Pop quiz, hotshot. There's a bomb on a bus. Once the bus accelerates to 55 miles per hour, the bomb is armed. If it drops below 55, it blows up. What do you do?
If you happen to have the 6-megapixel Casio EX-F1 handy, we'd recommend switching to burst mode and wait for the ensuing mayhem. You'll have to forgive the obligatory Speed reference, but it's hard to resist given the F1 is flat out one of the fastest cameras we've ever tested — and ideal for capturing life's unpredictable moments, like you know, bus explosions. Just like the auto-racing class it shares a name with, everything about the F1 screams speed, from its sleek elongated body to the 60 frames per second you'll be able to capture with its high-speed CMOS sensor and LSI processor. Hell, even the camera's flash will fire up to seven times a second for up to three seconds.
But wait, it gets better ... and faster.
The F1 also happens to be a decent video camera, capable of shooting standard and high-def movies (1920 x 1080) at up to 1,200 fps. Among other things, this allows you to capture your very own cool slow-mo water balloon-popping sequence, or if you're a Planet Earth fan visiting South Africa, possibly a breaching Great White feasting on fur seals.
You can even set the EX-F1 to independently fire off a series of pictures thanks to a handy motion detector. Set the camera down, push the shutter button, and the second the camera detects motion — be it a hummingbird, Bigfoot or Bigfoot chasing a hummingbird — it will autofire 60 individual, 6-megapixel shots at its unsuspecting target.
After you've snapped those 60 shots, the camera conveniently plays back all the photos for you in a sequence. After that, it's simply a matter of selecting the precise shot(s) you want and discarding the rest. And for those really unpredictable or hard-to-capture moments — such as the precise moment your roommate realizes that gulp he took from bottle of beer wasn't technically beer — the camera features a nifty pre-record mode. Simply press the shutter button halfway down and wait. The F1 will immediately begin recording 60 shots per second, storing them for as long as it can. When there's no room left, it discards the oldest shots to make room for the newer ones. Once the shutter button is fully depressed, the camera preserves not only the most recent shots, but also the ones directly leading up to it, effectively recording what you've already missed.
Despite all these great features, the EX-F1 is admittedly a flawed speed demon. First off, it's heavy and the large awkward lens makes it less than ideal for toting around on sporting events or Bigfoot excursions. Secondly, there are a handful of missing elements that probably keep the F1 from being considered a truly professional-grade camera. We found the camera's low-light performance was abysmal compared to other (much cheaper) DSLRs. Additionally, when shooting movies at the highest 1,200-frame rate, you'll notice the actual frame itself shrinks considerably. When all is said and done, the F1 is still a remarkable example of what's possible when cameramakers drop the pixel count obsession for a second and refocus their energy on including features that are, you know, actually fun to use. And fun is probably the best way to describe the F1. Yeah, the camera is not intended to be the replacement shooter for a pro photog, but for anyone who's regularly disheartened by the discrepancies between the shots they meant to take and the actual end results, Casio's EX-F1 is truly the bomb.