The EX-S100 employs a revolutionary transparent ceramic 2.8x optical zoom lens, which covers 4.8 - 13.5mm (equivalent to 36 - 102mm in 35mm format.) It's comprised of 6 lenses in 5 groups, including the transparent ceramic element. As you can see from the animation above, the lens retracts fully inside of the camera when powered down and is protected by a built in lens cover.

The camera features a Contrast type AF system (selectable between spot, multi) that covers 15.7 in. (40cm) to infinity in normal focus mode and from 6.7 in. (17cm) to 19.7 in. (50cm) in Macro mode. It also features an "Auto Macro" function, which automatically switches between Normal and Macro focus modes.

The built-in flash has modes for auto, fill, red-eye reduction and off. The working range is approx. 1.3 ft. (0.4m) to 8.5 ft. (2.5m) at wide angle and 1.3 ft. (0.4m) to 5.0 ft. (1.5m) at telephoto.

Located on the top are the power on/off and shutter release buttons.

On the back you'll find most of the controls (described below) and its large 2.0-inch color LCD (which is the only viewfinder on this camera.)

Controls on the back. Top left are the Play and Record buttons which select between play and record modes. To the right are the zoom controls buttons, which also serve as the magnified playback and index mode controls buttons when in Play mode. The 4-way controller lets you easily navigate menu screens or select images for playback, you can program the "Left" and "Right" actions in the Setup menu to change Rec mode, EV comp, ISO speed, Self-timer or White Balance, the center SET button accepts menu selections. In Record mode you push "Up" to enable Macro focus or to enable the Album mode when in Playback. You push "Down" in record to change the flash mode or to delete an image when in Playback.

And along side the LCD is the MENU button, which calls up and dismisses the onsreen menu system, and the DISP button turns the color LCD on/off and controls the amount of information that is overlayed on the screen.

The EX-S100 has 9.3 megabytes of internal memory for saving images and movie clips. Optionally, any size Secure Digital or MultiMedia Card can be used via the expansion slot on the bottom. Image data can be copied to/from internal memory and a flash card via the Playback menu.

Shown here with a spacious and speedy Sandisk Ultra II 256MB SD card.

The camera must be placed in the included cradle to connect with a computer via the built-in USB 1.1 port and transfer data.   It also charges the battery.

The super-slim NP-20 lithium battery pack is charged whenever the camera is docked in the cradle. This 3.7 volt battery is rated at 680mA and Casio claims it will power the camera long enough to capture 540 continuos shots, or 2 hours and 30 minutes of continuous playback.