Introduction

Design & Appearance

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The Casio ZR200 looks identical to the model it is replacing, the EX-ZR100—which we reviewed just a little while back. The two-tone design is stylish and modern, and the camera body feels sturdy and well-built in your hand.

The ZR200 features a small protrusion on the front of the camera, with a small inlaid rubberized section for grip. The back of the camera is clean with spaced out controls that are clearly labeled. On the back of the camera there iss a 3-inch LCD, dedicated video record button, four-way control pad, menu key, and shooting/playback buttons. The top of the camera has the power button, zoom toggle, mode dial, high speed button, and shutter release, while the bottom of the camera houses the battery/memory compartment along with a tripod mount.

Tour

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Menu

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The ZR200's menu is accessed by a dedicated menu key on the back of the camera, which brings up window on the rear screen that overlays the current shot and offers full access to the camera's many features, with tabs for shooting settings, "quality," and setup. Users who want quick access to common exposure settings can bring up a quick menu aligned to the right side of the screen by pressing the center button on the rear directional pad.

The menu on the EX-ZR200 is the same design and layout as we saw on the EX-ZR100, without the graphical interface upgrades that the brand-new EX-ZS Casio models have received. It's still an okay system, but it would've been nice to see the camera get a slight upgrade to make up for the delay in bringing it to North America.

Ease of Use

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The Casio EX-ZR200 is pretty easy to use overall, though like most point-and-shoots ease of use is accomplished primarily by taking control out of the user's hands. This simplifies the operation for users who simply want to, well, point and shoot. The ZR200 does offer program auto and shutter/aperture priority modes, as well as programmable left and right keys on the rear directional pad. Unfortunately, these options are pretty hidden in a menu system that is exactly like the EX-ZR100. It's not a bad system, but it is arranged with long lists of options under tabs aligned horizontally across the top of the screen. This results in some menu options being left off-screen, which presents a bit of a learning curve for new users.

Size & Handling

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The ZR200 weighs in at a svelte 204 grams with batteries included, and it's compact enough that it can slot into most loose pockets in a jacket or pair of pants. The camera has dimensions of 105 x 59 x 29mm (WxHxD), which gives it a little more bulk than some of the EX-ZS-series Casios, but puts it in line with other cameras that offer greater than 10x optical zoom range.

The camera is easy to hold and shoot with, offering controls that are generally responsive. The rubberized inlay on the grip provides just the right amount of tactile hold on the camera, despite the mostly smooth finish on the body. The camera has good weight and balance, and it's easy to shoot and keep steady, even when using it one-handed. The only keys on the camera that really require a second hand to manipulate are the high speed and menu buttons.

Modes Overview

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The ZR200 has a physical mode dial on the top plate of the camera, with Casio's premium auto, HDR, HDR art, aperture-priority, shutter-priority, manual, program auto, best shot, slide panorama, and shake reduction right on the dial. There's no dedicated movie mode, as it can be activated in just about any shooting mode. The camera also has a high speed button on the top that activates the camera's features that utilize the rapid shutter high speed continuous shooting functions.

The high speed functions include image bursts up to 30 frames per second, high speed video recording up to 1000fps (though it's heavily letterboxed.), and VGA video at 120fps. The high speed functionality is really the key aspect of the ZR200, and while we can't say specifically, we noticed its quality seemed to be right on par with the ZR100. The 1000fps high speed video is still exceptionally cool, but it requires a lot of light and a very particular setup to get a heavily cropped, noisy picture. The high speed actually has the most utility in still capture, where the 30fps full-resolution burst can still return a decent image.

Auto Mode

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The ZR200 features Casio's premium auto feature (as opposed to their regular auto exposure mode on other cameras). Premium auto judges the brightness of the scene and essentially picks an appropriate scene mode that it thinks the camera is exposing. Combined with the high speed recording capability of the camera, premium auto allows for composite images that can cope with a wide range of shooting conditions.

Movie Mode

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The movie recording functionality on the EX-ZR200 is a blend of high speed modes and regular full HD video modes. If image quality is paramount, the camera allows for 1080/30p video (titled FHD), or 720/60p (titled just HD) video capture. There are also options for standard definition capture at 30fps. If high speed is more your flavor of choice, the EX-ZR200 has 120fps (640x480 resolution), 30-240fps (512x384), 30-120 (640x480), and 1000fps (224x64) video capture.

