Review: Casio EX-F1 Is a Speed-Demon Snapper

Wired: Gadget Lab:
Casio EX-F1

Pop quiz, hotshot. There’s a bomb on a bus. Once the bus accelerates to 55 miles per hour, the bomb is armed. If it drops below 55, it blows up. What do you do?

If you happen to have the 6-megapixel Casio EX-F1 handy, we’d recommend switching to burst mode and wait for the ensuing mayhem. You’ll have to forgive the obligatory Speed reference, but it’s hard to resist given the F1 is flat out one of the fastest cameras we’ve ever tested — and ideal for capturing life’s unpredictable moments, like you know, bus explosions. Just like the auto-racing class it shares a name with, everything about the F1 screams speed, from its sleek elongated body to the 60 frames per second you’ll be able to capture with its high-speed CMOS sensor and LSI processor. Hell, even the camera’s flash will fire up to seven times a second for up to three seconds.

But wait, it gets better … and faster.

The F1 also happens to be a decent video camera, capable of shooting standard and high-def movies (1920 x 1080) at up to 1,200 fps. Among other things, this allows you capture your very own cool slow-mo water balloon-popping sequence, or if you’re a Planet Earth fan visiting South Africa, possibly a breaching Great White feasting on fur seals.

You can even set the EX-F1 to independently fire off a series of pictures thanks to a handy motion detector. Set the camera down, push the shutter button, and the second the camera detects motion — be it a hummingbird, Bigfoot or Bigfoot chasing a hummingbird — it will autofire 60 individual, 6-megapixel shots at its unsuspecting target.

After you’ve snapped those 60 shots, the camera conveniently plays back all the photos for you in…