Hands on with the Samsung NV10! First images coming in…

[pbase]

For some reason, my local Circuit City had the Samsung NV10 days before it's expected release date, and as I've been saving up for it, I picked one up. I'll be testing it all this week, and posting my images. If anyone has any questions about it's performance, don't hesitate to ask!

[Mr. Pickles]

The on;y real question is it ability to "curb" what is called purple fringing. Shoot a dark object that is right beside a bright one. Like a dark tree branch with a bright dull sky, or something like that.

Of course, from your other posts forth coming, we can see the overal color quality and any corner distortions or blurring...or you can tell us about them since oyu will have the full size images.

Ohh, don't do any of these tests if it is gonna make you think you got the wrong camera

[pbase]

Mr Pickles,

As requested, I took a photo of leaves against a bright cloudy sky.

At the camera's "super fine" resolution setting and the 5mb file size (2688x2016), the purple fringing is quite evident.
I'm processing other photos at this very moment, and I'll post them soon.

[pbase]

Here are links to four full size images straight from the camera,
with all the EXIF data.

http://www.kreyolfest.com/SNC10027.JPG
http://www.kreyolfest.com/SNC10028.JPG
http://www.kreyolfest.com/SNC10029.JPG
http://www.kreyolfest.com/SNC10030.JPG

Now, I'm by no means as detailed a reviewer as say, Steve, but I'll do my best to give my first impressions of the camera, it's photos and usability, in a later post.

[Mr. Pickles]

Yup, it has some purple fringing, but notmore than other prosumer jobbies do, it doesn't look like. The colors and detail on the full size ones looks good. Need a bit of sharpening, but no different than others.

Let us know when you play some more.

[Rokcet Scientist]

Originally Posted by pbase

For some reason, my local Circuit City had the Samsung NV10 days before it's expected release date, and as I've been saving up for it, I picked one up. I'll be testing it all this week, and posting my images. If anyone has any questions about it's performance, don't hesitate to ask!

The NV10 looks very slick. And if it had a decent viewfinder I'd consider getting one. Alas, it doesn't. And I refuse to take pictures at arm's length with my reading glasses on! I'm too old-fashioned for that new fangled way of making snaps.

[Mr. Pickles]

Don't you mean, "If it had a viewfinder"? Since it doesn't have a real viewfinder, and it is not unlike a lot of these pocket prosumers, then none of them should interest you. But they do interest other people, and people who want as small a camera as they can, just to have with them for some quick candids. THis camera looks and acts that part, and hopefully it gets some decent reviews and allows others to make similar and better ones in the future.

[Rokcet Scientist]

Originally Posted by Mr. Pickles

Don't you mean, "If it had a viewfinder"? Since it doesn't have a real viewfinder, and it is not unlike a lot of these pocket prosumers, then none of them should interest you. But they do interest other people, and people who want as small a camera as they can, just to have with them for some quick candids. THis camera looks and acts that part, and hopefully it gets some decent reviews and allows others to make similar and better ones in the future.

Of course, Mr. P.

[pbase]

Okay, so most of the day has passed, and I've had a little play time with my new toy.
Here are some of my initial impressions.

I can't begin to touch the kind of reviews that Steve's digicams does, so I'm just going to keep it light unless I'm asked a specific question.

There was some concern as to whether Samsung's new contextual "smart button" system would prove to be more of an annoyance than an attribute. It's definitely the latter, at least for me. Having fourteen buttons arranged along the bottom and right side of the camera puts a lot of features within easy reach. No "digging down" through menus and submenus to make settings changes.

The buttons are solid state "touch sensitive" as well, so they act not only as buttons but as ad-hoc sliders when you run your fingers across them. Great for scrolling though images, changing the shutter speed, and a host of other functions. I'm sure that after a bit of practice, I'll be able to speed through the camera's options much faster than other camera's in this same range.

The ISO ranges from 100 to 1000. Cool. But there's only two aperture options on manual mode, 2.8 and 7.1. So I'm asking myself, "can I get by with two aperture settings?" Don't know, but I have 15 days with Circuit City for the return, so I'm going to find out.

