October 22, 2008 Casio has introduced a second high-speed EXILIM model to complement the EX-F1 announced earlier this year. The EXILIM EX-FH20 doesn't quite match its formidable sibling in terms of shooting rates, but at a lower price point and still achieving bursts of 40 fps plus high speed movie recording at up to 1,000 fps, it could well appeal to those looking to shoot fast-moving action while still keeping with an eye on their bank accounts.
The 9.1 megapixel EX-FH20 includes a 20X optical zoom and a CMOS shift anti-shake function to steady the ship when honing in on a subject. It's 27% smaller and and 28% lighter than the EX-F1 and the controls have been simplified by placing all shooting mode settings on a single dial.
Seven burst settings enable capture from 1 fps up to 40 fps and images of 7 megapixels (3072 x 2304 pixel) in size are delivered at the maximum rate. The EX-FH20 can also "prerecord" up to 40 still images, meaning you can still get the shot you're after even if you are a little slow on the draw.
HD Movie recording produces 1280 x 720 images at 30 fps and the camera's high speed (224 × 56 at 1,000 fps) movie capabilities make it suitable for ultra slow motion playback. Users can also switch between standard 30 fps recording to the higher speed 210 fps setting on-the-fly and there's also a High Speed Night Scene setting that promises quality results when the sun goes down.
Images are recorded to the 31.9MB built-in Flash memory or the supported SDHC Memory Card, SD Memory Card, MultiMediaCard, MultiMediaCardplus formats and the camera runs on AA-size batteries.
The EXILIM EX-FH20 is priced at USD $599.99 (compared with $999.00 for the EX-F1, which by the way shoots bursts of 60 fps).
