Casio Exilim EX-P505

[ArchP]

Hello All,
Has anyone purchased this camera?

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1758441,00.asp

My first concern is the lack of an optical viewfinder. Is this ever a problem? What about the flash range? Are there any sample images or video clips for this camera posted anywhere? How expensive is the Li-Ion battery? What accessories, e.g. additional lenses are available? Thank you in advance for any comments.
ArchP

[ArchP]

I can answer most of my own questions now. I have already read that the flash range is approx 3 m. It has a flash assist feature which lightens up the part of the image that the flash does not reach. Sounds great. I have no idea how this feature works, though - whether it is through shutter speed decrease or aperture increase or ISO increase. Ostensibly it might decrease depth of field and/or cause an increase in background blurring from hand shake. Casio lists an awesome video clip on the top right of this page: http://world.casio.com/exilim/en/ex_p505/gallery.html, The Li-Ion batteries list at around $40 (US). Some additional accessory lenses are available for purchase. Steve's Digicams at http://www.steves-digicams.com told me that they will have a full review by the end of the month.

Would still value any comments from actual owners/users of this camera.

[stema]

Casio Exilim Pro EX-P505 Review (use stema_@freemail.hu for login with this pass: sultican), not bad pictures, but still not canon, hope the z750's larger sensor help noise, sharpness, and fringing (which isn't so bad in this case)

[trikster2]

Couple more 505 reviews:

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/orei...asio_p505.html

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2005_reviews/exp505.html

Amazing the capability of the camera. It will even generate HTML web pages and resize your images for email.

[trikster2]

Danger Will Robison

This site (jeff?) has posted some initial picts taken with the 505:

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/ca.../gallery.shtml

Some weird hatch like paterns going on when you zoom in the last two shots a level or two. Very weird. Don't know if it is a JPEG artifact, the buildings really look that way, or I'm seeing things that just are not there.....