3.3 Record Video
Not only can you record audio and take pictures, but this handy little guy can take small 30 second movie clips too! The totally length that can be stored on the built in memory is measured to be about 80 seconds in length. The resolution of the movie is 320 x 240 and runs at around 15 fps. Not too bad all things considered. The compression format used for the video conforms to the Motion JPEG format proposed by the Open DML group. Audio is recorded using PCM format.

I personally think that recording videos using this camera is a perfect use of the camera when I'm at trade shows or conventions. Snap a picture, record a video and post them online!

Here's a shot of the gBox in avi format ( 365K )

3.4 Playback MP3
Oh and did we also mention that the camera adds the ability to play back MP3s? Talk about convergence! Yes there are plenty of cameras and devices that can play back mp3 music files, but there aren't that many that fit all that into a package this small. The EX-MM1 can play back MP3 files recorded at bit rates of 32 to 320 kbps and it's Variable Bit Rate compatible also. I tested the mp3 player portion by recording Bartender (by the Dave Matthews Band in the current album Busted Stuff) at bitrates from 320 kbps to 96 kbps and they sounded great on playback. Even the remote control and headphones are well constructed. The earbuds feel great in my ear though that of course will be a personal choice. I actually think these are better than the iPod headphones! The maximum number of mp3 files that can be played back is 999 files.

How do you get the mp3 files to the device? Well once connected to the USB port, the camera basically looks like a normal drive on your Windows XP box. The drive itself will have a folder called "Audio". Just copy any MP3 file that you wish to listen to that folder and you're off and running. I suppose Casio could have made a front end interface for those who are not as technically or computer inclined.

BUT before I forget, you can even create a simple playlist for the files stored on your player. Though the camera does not support playlists from say Winamp, you can create a txt file called "PlayList.txt" and list the songs you want to have show up on your LCD screen. Only those songs listed in the playlist.txt will show up. Note that the text file has to be called PlayList.txt

MP3's listed	All the Bartender versions listed

The included remote control is a pleasure to use and even has a backlit display showing the artist and song title taken from the ID3 tag of the song. Very nice touch Casio! You can control what song is played and the volume as well as repeat one song or repeat all the songs etc. There doesn't appear to be a shuffle option however.

Shots of the remote control - bright	Still a bit too bright huh?

3.5 Other odds and ends
As I work with this camera more and more, I'm finding a lot of little features that I really like about this camera. First off, let's talk about the cradle. The camera fits into the cradle rather nicely. Taking the camera out takes a bit of a pull where I have to hold down the base. However, I do not feel like it's going to harm the connector over time at all. There are useful lights on the camera indicating that the camera is being charged while docked in the cradle. Once you hit the power button, the camera gets connected to your PC.

The battery took about 2 hours to reach full charge when I first installed the battery. These are the rated specifications for battery life:
Continuous recording - 80 minutes or approximately 480 shots
Continuous playback - 110 minutes
Continuous Voice Recording - 80 minutes
Continues Audio playback - 330 minutes
The camera has auto power off features that kick in when the camera is sitting idle. That's a great feature to have in a camera so small.

The camera has a built in timer which you can use for taking pictures with. The camera options are controlled by a little joystick-like controller near the screen. It's a bit small but useful for navigation. My only real complaint about the controller is the size. Since it's so small, it's easy for me to actually move the joystick left and right instead of actually pressing down on it. When you press down on the joystick lever, you are indicating that you want to select whatever menu option is highlighted at the time. It does take some time getting used to.

Playing back your pictures is a breeze to use - just select "play" in the slide lever near the top edge of the back of the camera and then use the joystick to maneuver through the pictures. You can zoom in on your picture and move the picture around. You can even downsize a picture after it has been taken. You can go from 1280 x 960 down to 640 x 480 or 320 x 240. This is a nice feature to have built in when you don't care much about the resolution and you could use some space.

All images include the PRINT Image Matching II data format that allows a printer which supports this format to know all the settings of the picture the way it was taken. The EX-M1 also supports Exif Print which is an international open standard file format that makes it possible to capture accurate colored pictures. This camera supports Exif version 2.2 and is useful when you have a printer that supports Exif.

You can do a little customization also with the camera. You can specify a startup picture to be displayed when you power up which will slow down your startup sequence a little. You can even assign functions to the joystick like controller during record mode! Very nifty!

I can add some more details to this but I think you get the notion that this camera is more than meets the eye!

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