And it can take 640x480 video at 30fps. Nice for a bit of impromptu footage.

Photo file sizes range from 1024x7678 at 1M, to 3648x2736 at 10M.

There's also an option for taking motion GIF's, handy for the web, a few in camera special effects (you know, sepia, reverse, frames and the like) voice memo recording, and apparently text recognition. Take a photo of a document and using , convert it into editable text. Well, since most decent OCR apps can do this from a sharp JPEG, I guess it's no big deal. Nice selling point, though. Very James Bondish.

The LCD screen is a bit noisy, and of course, doesn't perform very well in bright sunlight. Would have been nice to have the tools menu in color, but that's a minor concern. There's an optional remote, and a 10-2 second timer. When set, the camera will take one photo after 10 seconds, and another 2 seconds later. Or just one photo at 10.

The NV10 meets just about all of my compact camera needs.
It's solidly built, has a decent set of manual features, takes photos suitable for offset printing, starts up relatively quickly, and is loved by my Mac.

If there's a kind of photo that would be a good test of the camera's capabillity, let me know. I'll take it and post it.

[grandpaparazzo]

A reviewer of the NV10 on another web site complained of the camera's auto-focus (blurry pictures) and its Anti-Shake Reduction (more blurry with it on than off). I'd be interested in your opinions on these issues.

[pbase]

Grandpaparazzo,

I've read some of the reviews on Amazon (well, there were only two reviews) of the NV10 and it's questionable image quality.

Truthfully, I can't agree with the reveiwers opinions of the camera. Even without the image stabilization, my photos are quite sharp, with good color saturation. I do, however, notice that the images can be quite noisy in low light.

I've posted a few more images here, so you can evaluate them for yourself. These are straight from the camera, without any correction.

http://www.kreyolfest.com/SNC10102.JPG
http://www.kreyolfest.com/SNC10105.JPG
http://www.kreyolfest.com/SNC10110.JPG

This is my first digital point & shoot, so I don't really have anything to compare it with personally. But to me, the camera seems comparable to other cameras in the same class, at a similar price range.

On the few occasions where I've used the anti-shake, it seems to do just what it's supposed to. Of course, if you shake like you're having a siezure, it'll do little good.

In the instruction manual, it states that the autofocus has trouble with shiny, reflective surfaces. For everything else I've shot so far, autofocus is spot on.

I'm happy with the image quality overall. I would like a bit less noise when taking low light pictures. Perhaps, as one reviewer mentioned, this can be corrected with a firmware upgrade from Samsung at some point in the future.

Whenever I buy a new piece of electronic equipment, I try to go through the manual thoroughly. Perhaps some of the reviewers weren't as thorough before they posted their
reviews.

[Rokcet Scientist]

Excellent conversation piece and style statement in the right bars. The wide angle distortion and purple fringing going on in those last 3 shots worry me, though.

[pbase]

Well, I don't frequent bars, so not really interested in breaking the ice with my camera!
Yes, the fringing is evident. But how many point and shoots handle purple fringing well?

Fringing aside, how do you find the overall image quality?

[Rokcet Scientist]

Obviously, I haven't subjected them to a scientific shakedown (as if I could,* ). I just go by your posts. Contrast looks good. So does focus. Color seems a tad magenta. Or blue. Not sure. And then there's the distortion and the purple fringing.
But are there comparable 10,1mp P&S's that do it better?

[pbase]

Are there 10mp P&S's that do it better? Good question!

If you haven't been already, I'll direct you to Steve's-digicam review page, featuring what he considers the best digital cameras in various categories. Not many 10mp P&S's, but there are image samples from the whatever's there.

It seems that they haven't gotten around to reviewing the NV10 yet.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/best_cameras.html

[Rokcet Scientist]

Originally Posted by pbase

Are there 10mp P&S's that do it better? Good question!

If you haven't been already, I'll direct you to Steve's-digicam review page, featuring what he considers the best digital cameras in various categories.* Not many 10mp P&S's, but there are image samples from the whatever's there.

It seems that they haven't gotten around to reviewing the NV10 yet.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/best_cameras.html

Cheers!
From what I see there the NV10 is in the top 3. But then the competition ain't hot.