All sorts of facts and figures will end up here. The contents will be tidied and rearranged later and will be split into more pages. Early days, much more to add. Personal comments and choices are included occasionally. This camera is firmly aimed at the young Asian female market for making better selfies for Facebook but that does not stop it from being a good camera for general use.

Casio camera information is a bit thin on the Internet and it will get worse as the camera users move on in  time to other brands. Maybe a good place to explore Casio information on all sorts of random subjects is http://www.exilim.eu/euro/tips/

Zoom and Aperture

First up a chart of the indicated equivalent focal lengths that the zoom settles on combined with the lens apertures at those equivalent focal lengths.

Front Ring	19	21	24	27	-	34	-	-	48	-	-	-	75	-	95
Zoom Lever	19	21	24	27	30	34	38	43	48	53	60	67	75	85	95
Lens Aperture	2.7	2.8	3.0	3.1	3.3	3.4	3.7	3.9	4.2	4.5	4.8	5.1	5.5	6.0	6.4
With ND filter	6.9	7.2	7.5	7.8	8.2	8.7	9.3	9.9	10.6	11.3	12.1	13.0	14.0	15.2	16.3
The ND filter is inserted automatically as needed by the metering, or selected when using Aperture Priority mode. Because the actual aperture does not change for each selectable focal length then there is no change in depth of field or diffraction for that focal length.

Using the Zoom

The optical range is described as 19mm to 95mm equivalent, but is an actual 4.06mm to 20.3mm. There is stabilisation built into the lens assembly, so the usual live view while setting up framing is stabilised, at tele zoom settings then it is wise to try and allow the stabilisation to settle before pressing the shutter button.

The front control ring is more limited in its choice of focal lengths so the zoom lever works out better to use to get possibly more accurate framing.  When the Mode dial is in the other positions then the control ring may be doing other functions, some not changeable. I have found that when operating the camera despite setting the control ring to, say, ISO when in P mode, after some other operations in Best Shots I then find that the ring is set back to the default focal length change.

For convenience it is worthwhile to allow the zoom range to extend past the optical limit. If the menu item Zoom (SR) is set to Single then the zoom can be taken to 10x which is equivalent to 190mm. The SR zoom stacks two shots in the range 95mm to 190mm to derive a bit better result than with just a simple digital zoom.

Going past 190mm equivalent then it's only digital zoom so the quality progressively deteriorates but is still worthwhile to use to get that difficult subject at some distance.

To make better use of extended zoom action then it is best to try the Best Shot (#11) Multi SR Zoom where 20x zoom is the limit to deliver 380mm equivalent. Naturally it lowers the image quality but in some conditions any image is better than none at all.
[note to self, insert sample images taken at all zoom limits]

Stabilisation

The product web pages claim 2 stops improvement in shutter speed for the in-lens stabilisation, but when using the stacking modes for stabilisation then the claim is 5 axis with 5 stops improvement. Not fully tested but the 2 stops for the lens seems correct so far.

The Recording Menu (the camera icon)

Press the Menu button while in P mode and we see the following...... shown in sets of 7 as seen on the camera screen. To quickly flip between menu pages, use the zoom lever.
The rear dial up/down/left/right presses go through the menu and make selections The front control ring flips between the record menu and the setup menu.
Just for fun I've indicated my settings in blue but changes may happen at any time. Default factory settings for menus are on Page 228 of the user manual.

