Casio Exilim EX-FH20 9.1 MP Digital Camera with 20x Optical Zoom and 3-Inch LCD (Black)

I have been filming my golf swing since since 2004 with a standard Canon 30fps camera, and while it gave me great results for so long, it was time to upgrade when this model came out.Yes, golf is my game, and this camera fits the bill perfectly. While it's not a very good still camera (my 3 year old 5meg Canon is much better), there is no other option for high speed recording.The Casio takes pictures at 480x360 at 210 fps, which is the typical resolution I record at. Once in a while I mess around with 1000fps (like taking a nice close-up of the ball... fantastic for sand shots), but in reality, 210fps is what you want. You need a fair amount of light to record at 210fps, as you MUST have your shutter speed faster than that (for obvious reasons). The Fh-20 forces a minimum shutter speed based on your frame rate. If I recall correctly, 1/250 is required for 210fps.I very much recommend the Fh-20 over the fc100, because you can manually adjust the shutter speed, while the FC-100 takes it's best guess. You can also adjust the ISO with the FH-20. So in lower light conditions, you can jack up the ISO (while getting a grainier picture), but keep the shutter speed at a fast enough speed to get a decent picture.In good lighting conditions, you'll want the shutter speed at 1/2000 or faster. I generally keep it at 1/5000 during the summer in full sunlight. I've messed around with 1/20000, but there's really no point.You then record to a memory card, and you can then play back on the camera. For a golf swing, I generally don't record more than 3 swings at a time, as it takes too long to fast forward through the swing. You can then trim the video to one swing, or get rid of the extra meaningless video. The Casio has pretty good playback ability on the camera itself, and the display is bright enough in full sunlight. I don't even bring my laptop to the range anymore.As far as swing analysis, I then copy the videos to my laptop later and can view them with analysis software. About the only limitation is that when you record in 210fps, you cannot play back at 210fps. Therefore your videos will ALWAYS be in slow motion.The lens is pretty wide, so you can set the camera up very close to the subject and get it in frame. Great for those tight quarters at the driving range. Of course, the closer the camera, the more parallax error there is in the video (google it!!).A couple of limitations with the camera: There's a 4 gig file limit regardless of memory card size, which corresponds to about 11 minutes of 210fps high speed video in one take. IIRC, that's = to 18 min of high def video. If your intent is to set it and forget it while at the range, that won't work (beyond 11 minutes). It's not a big deal, but something to consider.Secondly, the still camera is pretty poor. I didn't buy it for that, so I really don't care. There's a thread on [...] which discusses this more in detail and I had uploaded a picture of the same object with my canon vs casio, and you can clearly see the difference.This camera also features high def mode and standard video. They seem to work pretty well, but I don't have any experience with any other high def cameras to give a valid review on the quality.Anyway, like I said, this is THE camera to get for sports analysis. You will NOT be disappointed.

This thing is like a beefed up point-and-shoot. Don't expect the quality of a DSLR. If you do, you will be disappointed.Pros:Very nice HD quality (if you have good lighting).Great outdoor photos.Great high speed photos (if you have good lighting).Cons:Bad pictures in low light or indoors.Bad video indoors.Goes through batteries very very quickly.One really frustrating thing is that you could have a really bright screen on the viewfinder, but when you go to take the picture, all the light just goes away. The picture gets really dark. My old casio (pocket point-and-shoot) used to have a best shot selection that corrected this, but I can't find it on this camera.If you want to take pictures of you kid playing soccer, this is a great camera. Set the high speed and get all the action.If you want to shoot in low light, or indoors, look for a DSLR.If you do get this camera, get 8 rechargeable batteries so you always have four charged and ready.

I bought this camera for videoing the golf swing and it performs as I expected it would. The high speed isn't as clear as you see on tv but then the camera doesn't cost $30,000 either! The stills are excellent and the high speed still feature is very fun with the pace of watching and taking photos of grand children.

This camera takes amazing pictures LIGHT pictures. Do NOT purchase this camera if your doing videos. Why? Only because you can't even pick up audio! There is not even a audio jack to hook a microphone in. This camera sucks at pictures inside a household. Anything else-- Great.I bought this camera for video, and I am extremely disappointed. The high-speed is awesome, but, you only use it so often. Plus, no audio, once again.

Very disappointed in picture quality. Color is off and excessive noise. This camera was purchased to replace a similar Olympus camera which took fantastic pictures. The best pictures I've taken with this camera with extensive manual tuning don't compare to an average picture from the Olympus on full auto. The picture quality of this Casio is worse than any point and shoot I've owned including a Casio I purchased 5 years ago! Considered that I just got a bad one but found a technical review article which measured the same poor color and excessive noise as I see.High speed is useful at 210fps but lacks resolution at higher speeds.