Casio Exilim EX-H20G: Video and Image Quality

Video Quality
The H20's 1280x720 at 30 fps HD movie mode produces sharply focused, properly exposed, color correct, and fluid videos clips. I shot the video that accompanies this review in a dimly lit old leather-workers shop. The light (mixed tungsten and window light) was pretty poor, but while the video may appear a bit grainy - it is hue accurate with good contrast and fluid movement.

Image Quality
The H20's image files are generally sharply in focus, properly exposed, and hue (color) correct. Viewed on my monitor default H20 images show surprisingly neutral colors. Reds look closer to real world reds than they do with most current digicams, blues are a just a tiny bit brighter than they are in real life, and greens/yellows are impressively hue accurate. In bright outdoor lighting, highlight detail was occasionally blown-out, which indicates a slight tendency toward over exposure.

The H20 provides users with a decent selection of white balance options, including Auto, Daylight, Overcast, Shade, Day White Fluorescent, Daylight Fluorescent, Tungsten, and Manual WB. The H20's auto WB setting does a very good job in most lighting.

Auto White Balance, 5500k fluorescent light

The H20 provides an impressive range of sensitivity options, including auto and user-set options for ISO 80 to 3200. ISO 80 and ISO 100 images are virtually indistinguishable. Both display bright colors, flat but slightly hard edged native contrast and very low noise levels. ISO 200 images were also very good, but with a tiny bit less snap.

ISO 80	ISO 80, 100% crop
ISO 100	ISO 100, 100% crop
ISO 200	ISO 200, 100% crop
ISO 400	ISO 400, 100% crop
ISO 800	ISO 800, 100% crop
ISO 1600	ISO 1600, 100% crop
ISO 3200	ISO 3200, 100% crop

At the ISO 400 setting, noise levels are noticeably higher and there's a (barely) perceptible loss of minor detail. Above ISO 400 noise levels increase exponentially.

Additional Sample Images