"The makeup function makes blotches and dullness less obtrusive by lightening the skin color of faces in the image. In addition, the function "makes the skin tone look softer and smoother, while covering annoying little wrinkles," Casio said. With this function, "the skin looks clearer, younger and more natural in the pictures," according to the company. The intensity of the image processing can be selected from 12 levels.

The makeup function was enabled by the adoption of the Exilim Engine 3.0, which was newly developed for the cameras. It is a module that packages a processor dedicated to image processing in addition to the standard processor. The Exilim Engine 3.0 also enabled functions such as the "handheld night scene shooting" and the "lighting shooting."

The handheld night scene shooting function recognizes whether the camera is held by hand or a tripod when shooting night scenes. It operates in concert with the image stabilizer to select the setting that can reduce the camera shake while optimizing the brightness of faces and the background.

The function is also capable of processing noise at a high speed. This makes it possible to brightly capture both the people and the night scene even when the camera is held by hand, the company said.

The lighting shooting function optimizes the lighting balance when taking a picture against the light or under other shooting conditions. The function reproduces a natural gradation by preventing blooming and black crushing.

The EX-Z300 has the effective pixel count of 10.1 Mpixels. It has a 1/2.3-inch CCD image sensor and a 4x optical zoom lens with a focal distance equivalent to 28-112mm on a 35mm camera. It is equipped with an image stabilizer based on an image sensor shift mechanism."