Casio QV-R51 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

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 Left and Right of the 4-way selector. An on-screen distance slider will be displayed.

The Best Shot mode has 21 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, children, candlelight portrait, party, pet, flower, natural green, sundown, night scene, night scene portrait, fireworks, food, text, collection, monochrome, retro, twilight or create your own Best Shot scene.

Movie Mode lets you record up to 60 seconds of 320 x 240 motion video. There is no microphone so the movies are silent. Using the internal 10MB of memory you can record a total of 60 seconds, using a 64MB SD card you can record ~410 seconds. Movie clips are saved in standard AVI format (Motion JPEG).

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:

REC Mode - Normal, Best Shot, Movie
Self-timer - 2 sec, 10 sec, x3
Size - 2560x1920, 2560x1712 (3:2), 2048x1536, 1600x1200, 1280x960 or 640x480
Quality - Fine, Normal, Economy
EV Shift - Exposure compensation +/- 2EV in 0.3EV steps
White Balance - Auto, Sunlight, Shade, Incandescent, Fluorescent or Manual
ISO - Auto, 50, 100, 200, 400
AF Area - Auto focus area: Spot or Multi
Metering - Multi, Center-Weighted, Spot
Filter - Off, B&W, Sepia, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Pink, Purple
Sharpness - Soft, Normal, Hard
Saturation - Low, Normal, High
Contrast - Low, Normal, High
Flash Intensity - Weak, Normal, Strong
Grid - Off, On
Digital Zoom - Off, On
Review - Off, On
L/R Key - REC Mode, EV Shift, White Balance, ISO, Self-timer, Off

The MEMORY options allow you to memorize the settings of the REC Mode, Flash, Focus, White Balance, ISO, , AF Area, Metering, Flash Intensity, Digital Zoom, Manual Focus Position and Zoom Position, retaining 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 (2m, 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.