Casio QV-R4 Review

Here's the LCD display in record mode with all possible screen icons shown. The actual amount of screen information shown is dependant on camera settings and you can have a perfectly "clear" view by pressing the DISPlay button several times.

Pressing the DISP button toggles the realtime histogram display

Pressing the DISP button again toggles the grid overlay

In Manual Focus mode you can adjust the focus from 14cm (0.5ft) to infinity in wide angle or 40cm (1.3ft) to infinity in telephoto using the Up and Down of the 4-way selector. An on-screen distance slider will be displayed. While you are adjusting the focus the central 50% of the screen is magnified to aid in critical focusing.

The Best Shot mode has 33 pre-defined "scenes" that you can select from to suit your shooting conditions. These scenes will automatically set the appropriate camera functions and values to produce the best possible images.

Select from: portrait, scenery, portrait w/scenery, coupling shot, pre-shot, closeup portrait, 3/4 portrait, double portrait, children, candlelight portrait, party, pet, floral closeup, floral field, natural green, autumn leaves, flowing water, splashing water, buildings, city street, blue sky, white sand beach, sundown, night scene, night scene portrait, fireworks, food, text, collection or create your own Best Shot scene.

Movie Mode lets you can record up to 30 second of 320 x 240 motion video. There is no microphone so the movies are silent. Using the internal 11MB of memory you can record a total of 60 seconds, using a 64MB SD card you can record ~330 seconds. Movie clips are saved in standard AVI format (Motion JPEG) as promoted by the Open DML Group.

The Coupling Shot mode lets you record images of two people and combine them into a single image. This makes it possible for you to include yourself in group images, even when there is no one else available to take the picture.

Another unique recording mode is Pre-Shot. With this feature you can compose the background you want and record it. A transparnet view of the background image remains on the monitor screen so you can ask someone to record you against the background, using the monitor screen image as a guide. Only the second image is stored in camera memory, showing you against the background you want.

Recording options:

Size - 2304x1712, 2240x1680, 1600x1200, 1280x960 or 640x480
Quality - Fine, Normal, Economy
White Balance - Auto, Sunlight, Shade, Incandescent, Fluorescent or Manual
ISO - Auto, 100, 200
Metering - Multi, Center-Weighted, Spot
Filter - Off, B&W, Sepia, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Pink, Purple
Enhance - Off, Red, Green, Blue, Flesh Tone
Sharpness - Soft, Normal, Hard
Saturation - Low, Normal, High
Contrast - Low, Normal, High
Flash Intensity - Weak, Normal, Strong
Grid - Off, On
Digital Zoom - Off, On

The MEMORY options allow you to memorize the settings of the Flash, Focus, White Balance, ISO, Metering, Flash Intensity, Digital Zoom and Manual Focus Position and retain them from power off to power on.

The SETUP menu options let you number files sequentially, turn the beep sounds on or off, select a startup image, set the home time and world time, adjust the clock, set the menu language (English, French, German, Spanish or Italian), set the sleep timer (30s, 1m, 2m, Off), set the auto power off time (3m, 5m, Off), Format the memory or perform a system reset to default values.

When adjusting the White Balance settings you can actually "see" what difference there is in the colors of your subject thanks to a live preview.

The World Time feature lets you keep track of the current time at home and in another time zone when traveling or for any other reason. It also eliminates the need to make troublesome clock settings whenever you travel to another time zone. You can set up to three alarm times and even have a specific image appear on the monitor screen as a reminder when an alarm time is reached.