23 best shot modes.
The back of the Z23
Sides
There are no major features on the left side of the camera.
The left side of the Z23
The right side has a bit more going on; this is where the USB/AV port lives (under the small plastic cover) and where the battery and memory cards call home (under the larger cover).
The right side of the Z23
Top
The top of the Z23 has a few features; in the middle of the body is the power button, and to the right of this is the shutter button. At the edge of the camera body is the loop for connecting the wrist strap.
The top of the Z23
Bottom
The bottom of the Z23 is home to the tripod socket and a series of small holes that cover the speaker used to play back recorded sound.
The bottom of the Z23
Hardware
Viewfinder There is no viewfinder on the Z29; everything is done through the LCD screen.
LCD
The LCD screen on the Z29 is a 2.7-inch model with 114k pixels. That's on the low side, and it shows in the images on the screen, as they look distinctly grainy and blocky. But the screen is good enough for most uses; you can see if images are in focus and pretty accurately judge framing and the like.
The LCD screen on the Z29 is a bit on the grainy side
Flash
The flash is behind a small window located just to the left of the lens. This is a little close for comfort; flashes that are too close to the lens can cause excessive red-eye. But the camera does have red-eye removal, so we'll wait to see if this is a problem when we get a unit in for a full review.
The small flash is located next to the lens
Lens
The lens of the Z29 has two sections that telescope out from the body when the camera is turned on. It only has a short zoom range; it's a 3x zoom with a native focal length of 6.2mm to 18.6mm. That's equivalent to a 37.5mm to 112.5mm length on a 35mm film camera. That's a rather unimpressive range, even for a cheap point and shoot, as there are plenty of models that have 5x or larger zooms (such as the $199.99 Samsung SL620) for only a slightly higher price.
Jacks, Ports & Plugs
The sole connection from the camera to the outside world is from the combination USB/AV port that is located under a small plastic cover on the right side of the camera. The Z29 comes with a cable that provides a USB connection and analog video output, but this uses a proprietary connector on the camera end; if the cable gets lost or damaged, you'll have to buy a new one from Casio.
The combined USB/AV port uses a proprietary connection.
Battery
The Z29 is juiced up by a small battery that holds around 720 mAh of charge. Casio claims a battery life of about 290 shots or 145 minutes of use, which is pretty average for compact cameras.
The battery of the Z29
Memory
SDHC cards are the Z29's flavor of choice for storing photos, and they fit into a tidy little slot next to the battery.
The memory card slot of the Z29
Design & Layout
Design & Appearance
The Z29 has a clean design that is both stylish and functional. It is available in black, pink, blue, silver and purple.
Size & Handling
The Z29 is a simple-to-use camera that fits into the hand well. It does have the common issue of cameras with the zoom control on the back; when you work the zoom control with the thumb, the camera tends to slip. But the shutter button is well placed and falls under the index finger for comfortable shooting.
The Z29 fits nicely into the hand
Menu
The Z29 has a fairly standard menu structure, with a number of commonly used options available by pressing the set button. These includes options for changing the image size, flash mode, focus, ISO, etc.
The menu available by pressing the set button
Pressing the menu button brings up the standard menu, which is divided into tabs for recording, quality and set up. The 4-way control is used to navigate around this menu.
_The main menu is divided into three tabs for recording, quality and set up. _
If a simpler approach is required, the easy menu can be used. This cuts down on the number of options on the menu to only show the most important ones.
The easy menu limits the number of options available
Ease of Use
Overall, the Z29 is a pretty simple to use camera; we found that most features were easy to access and it didn't take long to master common tasks such as changing the shooting mode or resolution.
Modes
Auto Mode
The auto mode of the Z29 pretty much encompasses all of the functions of the Z29; it doesn't have a specific auto mode, but instead all of the modes are autoamtic in function.
Movie Mode
Hit the movie button and the Z29 slips into movie mode, where it can record video at a variety of resolutions. It can't however, shoot in the high definition mode available on many other cameras we saw at PMA. The Z29 can shoot at a maximum resolution of 8480 by 480 at 30 frames per second in the wide mode, and 640 by 480 in the standard mode.
Drive/Burst Mode
Canon did not supply a figure for how many frames per second the Z29 is capable of shooting, and our brief set of tests with it at the PMA show might explain why; we'd estimate that it wasn't capable of shooting more than a frame a second.
Playback Mode
A decent selection of playback features are on offer; images can be sorted by date, slideshows can be created and up to 12 thumbnails can be displayed on screen at once. Basic editing of images is also available, with features for cropping and resizing images.
Custom Image Presets
Casio cameras are known for having a huge array of scene modes, and the Z29 doesn't disappoint; there are 23 scene modes on offer, including portrait, landscape and several action modes. Casio calls these Best Shot modes, but whether having this number of modes is a benefit remains to be seen.
Controls
Manual Controls
The Z29 has no manual mode; all you get is a selection of Best Shot modes that offer a variety of approaches to setting the automatic features of the camera.
Focus
The Z29 has the usual contrast focus system, but with the addition of face detection, which can detect faces (Casio hasn't specified the number) in the frame and prirorize them for focus and exposure.
ISO
The Z29 has an ISO range of 100 to 1600, which we'd expect from an inexpensive compact camera.
White Balance
The usual selection of white balance modes are on offer, including a full auto mode and presets for daylight, overcast, shade, two fluorescent settings, tungsten and a manual setting.
Metering
Multi, center-weighted and spot metering are available.
Shutter Speed
The shutter spped of the Z29 ranges from 1/2 second down to 1/2000 of a second in most modes. In the night shot mode the slowest shutter speed can be extended to 4 seconds.
Aperture
The aperture range of the 3x zoom lens starts at f/2.8 at the widest zoom setting. Casio did not specify how this changes at the telephoto end, beyond saying that it does.
Image Stabilization
The Z29 does not have any image stabilization features beyond a Best Shot scene mode that tries to sharpen the image by increasing the ISO and upping the shutter speed.
Picture Quality & Size Options
Images can be captured at resolutions varying from the maximum (10.1 megapixels, 3648 by 2736 pixels) down to VGA (640 by 480 pixels).
Conclusion
Meet the tester
Richard Baguley is a veteran writer who has written about technology ranging from Alphabet to Zip file utilities. He has contributed to pretty much every major tech publication, including Amiga Format Magazine, PC World, Wired, CNET, Toms Guide, Forbes, and many others. He lives in the Boston metro area with his wife, dog, and an indeterminate number of cats.
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