The 1000fps control is obviously the headline feature here, but at just 64 pixels tall, its utility is obviously limited somewhat. The other high speed video modes generally offer a range of speeds to select from, with the other various resolution restrictions listed above. While in video mode you do have some control, as optical zoom, still shooting (at the full 16-megapixel resolution), and autofocus are still active.

Drive/Burst Mode

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Casio is still all about burst shooting with the ZR-series, and the ZR200 is no different. The EX-ZR200 has both a mechanical and electronic shutter, though the electronic shutter is used for all the various continuous burst shooting modes. The camera is capable of up to 30fps shooting at the full 16-megapixel resolution. There are also options for burst speeds of three, five, 10, or 15fps, depending on what the user needs. For when you need a delay rather than high speed shooting, the ZR200 has a two- and ten-second delay. There's also a three-shot triple self timer, which works mostly for group shots to try and avoid missing a shot because one person turned their head.

Custom Image Presets

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There is the option to save a user-specified "best shot" scene mode. This mostly just freezes whatever current settings have been engaged, rather than offer the ability to go through and adjust settings individually. It does save specific settings like sharpness and contrast, however.

Playback Mode

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Playback on the EX-ZR200 is fairly typical, with options for playback zoom, thumbnail view, as well as the ability to see an informational readout on each shot you've taken. You can also protect, re-size, delete, edit timestamps, trim, copy, and change white balance for images. The camera also corrals all shots taken in a single continuous burst together into one group, for easy printing, protection, and deletion. If you just need one shot within a group, the ZR200 can break up a group to allow individual image access.

Of course, the EX-ZR200 also has slideshow and some movie editing functionality, not to mention the always delightful "dynamic photo" editing options. Dynamic photo's simple name doesn't hint at the joy hidden within, with options for adding zany animated effects to still images. If you've ever wanted an animated dinosaur to appear on your shoulder without the risk of death and maiming and such, dynamic photo is for you.

Picture Quality & Size Options

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The main difference between the EX-ZR200 and ZR100 is the uptick in resolution. The camera now offers a 16.1-megapixel CMOS image sensor as opposed to the 12-megapixel CMOS in the ZR100. The camera lets users capture 16MP (4608x3456), 10MP (3648x2736), 5MP (2560x1920), 3MP (2048x1536), and VGA (640x480) images. There are also options for taking images in cropped aspect ratios at near-full resolution, with 3:2 (4608x3072) and 16:9 (4608x2592) ratios offered.

Other Modes

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Continuous burst modes (HDR, HDR Art, Multi-frame SR zoom, blurred background, etc.)

The EX-ZR200 puts the high speed continuous shooting to work in many modes, allowing for easy HDR (high dynamic range) capture with certain art effects and filters available. The camera has a 12.5x optical zoom lens, but the camera can also use multiple successive images to bring the subject in closer while trying to retain resolution by combining images together. That same functionality can also be used to blur the background out, with a gradual blur added to the background of any image, similar to a DSLR. The ZR200 can also use multiple shots to try and remove blur do to camera shake in low light scenes, such as at night. In our time with the camera (and our experience with the same modes on the ZR100), we found not all the modes worked as well as others, but the blurred background and HDR features are more subtle effects that do improve upon image quality.

Focus

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The ZR200 lets users autofocus in a number of ways, including spot, multi-point, intelligent, and subject-tracking modes. The camera has separate modes for autofocus, macro, super macro, infinity and manual focus. For macro subjects the ZR100 lets you focus as close as 1cm away from the lens, with the fifth step away from the widest setting yielding the best subject to size ratio.

Exposure & Metering

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Users of the ZR200 can expose for the scene in a number of ways, including multi-pattern, center-weighted, and spot modes. Most of the modes utilize auto exposure, though there are more in-depth options for program auto exposure, shutter-priority, and aperture-priority exposure modes, in addition to a full manual exposure mode. When using any of the auto exposure modes users can set an exposure compensation of +/- 2 stops on 1/3-stop increments.

ISO

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The EX-ZR200 has an ISO range of 80-3200, with the option to let the camera automatically decide which ISO setting to employ. The camera doesn't have a fixed range automatic setting, or an auto ISO cap. The ISO setting can be found in the quick menu that is brought up by pressing the OK button in the four-way directional controller, rather than in the full menu.

