The FH25 is an update to the FH20 we reviewed 19 months ago (see What’s New, Shopper 251 - http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/digital-cameras/238827/casio-exilim-ex-fh20). This new model swaps the FH20’s 9-megapixel sensor for a 10-megapixel back-illuminated one, but otherwise it’s virtually identical.

Back in 2008, the 20x zoom was as big as they came, but today it’s less remarkable. The 3in screen compares well with the latest designs but the lack of an HDMI output is disappointing. There are lots of photographic options including manual exposure and RAW shooting (albeit only up to ISO 200), but everything is controlled via the navigation pad and menus, which is much slower than dedicated buttons and dials.

Slow-motion video capture is no longer unique to Casio but that makes it no less exciting. The options vary from VGA resolution at 1/4-speed playback to a tiny 224x64 frame at 1/33-speed. The former is great for surreal YouTube clips, while the latter is just the thing for scientific experiments.

Nothing else can match the FH25’s continuous shooting mode. It can capture 30 frames at speeds from 1fps all the way up to 40fps. It can also buffer frames, saving up to 29 from before the shutter was pressed. The FH25 is responsive in general use but it’s slow to start, taking 4.5 seconds to switch on and shoot. The use of AA batteries mean the flash took up to 12 seconds to recycle, and RAW shooting was painfully slow.

Normal-speed videos are recorded at 720p and quality was high in bright light, but low-light clips were noisy. Activating the optical zoom disabled the soundtrack completely, which seems a little melodramatic.

Out testing revealed that this lens isn’t as sharp as its competitors, and it displayed heavy chromatic aberrations at telephoto settings. Noise wasn’t terrible at high ISO speeds but Casio’s noise reduction processing struggled to clean up images. The automatic mode made some daft decisions that resulted in unnecessarily blurry or noisy shots.

We love the turbo-charged continuous mode, but it isn’t enough to excuse other weaknesses.

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