Gear Review: Casio Exilim G EX-G1 Point-and-Shoot Camera

No more excuses. That’s the verdict of testers, who say that, with this tiny tank of a camera in your pocket, there’s no excuse for coming back with an empty memory card. The EX-G1 is drop-proof (from seven feet), waterproof (to 10 feet), and cold-proof (to 14°F).

One tester used it for 30 days straight—hiking, mountain biking, even swimming—and it still looked brand new. It’s also superslim, fitting in the smallest hipbelt pockets, so it’s never far from hand—which is often the key to nailing a fleeting shot in the outdoors. Another tester packed it while climbing an Icelandic peak, and noted that the camera’s speedy response time (no shutter lag) enabled him to shoot on the fly during a 14-hour day in volatile weather.

And the image quality? “Crisp colors and nuanced light, even on the auto setting,” he says. “Though there was some dropoff in drab color conditions, like inside a tent.” $229; 5.3 oz.; micro-SD card; rechargeable battery; exilim.casio.com