Item	Choices	Notes (User Manual pages noted)
CS	High Speed CS AF CS Off	If set to CS then this allows high speed burst mode, settings from 3 fps to 30 fps, shot count from 5 to 30 frames. Easiest to set the functions of CS by pressing the Set button and using the on-screen CS setup menu which  appears only when CS options are selected in this menu item. Enable CS, then use Set to change to the burst settings needed at some later occasion, then disable CS again for normal single shot shooting.  Page 61
Motion Shutter	Motion Settings Timer Motion Position	Sets up the ability to initiate selfies, usually using a hand wave to trigger a shot. Otherwise Timer after pressing the front button. The hand wave method does not work well if in a situation where there's plenty of crowd movement behind you. Page 66
Front Shutter Selfie Timer	Standard AF Less Selfie Timer x3 Selfie Timer CS Off	Setting the purpose of the front shutter button. If not a selfie freak then the front button may be best used as the CS button, in that press/hold the front button for the high speed burst.  If the CS setting item is set to Off then the front button burst is always 10 fps for 10 frames maximum. Page 112
Key Customise	Function Ring Control Dial L/R Key	Customise the front control ring, the rear dial and left/right buttons. My function ring set to ISO. The rear dial and L/R keys left at default settings. In P mode the rear dial  rotation gives Exposure Compensation and the Left/Right press changes ISO. I know, changing ISO in two places but I find the front ring easier than the rear Left/Right. These settings will most likely change as I get more used to the camera. Page 113
L/R Flip Shot	On Off	Flips image horizontally, only while screen is up at 180 degrees. Page 115
Self-timer	10 sec 2 sec x3 Off	Sets up the delay timer. Page 45
Exposure	Adjust	Adjusts from minus 2 EV to plus 2 EV. Page 52 Mine at 0 usually.
White Balance	Adjust	Choose from a variety of settings, auto is good. Page 46
ISO	Adjust	Settings from 80 to 6400 and Auto. Page 50
ISO High Limit	Adjust	Set the upper ISO limit, range 200 to 6400 or Auto. Still experimenting but so far leaving the upper limit at 6400 has worked for me. Noisy but it's a picture. Maybe Best Shots #5, #6 or #7 would work better than P mode, or use Premium Auto Pro mode and let the camera decide the best method. Page 116
Focus	AF Macro MF	Selects focus mode, if set to MF then the Left/Right buttons or the rear dial alter the focus and the display magnifies to help. Page 48
AF Area	Intelligent Spot Multi Tracking	Sets AF method. Spot works most reliably for me on all cameras. Page 117
Face Detection	On Off	Can detect up to 10 faces and adjusts focus and brightness to suit. Page 118 Mine Off until faced with grandkids etc.
Make-up	Adjust	Allows the adjustment of the four makeup settings, Smooth Skin, Skin Tone, Face Brightness, Sculpt. Page 51 I don't go there at all.
Continuous AF	On Off	Allows constant AF which freezes at half press. Page 119
Metering	Multi CenterWeighted Spot	Select metering mode, Multi being most useful. Page 55
Anti-shake Functions	Strong Standard Off	Enables lens stabilisation. Strong setting biases towards faster shutter speeds. Page 119
Image Size	12M (4:3) 3:2 16:9 8M 3M	12M - 4000x3000 - Poster 3:2   - 4000x2656 - Poster 16:9 - 4000x2240 - HDTV 8M   - 3264x2448 - A4 Print 3M   - 2048x1536 - 3.5"x5" Print Above info cycles on screen with each choice. Page 121
Image Quality	Fine Normal	Set the jpeg compression, for better quality or for small file size. Page 122
Movie Quality	FHD STD HS1000 HS480 HS240 HS120 HS30-240 HS30-120	Sets the frame rate and resolution. Best quality is FHD at 1920x1080 at 30 fps and 14.2 megabits/sec. Frame rates up to 1000 but at low resolution. The fast frame rates are at 40 megabits/sec. Page 123
Lighting	On Off	Brightness correction applied or not, it balances bright and dark when on. It gives a mild lift to shadows, a weaker effect than the lowest HDR setting but still useful. Page 124
Sharpness	Adjust	Set it at -2, -1, 0, +1, +2 be aware that extra sharpness also makes noise more of a nuisance at higher ISO. Page 124
Saturation	Adjust	Set it at -2, -1, 0, +1, +2 Page 124
Contrast	Adjust	Set it at -2, -1, 0, +1, +2 Page 125
Flash Intensity	Adjust	Set it at -2, -1, 0, +1, +2 if subject is too close or too far away it may not help. I don't use flash much. If using flash in portrait orientation with people then always hold the camera shutter button end up, and avoid blocking the flash with your fingers. Page 125
Zoom (SR)	Single Off	Causes image stacking to allow better image quality when using extended zoom, 5x to 10x. Thus a 19mm to 190mm equivalent camera. Page 59 - Also read about Multi SR Zoom Page 60
Digital Zoom	On Off	On to use Digital Zoom to extend the zoom range to 20x, at reduced quality. This takes the tele out to a lower quality 380mm equivalent. Pages 125 and 56
AF Assist Light	On Off	On for some focus aid illumination help, annoying to some so best left off as much as possible. Some Best Shots will use it regardless of your setting. Page 125
Double (HDR Art) (greyed out in P mode)	(On or Off)	If On saves a second normal image when using HDR Art in the ART mode. In that mode only the options are the usual On or Off. Page 73
Wind Noise Cut	On Off	Video use only, so far little video for me, so no idea how effective this is.
Review	Type 1 Type2 Type3 Off	Type 1 a full screen review. Type 2 a small review in the bottom right. Type 3 a bouncing version of Type 2. all only appear briefly. Use the Review button to get a better look. Page 126
Icon Help	On Off	Certain REC modes display text help. Page 127
Shooting Info	Adjust	Grid On  The Grid is useful for aligning horizons and vertical features, also provides some help for those obeying the 1/3 rules. Histogram Off   The histogram  is of help for getting correct exposure, but the preview on the screen is usually enough to judge the result. Movie Range Off   When this is set on a faint grey border indicates the framing of any potential video, helps with alignment to not cut off heads etc when starting a video. Page 127
Memory	Each item can be On or Off	Set On to remember the current settings when turning the camera off... Function Ring - CS - Flash - Focus - ISO - White Balance - Exposure AF Area - Metering - Self-timer - Flash Intensity - Zoom (SR) - Digital Zoom MF Position - Zoom Position The ones in blue set on my camera to On. Page 129

