Casio EX-FH100 Hands-On Review

Casio has updated the popular EX-FC100 (last year’s model) with the EX-FH100, which adds a little more resolution and doubles the zoom magnification from 5x to 10x.  The FH100 also features the popular high frame rate feature found in the FC100.

As usual, Casio had a great setup at CES for testing out the camera’s features.  This year, Casio had a martial arts team throwing kicks and twirling swords to put the high frame rate camera through the paces. Below, you’ll find a couple of videos from the FH100.

Keep in mind that these samples come from a pre-production model that may not represent the final quality; however, you can certainly get a taste of what the high frame rate can do for action sequences.

There has been a lot of buzz from the golf community about the FC100 since it was released due to the ability to carefully analyze their golf swing in ultra slow motion.  There’s no doubt that the FH100 will carry the same buzz, and I would expect many golf instructors to be packing this camera soon.

Casio EX-FH100 Key Features

• 10.1MP
• 10x Optical Zoom
• ISO 100-3200
• 3-inch LCD at 230k dot resolution
• Sensor-shift Image Stabilization
• 720p Video Recording at 30p
• 40 fps Still Images (bursts of up to 30 frames)
• High-Speed Video Capture
  120 fps (640 x 480)
  240 fps (448 x 336)
  420 fps (224 x 168)
  1000 fps (224 x 64)
  30-120 fps (640 x 480)
  30-240 fps (448 x 336)

The FH100 feels a little less compact than the previous FC100, which is not necessarily a bad thing.  I like the little ridge on the right side for a hand grip.  The controls are well laid out and provide a separate shutter release and video record button.  The video record button is positioned for easy access with your right thumb.

The zooming action is fast and responsive.  It quickly covers the zoom range from wide to tele and back for a point and shoot camera.  Speaking of wide, the FH100 is pretty wide on the short end, offering a 24mm field of view (full frame equivalent).

For burst image shooting, you can fire off frames in continuous mode at a rate of 40 fps at 9MP.  At that size, the buffer will fill up within just 30 frames though.  However, that’s a boost in frame rate and image resolution over the FH100’s predecessor, which rang it at 30 fps at 6MP.

Video shooting gives you similar options to the former FC100 model as well.  You can, of course, capture video in 720p in the standard 30p mode, or you can choose any number of high frame rate modes.  In the high frame rate modes, you get choices of 120 fps, 240 fps, 420 fps or 1000 fps.  As you go up in frame rate, you have to drop the resolution.  The 1000 fps rate videos are tiny at 224 x 64 pixels.

Additionally, you can shoot in a standard and high fps mode that allows you to switch back and forth from either 30 fps to 120 fps, or 30 fps to 240 fps.  To switch back and forth, all you have to do is push the set button on the rear.  Doing so switches the frame rate back and forth while recording.

Last year’s FC100 was a nice change of pace for Casio’s point and shoot lineup.  While the FH100 is an incremental change over the former model, it looks to be just as promising.  You can find the FH100 on Amazon.com.