Focus on Casio’s EXILIM Pro EX-P505
From Springsteen to the garden, this little Casio continues to rock
The Casio EXILIM Pro EX-P505 – now that’s a mouthful – spent most of its life in a drawer in my basement after using it as a pocketable snapshooter for the first year or two. Its greatest achievement was taking it to a Springsteen concert in Buffalo N.Y. where it actually performed admirably in the low lights of the concert venue.
But overall, I wasn’t happy with the early results and really didn’t have a lot of use for the camera in those days when carrying a massive DSLR and complete lens system seemed a whole lot easier than it does today.
But the tiny, odd-shaped Casio EXILIM Pro EX-P505, 5 megapixel camera is looking a whole lot better these days after spending some time with it in the garden. Sure, it’s dated, but it’s also packed with features, has a decent lens, makes the most out of its size and even has a fully tilting viewfinder. And did I say it’s a lot of fun to try to squeeze out some impressive images from its tiny 5 megapixel sensor.
Casio’s Exilim Pro EX P505 with its reticulating screen makes taking pictures from a low angle a whole lot easier.
This review is actually part three of my multi-part feature on using older digital cameras in the garden and on the road. You can check out these links to my reviews of the Fujifilm X10 and Canon’s PowerShot Elph 500.
For tips on maximizing your compact, point-and-shoot cameras, be sure to check out my comprehensive post on Getting The Most Out of Your Compact Camera.
Here are a few more links you might want to check out on Photographing flowers in your garden, Best camera for garden photography and Ten tips for great garden photography.
The Casio EXILIM Pro EX-P505 caught this Lavatera flower in full bloom handling the bright pink colour and texture of the flower nicely.
Okay back to this weird looking Casio camera. The P505 was considered quite a departure for Casio complete with its SLR-like appearance, large lens barrel and five times optical zoom. If I recall, I bought the camera for its movie-making capabilities back in early 2006 when using a camera to make movies seemed revolutionary. The camera was unveiled in March of 2005 and YouTube had just been unleashed on the public in February of 2005.
You could say this camera was cutting edge.
This Casio camera was actually the first Casio digital camera to use the MPEG-4 codec for encoding video and can record full VGA (640x480) video at 30 fps with stereo audio –yes you read that right folks – at 4.2 or 2.2 MBit/sec (approx. 30 / 60 mins on a 1 GB card).
The screen can be neatly stored away on the back of the camera for compact shooting.
Cool, but what about the pictures? Can this thing take decent pictures with its tiny 1/2.5-inch, 5.0 megapixels CCD sensor and 5x optical zoom lens, with a macro mode that allows us garden photographers to get a flower photo as close as 1 cm. away?
Quick answer: “Yup, it sure can.” And, guess what, it’s pretty darn fun to use with its 2-inch TFT colour rotating screen that tilts and makes taking angled shots simple.
The lens is just okay for today’s standards, giving you a 5 X optical zoom with a 35mm equivalent 38 - 190 mm starting at F3.3 at the wide end and going to F3.6 at the telephoto end. For anyone who cares, that’s delivered with 10 elements in 8 groups, including aspherical Focus distance.
The screen is small in today’s standard and the resolution is nothing to write home about. I think it was the relatively poor quality of the screen that made me think the actual files were not going to be good. Don’t make that mistake. It should come as no surprise that the files are much better than what you see on the back of the camera.
All that said, let’s take a look at a couple of those images taken recently in my garden.
The 20-year-old Casio EXILIM Pro EX-P505 captured the reds of the Cardinal flower against the greens of the foliage.
The Casio caught the tapestry of colours in the native flowers from the reds of Monarda to the yellows of the Rudbeckias.
The front garden captured nicely here by the Casio showing the drift of Black-eyed-susans and fine texture of the grasses.
Not bad for a compact camera now pushing almost 20 years old. My battery is still going strong and the camera takes a regular SD card.
One look at the photos above show that the camera can still perform. Colours are good, not great, but totally acceptable for quick hits to social media and the odd print at maybe 11X14 inches. Post processing with Lightroom, Photoshop and a host of denoising programs such as ????????, can make a significant difference when it comes to using these older cameras.
Although the Casio is approaching old age (I notice a few of the pixels have died), it still boasts a host of modes that make getting good shots of difficult scenes just that much easier for photographers who prefer to let the camera do the work. That said, this Casio includes complete manual settings from shutter and aperture priorities to fully manual.
Casio EXILIM Pro EX-P505’s macro feature captured this water hyacinth in the pond.
But let’s take a look at some of the modes this camera offers. Casio calls the modes “BESTSHOT” and incorporates 22 different predefined scenarios plus the capacity for user defined scenarios. There is a flower mode, pet mode, portrait modes, sand, snow, night scenery, fireworks, greenery and fall colour modes just to name a few.
The menus may seem confusing at first, but it didn’t take long to feel comfortable with the camera’s menu system. An EX button on the side of the lens means calling up a quick menu is quick and easy allowing various manual settings to be accessed and set from a single screen. Key functions include ISO, focus modes, exposure compensation… There is also a separate macro button on the lens that puts the camera in macro mode – perfect for flower photography or capturing a butterfly feeding on a flower.
The EX-P505 was, at the time of release, the third camera in the award winning EXILIM PRO range. It incorporated CASIO’s unique ‘EXILIM Engine’, a compact image processing module, that delivered high quality images and high-speed operation, all within extremely compact dimensions.
Looking down on the Casio EXILIM Pro EX-P505 shows the camera’s controls including the pop up flash, and the macro and EX buttons on the side of the lens.
Why did Casio stop making digital cameras?
Since 1995 Casio stopped making digital cameras. Their website explains that they “decided that, after 23 years of developing the visual communication tools which have been highly supported and loved by our users, we will be halting production of our existing compact digital cameras.
The company went on to say: “In the future, Casio will be pursuing product development in entirely new genres, and will leverage the video and image technologies and various unique technologies that we have cultivated over many years. At some later time, we would like to present products that have the potential to become new favorites and the capability to surprise and move our customers.”
Casio points out some of the products it developed that “created a new culture of communication, such as the EX-S1, an ultrathin camera…; the EX-F1, which incorporated a unique, high-speed technology that could capture subjects invisible to the naked eye; and the TR series, which allowed users to enjoy taking beautiful selfies in a variety of free photography styles.”
My Casio EXILIM Pro EX-P505 was not one of their ground breaking releases, but for me anyhow, it continues to make images and movies. I have even used it to create images for this website and although it is not my first choice, it will continue to see service.
A quick look on Ebay and Kijiji shows that the Casio line of cameras continues to bring a smile to the faces of photographers willing to cash in on a brand that is being forgotten in the world of photography. If you are looking for a quality compact camera to have fun in the garden buying a high-end Casio compact camera just might be the ticket. Ebay.com has several pages of Casio cameras available running from under $25 to more than $400 and Kijiji has a great selection at good prices as well.
Grab one and put it to use. You might be surprised how much more fun it is than using your smart phone.