Casio QV 5700 Review

Overall Rating

Produces great pictures.
A lot of the adjustments like white balance, focus, etc. are managed by switches on the camera rather than in the menu.
Fast Canon lens (f2.0)
Uses regular batteries.
Additional LCD on top shows basic settings.
Bestshot. A group of around 100 presets stored in the camera and/or card for likely shooting situations. Sunsets, snow, sport, plus some more unusual things like rainbows and stained glass.
Panoramic setting.
Can connect external flash.

Focus can search a bit.
Lens cover.

I spent a bit of time looking before I chose this camera. It seems that every camera you consider has at least one "must have" feature missing. In the end it's a compromise. I settled on the Casio because it was good value, but still took great pictures with full control of all the important settings. Another plus was the information panel on the top of the camera. It displays most of the basic things like shutter speed and aperture without having the main screen on, which saves power. The power coming from 4 AA NiMh batteries, another thing on the "must have" list.
I wasn't bothered about the "Bestshot" mode much at first, but having had the camera a year or so now, I must admit I used it quite a lot. It works from a setting on the shooting mode dial. Once selected you scroll through a no. of different scenes, you pick one and the camera sets the camera up to make the most of the scene your taking. I got some good results with sunset and portraits. I also got good results with the Panoramic mode, which locks the exposure and lets you line up the next shot with the last in the main LCD.
Things I didn't like were the lens cover which can get knocked off easily and the focus which searches in low light despite an assist lamp. A lot of cameras have this problem.
Bottom line is I took some really good photos in the year I had the camera. I say had, because I broke it. Totally my fault and I'm too embarrassed to go into details. I replaced it with a Canon S50 (now discontinued and a lot cheaper than it was a year ago), a good camera and a bit easier to fit in a jacket pocket, but I'd be just as happy to have the Casio. It produced the goods and was easy to use.