The Setup Menu (the gearwheel icon)

Item	Choices	Notes (User Manual pages noted)
ECO Mode	On Off	ECO mode dims the display and slows other functions to save power. Page 193
Screen	Auto +2 to -1	Set the screen brightness or let the camera do it automatically. Page 194
Sounds	(choice)	Startup, Half Shutter, Shutter, Operation. Choose sounds 1 to 5 or Off.  I like a quiet camera, so no noises please. Page 194
Create Folder	(choice)	Use this to create a new image storage folder. Normally the camera creates a new folder on the SD card when the file name has hit 9999 so the next shot becomes 0001 in a new folder. Page 195
Timestamp	Date Date & Time Off	Add Date or Date and Time to the images when shooting. Page 195
Auto Rotate	On Off	If set On it will rotate the image on review to the way it was taken. Portrait orientation shots show small and vertical on the screen. Off  always shows the image full screen, portrait orientation shots show full screen sideways. Page 196
File No.	Continue Reset	Continue carries on the file numbers from the last one taken, even if card is formatted or a new card inserted. Reset causes the file name to start again at 0001 with format or a new card. Page 196
Sleep	30 sec 1 min 2 min Off	Camera drops to low power sleep mode after the set time. Page 197
Auto Power Off	2 min 5 min 10 min	Camera turns off after the selected time unless it is busy. Page 197
Screen Tilt	Power On Off	On will turn on the camera when  the screen is tilted away from the stored position. Page 198
PLAY	Power On On/Off Off	Select the action when the Play (Review) button is pressed. Page 198
Delete Key	Enabled Disabled	Enables or disables the Down dial press (which usually starts Delete. Page 198
World Time	Time Home Destination	Set Home and Destination  for many different cities and choose the home or destination time to show. I tend to keep it simple and set the time on the camera to the time zone I'm in, at the same time making sure all cameras being carried are as close as possible to the same second. Makes later sifting and sorting easier. Page 199
Adjust	Current Time	Set year, month date time and 24/12 hour mode. Apply to set. Page 200
Date Style	YY/MM/DD DD/MM/YY MM/DD/YY	Select style of display of date. Page 200
Language	English	Choice of 14 languages. Some cameras sold in some markets may have less languages. Page 201
HDMI Output	Auto 1080i 480p 576p	Select output to TV or HDMI monitor. Page 138
Format	(choice)	Do Format of SD card, or of Internal memory if card is removed. Be aware that any stored custom Best Shots will also be deleted if internal memory is formatted. Or Cancel to not do that. If a cards is accidentally formatted, stop using it until it can be investigated with a file recovery program. Page 201
Reset	(choice)	Do Reset and Menu returns to defaults and airplane mode goes off. Or Cancel to not do that. Page 202 and 228
Version	(view)	Shows....... EX-ZR5100 Version 1.00 Mac Address C4: etc: etc S/N xxxxxxxxx D1 (?) Page 202