White Balance

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White balance on the ZR200 can be set manually, automatically, or to one of six preset values. The presets include the auto and manual settings, as well as daylight, overcast, shade, day white fluorescent, daylight fluorescent, and tungsten lighting. Manual white balance is measured by simply pointing at a white object in the manual preset mode and taking a measurement using the shutter button.

Image Stabilization

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The EX-ZR200 features in-camera sensor-shift stabilization with the 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor. The camera also has a shake reduction shooting mode that will help reduce subject blur due to camera shake by creating a composite image of several high speed frames.

Picture Effects

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If you're looking to get a little more creative, the EX-ZR200 does have some various effects that can be applied to give your images a little extra kick. The most obvious modes would be HDR and HDR Art, which take multiple images at various exposures in order to produce a composite image with a wider dynamic range. In HDR Art, this is taken a bit further, with more creative control over the image. There are also simply the basic color filters that can be applied, though these tend to just throw on a color cast rather than produce a radically different effect.

Other Controls

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In the menu under the "quality" header there are three options for adjusting image parameters. These just include the basic sharpness, saturation, and contrast settings that we are used to seeing from Casio. The default setting is zero, but users can both enhance and decrease the potency of each setting.

Lens & Sensor

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The EX-ZR200 gets a slight resolution bump compared to the EX-ZR100, going to a 16-megapixel 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor that still provides all the same high-speed continuous shooting goods that its predecessor had. The sensor also sits on a platform that shifts with camera movement to try and counteract subject blur due to camera shake.

LCD

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The rear monitor on the ZR200 is a 3-inch, 461k-dot resolution TFT-LCD with a resolution of 960x480. As far as we can tell it's the exact same as the EX-ZR100's rear LCD. It's bright and clear, though we found that against bright lights the reflections made it difficult to see. We couldn't test it outdoors in bright sunlight, but the ZR100 struggled there.

Flash

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The flash on the EX-ZR200 is built into the body, with a range at ISO 100 of around 0.4 to 4.7 meters when shooting at the widest angle of view. That range drops significantly to a range of 0.9 to 2.4 meters when zoomed all the way in on your subject. The flash can fire in several modes, including: automatic, forced flash on, flash off, and red-eye reduction.

Jacks, Ports & Plugs

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The EX-ZR200 uses just a proprietary AV/USB output as well as a standard mini-HDMI output for video. The camera is slated to come with a USB cable and AC adapter, allowing users to charge their camera battery through USB with either a wall outlet or computer.

Battery

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The ZR200 uses an NP-130 rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which is the exact same battery as the EX-ZR100. As stated above, the battery will charge via USB whether through AC outlet or computer. The CIPA rating on the EX-ZR200 rounds out to 480 shots per charge.

Memory

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It's all standardization for memory these days, and the EX-ZR200 is no different. The camera utilizes SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards. The cards slot into a dedicated compartment next to the battery in a removable compartment on the bottom of the camera.

Conclusion

Casio's flagship compact camera for 2012 is, in many ways, like their flagship compact camera for 2011. That tends to be the case when you already released the camera overseas in 2011 and are just bringing it overseas. The EX-ZR200 makes its North America debut this spring, but comparing it to last year's ZR100 is like looking at one of those "find what's different" comics: there simply isn't much that's changed.

The EX-ZR200 is practically identical to the EX-ZR100, with the same lens, body type, design, menu, control layout, and burst shooting functionality as its predecessor. The only real noticeable update to the camera is an upgrade from a 12-megapixel to a 16-megapixel CMOS image sensor.

That isn't to say the camera is bad, as we found the EX-ZR100 to be an impressive combination of speed and flexibility, so we'd expect something similar with the newer model. All the high speed shooting options for still and video return with the ZR200, and we found them to be fun, if truly functional only in particular situations. We'll have to get the camera into our labs for a full evaluation, but we doubt there will be much difference on the performance side, either.

The camera still handles well, has a nice 12.5x optical zoom range, and has a fairly extensive variety of modes that put the high speed burst shooting to work. The one things we can pretty much guarantee is that if you own a working ZR100, you'll likely find upgrading to the ZR200 to be a pointless exercise. Maybe Casio decided Vegas was the perfect place to debut their U.S. version of The Hangover, part II. Then again, sometimes sequels aren't so bad—even if all the jokes are the same.

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Sample Photos

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Specs

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