Appearance
Casio S770
Casio S770 is otherwise called the Exilim Card are one of the smallest cameras. They are very thin and in the thinnest part it is 13.7 mm thick and in the thickest part it is 17.3 mm thick. So we can call it one of the thinnest cameras in its class. Its body is made of metal and the paint is resistant to small scratches, so you will not have to worry about it after a week of using it. Metal body makes it more resistible to hits. It weighs 127 grams and it will easily fit into your suit's pocket.
Nikon CoolPix S7c
As the Casio S 770 Nikon S7c is a small thin pocket camera that is very portable. Its thickness is about 21 mm which is thicker then the Casio and it weighs just about the same: 140 mm. Its body is made of metal too so it makes them even here. It is also resistant to small scratches and comes in several colors.
Technical features
1. The Camera
The two cameras are both about 7 mega pixels. Casio has 7.1 MP and Nikon has 7.2 MP which is not that big of a difference. It is very easy to make pictures using both of them because they are very simple. They have a lot of automatics and you do not really have to adjust the exposure and the layout for every shot. The automatics do that all for you. Nikon has an advantage there because it has an option of changing the picture after you have taken it. Abilities like removing the noise or smoothing out the lines if the picture is to blurry make Nikon a better photo camera.
The maximum resolution of both of the cameras is 3072 x 2304 pixels in JPEG format. However, Casio has more noise in its pictures when you take a big shot of many small objects that are far away and has no function of removing it after you have taken the picture.
Moreover, Casio has a 3X optical zoom and it is a very good advantage when taking zoomed photos. You do not lose any quality as far as you go under 3X zoom.
2. Flash
Flash is one of the most important parts of the camera when taking pictures in a dark place or at night.
Casio's flash is not very powerful because of its size. Its maximum range is about 2 meters which is not very much. However, it has a function of flash compensation that can make the picture brighter.
Nikon's flash is a medium flash and has no problems of taking pictures 3 meters away at night.
3. The display
The two producers wanted to make a camera with big display. The displays are pretty big for such small cameras.
The Casio camera has a 2.8 " TFT color display with 230400 pixels. And the display stands out a bit that is not very good for it if you accidentally drop the camera. However, it is very comfortable when you take pictures with one hand because you can hang on it. The camera's body is flat and slick; there are not many places to take it for.
The Nikon camera has a 3 " TFT color display with 230000 pixels too. It is very bright and it has one cool feature. It can dim to keep the battery running longer. The camera also has a special place to put your fingers
4. Video
Both of these cameras make good video clips and they both record audio signals too. The maximum resolution of the video clips is 640 x 480 at 30 frames per second. There are also some lower quality options but this is the highest one.
Video is where Casio camera has an advantage because it can shoot videos in widescreen mode. The highest quality widescreen video clip has the resolution of 704 x 384 pixels.
5. Cradle
Transmitting data is somewhat difficult on both cameras if not using the Nikon's WIFI. They both need a cradle to transmit data. Both cradles have 3 ports in them.
Charging function: You can charge you camera via the cradle and it is the only way to do that. Casio camera has special interfaces that you can connect only to the cradle. So it means that if you want to charge your camera you cannot do it without the cradle.
Nikon camera has a universal USB/AV/DC port on its bottom and a special recharging cable comes with it if you would like to charge it without the cradle. However, the AV/USB cords do not come with it and you need to buy them.
USB interface: Both cradles have USB interfaces, however they are different.
Casio has a more comfortable mini USB port then the Nikon that uses a USB 2.0 AB type cable. (It is just like your printer cable at home). I think that it is easier to find a free mini USB cable by your computer then the one that Nikon uses.
Video capturing/viewing: There is also a port on the cradle that will allow you to watch the pictures or the video you have captured on your TV, or you can connect it to the computer and capture it right from there.
6. Memory
Both cameras use SD/MMC flash cards to extend their memory. However, the amount of built in memory that is available is different. Nikon has 14 MB of available memory and Casio has 8 MB of available memory built in.
7. Different additional features
Nikon
This camera has a very good gadget feature that very few cameras have nowadays. This feature is the WIFI (IEEE 802.11 g/b). You can use WiFi to transfer pictures, videos and any data you want. You can connect it to your computer or to the whole WAN and transfer the data to more than one computer. This way you can transfer the video that you are capturing right to your computer not even recording it to your flash drive.
Casio
The Casio camera has more than one feature that Nikon doesn't have. First of them is the memo recorder is a usual one and is not worse than most of the cameras.
However, the next feature is cooler: This camera is able to view document files. So downloading some notes or some letter is possible. You can read them on the go if you do not have time to sit at your computer. There is also a feature of its software that allows your computer to convert documents into graphic files. You just press the "Casio Document" button and it saves the word, excels or power point files as pictures and loads them into the camera. The viewing is not that handy but at least you can easily save somebody's info on you camera.
These cameras are easy to use and the control buttons are situated very comfortably. The average costs are just the same and it is about $ 350-400; well maybe Casio will cost you about $ 20 cheaper. The only differences are some gadget features that they have. Decide for yourself what you need more: better picture quality (Nikon) or better video quality (Casio). Choose between ability to view document files (Casio) and WiFi connection (Nikon). Would you like a lighter smaller Casio camera or just slightly bigger and heavier Nikon camera? They are pretty even in everything else. It is up to you to make your choice.
