Casio’s Exilim digital compacts consistently marry attractive design to lightweight metal construction – just what you’d want from a pocket camera.

However, the one thing they fall down on is image noise; the tiny grain-like speckles visible in shadow areas of a digital image being more pronounced at lower ISO settings than the competition.

Will the Casio Exilim Card EX-S770, available in a trio of colours, be any different?

It certainly turns heads when it comes to looks, being just about the slimmest (at 13.7mm ‘wide’), most good-looking Exilim to date.

A docking cradle is provided for recharging the internal battery and as a means of connecting the device to your PC via USB.

With no optical viewfinder, the rear of the camera is dominated by a bright and wide 2.8in screen that looks huge given its otherwise credit-card-sized dimensions.

The better-than-average 230,400 pixels resolution makes it perfect for reviewing widescreen ratio MPEG-4 video (an AV cable is included so you can do the same on your TV). Attendant controls are minimal and require fingertip operation, but all the essentials are there.

Like other Casio’s, the S770 features a range of optimised scene modes – here called ‘Best Shot’ modes – that cover 35 common shooting conditions and subjects. Theoretically the camera selects the optimum aperture and shutter speed for everything from portraits to fireworks, leaving you to merely point and shoot.

Unfortunately you won’t get more than two maximum resolution images on the stingy 6MB internal memory, so budget for a removable SD or MMC card.

Operationally the camera impresses with its ease of use; it powers up instantly, and there’s little shutter delay when taking a shot. Images write to memory in around two seconds.

Casio hasn’t properly addressed the issue of noise; limiting light sensitivity to ISO400 (we’d stick to ISO200), so it’s less visible, when competitors now manage up to ISO3200, feels like a compromise.

So, this isn’t a camera for natural-looking photography in low light without flash, but under bright skies and with typical snapshot use, sharp and colourful are achievable. While it retains some duck-like attributes, the S770 remains outwardly a swan.

Also Consider
Canon Digital IXUS 65
Overall: A very stylish 6megapixel snapshot camera, boasting a large 3in screen and credit-card dimensions.
Score: 4
Price: £349

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