Casio? Surprise... a great camera, scores high

Author's Rating:

Pros: Fast start-up, 2" LCD, Pro features, Easy to use, Compact

Cons: You could say it's ugly, but with the fantastic feature set it grows on you.

The Bottom Line: 
Do you want a compact, light weight camera with ease-of-use for your family and professional features for yourself? Casio ES-P600 with a Canon lens is it!

Author's Review
I set out to find the ultimate compact digital camera with features similar to my old Canon SLR and my Olympus 2 megapixle digital. I made my own feature score card and narrowed my choices down to 9 cameras. My wife thought I was crazy for taking most of a weekend surfing the net to search for all of the specifications. The nine finalists on my score card were: Kodak DX7630, Minolta DiMage G600, Olympus C60, Sony DSCW1, Sony DSCP100, Canon Powershot A80, Canon Powershot G5, Nikon E5400 and the Casio EX-P600. My favorite all along was the Olympus C60, it's style and 2" LCD is nice; however, after scoring all nine the Casio came in first while the Canon Powershot G5 (tilt screen, fastest lens 2.0) came in second. Size matters and the G5, well, was just too big. What was my criterion for scoring? See below.

Megapixle Size 6
Aperture, Lowest 2.8 (all were 2.8 except the G5)
Aperture Priority YES Full
Resolution Pixles/Size 2816x2112
Flash Rack Option YES
Manual White Balance YES
Zoom X 4X
Record Mode TIFF
Optional Filters YES
Exposure Lock Yes
Lens Maker Canon
Compact Size YES
Dimensions 3.84x2.66x1.78
Weight 7.94 w/o bat
Easy Controls YES
Fast Power-Up YES 2sec
Remote YES
Viewfinder YES
Size, LCD 2"
Movie ? fps w/Sound? ?FPS/YES
Marine Case Option NO
USB 2 vs USB 1 NO (use opt. reader w/USB2)
Memory Type, Max Size SD Card 512
Review Comments Web Good to Excellent