« [GET CONVERGED] | Main | [ACTION PERSON!] »
June 19, 2009
[REVIEW—SAMSUNG WB550 compact camera]
Price: $579
Just average
The low-down: This 12.2 megapixel camera is fitted with a Schneider branded zoom lens with a 24–240mm range. This is claimed to be the first 10X superzoom with a 24mm wide-angle. There is dual image stabilisation, optical and electronic. Construction quality is solid and ergonomics are good. The 75mm LCD screen has decent sharpness and brightness and is not bad in bright sunlight. There are few manual controls, but there is a Program mode as an alternative to automatic. There is an HDMI socket for connecting the camera to a high definition display, such as the Samsung television described in today's story. The 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio is selectable in camera.
Like: The camera is responsive. The lens, in spite of its extreme range, doesn't exhibit gross distortions – there is very slight barrel distortion at the wide end and more pronounced pincushion at the 240mm extreme. However, that extreme range comes at a price.
Dislike: Very few of the photos we took with this camera were sharp. This appears to be partly a problem with the lens. Like all such “super” zooms there is a trade-off between versatility and sharp focus, contrast and colour accuracy. Auto exposure and white balance were all over the place. But most distressing was the way that the camera handles – or doesn't handle – noise. The pixel density on this CCD is very high and noise (grain) is apparent at even the lowest ISO speeds. Attempts to reduce the noise blur fine detail. Movie quality is poor.
Verdict: Samsung have tried too hard to satisfy the customer who buys by numbers. Gosh! A 10X zoom – that has to be better than a 3X, doesn't it? And count the pixels – more than 12 million of the things. Terrific! And where will it all end? This camera has 43 million pixels on every square centimetre of sensor. The superb Nikon D700 has 1.4 million pixels per square centimetre of its sensor. Who do the camera companies think they are fooling? Everyone, apparently.
*
Posted by terry at June 19, 2009 05:45 PM