 

Play Menu

Item	Choices	Notes (User Manual pages noted)
Front Shutter	Standard Slideshow Copy Group Image Off	Standard enters Record Mode when front shutter is pressed. Slideshow starts a slideshow. Page 144 Copies the current image to another group. Page 135 Off means nothing happens in Play mode when the front button pressed. Page 139
Function Ring	(Choice)	Scrolls backwards or forwards by 10, 25, 50, 100 images, or by Date Page 140
Highlight Functions	Highlight Movie Highlight Photo Highlight Score	Create a movie of highlighted movies, can set time and music etc Create a collage of highlighted stills and choose style of collage. Highlight selected photos and movies, 2 = high rating, 1= lesser, 0=not included Pages 140 to 143
Slideshow	(Choices)	Start Images, choose what to incl;ude in the slideshow. Time, choose total time 3, 5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes. Interval, choose display time for each, 1 to 30 seconds or MAX to show all of each video or CS images. Effect, choose image change effects, and music. Cancel Page 144 also Page 145 to install music
Make Movie	(Procedure)	Make a video of up to 1,000 selected images. Page 146
Movie Editing	(for videos only)	Choose cuts to be made to a video, can take some time if a long video. Original not retained Cancel Page 147
Movie Merge	(for more than 1 video)	Create, combines two videos, both must be less than 10 minutes each. Both must be same quality and frame rate. Cannot merge high speed videos. Cancel Page 149
MOTION PRINT	(Procedure)	Create a still from a movie. Cancel Page 149
Lighting	(for stills only)	Adjust 0, 1, 2. Adjusts image shadow brightness, makes a copy of the original. Page 150
White Balance	(for stills only)	Change white balance of current jpeg. Page 150
Brightness	(for stills only)	Adjust -2 to +2. Adjust image brightness and makes a copy of the original. Page 151
DPOF Printing	(Choice)	Select Images for printing. All Images for printing. Pages 151 and 179
Protect	(Choice)	Select Files for protection. All Files protected. A format will wipe all images including the protected ones. Page 151, 152
Date/Time	(Choice)	Set date and time to apply to current jpeg. Page 153
Rotation	(Choice)	Rotate the image. Cancel Page 153
Resize	(Choice)	8M can be resized to smaller sizes, smaller files cannot be resized to larger files. 3M VGA Cancel Page 154
Trimming	(Choice)	Zoom lever sets crop, Left/Right/Up/Down moves the crop frame. Page 154
Copy	(Choice)	Built-in >> Card copies all stills and videos, cannot copy only one file. Card >> Built-in copies all stills and videos, cannot copy only one file. Page 155
CS Multi Print	(Procedure)	Converts a CS group to thumbnails in a 12MP file, 6 across and 5 down. Page 155
Divide Group	(Procedure)	Divides one CS group or all CS groups into individual images. Page 134
Edit Group	(Procedure)	Not sure on this one, manual says that DPOF printing Page179, Protect Page 152, Copy Page 135 and Delete Page 133 cover it. Yet to try and see what this one is all about. Page 156

WiFi Menu

Press the WiFi button and the screen pops up to allow 4 options, dependent of course if communication is enabled, that is, if airplane mode is off. WiFi or Bluetooth can be used. Needs appropriate Casio app in phone or tablet. So far not had success with connecting to my Lenovo tablet. But no matter. don't like the slowness of WiFi transfer anyway.

Send to Phone, sends images and videos to phone or tablet. Page 170

Shoot with Phone, use phone or tablet to control camera and shoot stills and videos.  Page 166

Pairing, set up Bluetooth link between camera and phone or tablet. Page 163

Wireless Settings, can turn airplane mode on/off, Auto send on/off, Resize before send on/off, see or set WLAN password. Page 172

Low Light Shooting

Using Best Shots seems the best way to go, any of Premium Auto Pro mode dial spot, or Best Shots HS Night Scene, HS Night Scene and Portrait, HS Night Scene (no flash), maybe even HS Anti-Shake as well. Experiment to see what works for you.

