The Casio QV5000 is supposed to be out by now. I see it listed with various camera sellers but no one has it in stock. Has anybody seen this camera, tried it, have any pix from it. I'm especially interested in seeing the "mini-movie" and animation features. Also, does anyone know if it has a zoom, optical or digital?

-- Andy Murray (murray@justmyluck.com), May 08, 1998

Answers

Apparently the first shipmen of Casio QV-5000SX's are only just about to hit the shore: Casio has told us we'll have our evaluation unit to test hopefully sometime next week. You should start seeing them in stores a week or so after that. Stay tuned, we'll mention on our home page when our review sample arrives, and you can gauge from that when to start checking the stores. The "mini-movie" is likely to be similar to that on the QV-770 - It's pretty cool, albeit very low resolution. Given the larger sensor, possibly the mini-movie on the QV-5000 will be larger. Casio has some sample of their mini-movies on their web page, which we'll be posting copies of on our own pages as well, probably sometime next week.

-- Dave Etchells (web@imaging-resource.com), May 09, 1998.

Lance-

You're certainly to be forgiven for not finding it, as it isn't at all well-linked into the rest of our site, but there's a pretty complete datasheet on the QV-5000 at: http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/Q5K/Q5KDAT.HTM

I *think* we're going to get our review sample of the QV-5000 sometime next week, we'll have more info and sample pictures shortly thereafter...

-- Dave Etchells (web@imaging-resource.com), May 15, 1998.

Actually another question. Anyone found any complete specs on the QV-5000? I've found some partials such as resolution, but nothing else.

-- Lance Gardner (lanceg@iswt.com), May 14, 1998.

The Casio appeared to have good features, but as far as I can tell it does not use removable memory? Is this true?

-- Keith Cannataro (Keith_Cannataro@3com.com), June 20, 1998.

You can find specifications on the Casio QV5000SX at http://www.casio-usa.com/did/cameras/qv5000sx/qv5000_specifications.htm. It does not seem to have removable storage, but the specs list 2x optical and 4x digital zoom. The lack of removable storage kind of surprised me and bummed me out, because that's one of my selection criteria. Too bad, too, because all of the other features are really nice.

-- Andrew Y. Wang (wangay1@texaco.com), June 21, 1998.

I am also thinking to get QV 5000sx. However, I hesitate to get it because it lacks removable storage. I checked out Casio's Japanese web site. The site provides nice pictures, movies, and other things of QV 5000sx. Imagin resource may suggest the site for user who want to see all features of the camera.

Sidney

-- Sidney Leung (sidneyl@hotmail.com), June 22, 1998.

I tried out the QV5000SX for about a month before returning it in exchange for the Oly D340-L. In a nutshell, I concur with the Imaging Resource's review -- it's a decent all-around camera. However, the resolution was a little too soft for my taste. The Oly 340 has the same 1280x960 resolution, and in side-by-side comparisons gives a much more realistic, sharp image.

My web site has a Quicktime VR movie produced with the Casio's "panorama" feature and enclosed stitching software. http://www.stanford.edu/~t

-- Larry Gallagher (toysmith@leland.stanford.edu), July 16, 1998.

QV-AutoCam now supports the mini-movie features of the QV-5000sx. You can play a minimovie directly and save as an AVI file.

It also includes a new animation feature to allow you to make frame-by-frame animations (e.g time delay phtography, or take-a-shot, move-it-a-bit) and save these as AVIs.

QV-AutoCam replaces QV-Link and supports the whole range of Casio cameras. Http://www.beausoft.com

www.beausoft.com

-- bob prangnell (Beau Software) (bob@beau.co.nz), July 27, 1998.