CS High Speed Shooting

Adjustable, default is 30 fps for 30 frames.

Select CS High Speed from the Record menu, press menu to get there while in P mode.

The CS high speed burst shooting defaults to 30 fps but I found for most crowd scenes and things not moving too quickly then 5 fps makes a way better set of images to examine to find the one that has what you want. Also I configure to save the last 3 images at half press before full press, and a total of up to 30 images if the shutter is held down long enough.

If the front shutter button is optionally configured to CS burst then it will always deliver 10 fps for up to 10 frames. A simple was to get a burst when it is too slow to fiddle with the menus.. Of course if selfies are the intended use then the front shutter button is best set to 1 shot or 3 shot mode.

Shooting Closeups

Premium Auto pro seems to work OK for closeups, but P mode and then select Manual Focus (Set button and use the on-screen menu) delivers what you need. The advantage of manual focus is that it displays how close you can focus and when using the Left-Right presses to focus the display is a magnified portion of the centre, so can then move the camera to and fro until the magnified view looks sharpest, then half press to check framing and full press to shoot. At 19mm then the lens front to subject is 3omm and about 55mm side to side can be captured. That would be equivalent to about 1:1.5 macro in 35mm film terms.

          First using P mode and 19mm as close as I could manage with AF....


          Next P mode again but with Manual Focus at 19mm, easier to control when close.....


          Next is Best Shot Magnifying Glass at 1x zoom setting......


          Finally Best Shot Magnifying Glass at 2x zoom setting...... (but seems to be a stacked digital 2x zoom)......


The Best Shot called Magnifying Glass does much the same as P mode at 1x, but  delivers about 30mm side to side in the frame when set to the indicated 2X, that equals 1.2:1 macro in 35mm film terms, indeed rather excellent. But I suspect that it is stacked digital cropping involved, that is, keep the lens at 19mm then progressively crop the frame to get more magnification, but take multiple shots and stack them to get back the resolution. In all cases at 19mm the lens front was about 30mm from the SD card and it is hard to hold the camera steady when so close, best idea is to take a few shots and one will be in better position in regard to focus. All images in that set reduced to 500 pixels wide and show the whole frame as captured.

Best Shots

The Best Shots are listed with all their details in the manual from page 89, and also the camera gives a short description of each if you zoom any Best Shot thumbnail to large single display on the screen.

The Wide Shot mode gives an image equivalent to 14mm and most times works. You have to follow the instructions and swing the camera in the direction(s) indicated, not too fast, not too slow. It nags you about the errors you make. Use the Set button to set and get an even wider mode at 11mm equivalent, but that is a dog to get right, maybe 1 in 10 tries I get some success.

Creating User Best Shots

Yet to get fully organised here but I have initially made 3 Custom Best Shots to suit the majority of my needs.

First a good light mode, freeze my most used P mode setup.
Second a low light mode optimised for lower light.
Third is an HDR mode to overcome difficult bright/dark scenes.

The secret to success is to set up the camera the way you want, then use the computer in any text handling program to put some large font on the screen, I used 200 and 300 sized font. Make a simple up to 3 letter reminder of what the mode is and shoot that with the setup and finally store that image as the Custom Best Shot. In my case I see my Custom Best shots in the list as "P", "Dim" and "HDR".  When  using them that tiny P/Dim/HDR icon also appears down left on the screen as a reminder.

Although the manual leads you to believe otherwise, you cannot  make Custom Best shots from all of the Best Shots. No video mode works, and no time lapse, and also the clever ones such as Makeup Bracket, Triple Shot, Magnifying Glass, All-in-Focus Macro, Multi SR Zoom, Sweep Panorama and Wide Shot cannot be turned into Custom Best Shots. They all can be used as they are as  Best Shots and many can be fine tuned to taste in the menus or using the Set button.

Post Processing Images

So far only using FastStone Viewer for minor tweaks to images. I tend to add a bit more sharpening with FastStone and sometimes a bit more lift to the shadows.

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