Samsung Electronics has provided the author of this review with the mentioned digital imaging device.

The last product of Samsung digital imaging in the first half of 2009

After Samsung techwin has changed the name to Samsung digital imaging, they have been so aggressive in the market. From low price products with simple functions to high end camera, Samsung digital imaging has released 10 products, and finishing the first half of the 2009 with the WB1000(TL320). Let’s take a look at the high end digital camera WB1000(TL320) having 24mm wide angle.

Appearance of the product

Looking at the WB1000(TL320), it’s like that.

The WB1000(TL320) supports SD/SDHC memory and includes 1130mAh SLB-11A. Up to 8GB SD/SDHC memory is possible, and the SLB-11A doesn’t go long, due to the AMOLED. If you have a plan to go travel with this camera, I recommend you take a spare battery.

The analog dashboard from Epson R-D1 looks well with the WB1000(TL320). I asked a question to people for the analog dashboard, and most of them said they like it. You can see the dashboard later.

USB port is like the picture. Personally, I’m using the i100 from Samsung, and that camera has selected the different USB. I hope there’s more consistency like the same USB port.

The package of the WB1000(TL320) includes these items. You can do these things as below.

Generally, this can be used like this.

But like this, you can connect this to a portable device or computer. This is convenient showing the extension of the USB cable.

Analog Dashboard

Schneider zoom lens in the WB1000(TL320)

The lens of the WB1000(TL320) is Schneider-KREUZNACH lens 4.3-21.5mm (On 135 format 24-120mm) F2.8-5.8 optical 5x zoom lens. The Schneider lens was a famous optics company with Leica and Carl Zeiss, but not in the digital camera market. Like the Panasonic produces lens approved by the Leica and Sony produces lens approved by the Carl Zeiss, the Samsung also products the Schneider approved lens.

They don’t produce small DSLR lens yet, but after NX, they will be able to produce the Schneider lens for NX.

The lens has changeable iris. It was not easy to measure exact value, but here’s the approximate value.

On 135 format 24~28mm : F2.8

On 135 format 28~35mm : F3.7

On 135 format 35~42mm : F4

On 135 format 42~50mm : F4.2

On 135 format 50~60mm : F4.7

On 135 format 60~80mm : F5

On 135 format 80~120mm : F5.8

This is the change of iris value. For your reference, there could be some error on these values, because the controller isn’t that accurate.

24mm & 120mm

As you can see from the specification, the range is 24mm~120mm. Here is the difference of feeling as a picture.

It’s 5x zoom, but you can see it’s zooming more, and the 24mm has very wide angle. Of course, the zoom of this camera is not as high as the WB500(HZ10W) or WB550(HZ15W), but considering the better F value, you need to judge what you really want high zoom or bright iris.

Better Vividness than LCD, 3 inch AMOLED

Now, the best display is 920K 3 inch LCD. This has been adapted to Nikon D3 or other numerous cameras. However, the 3 inch AMOLED of the WB1000(TL320) shows much better vividness and visibility.

It’s not easy to distinguish the visibility form this video (3 inch LCD of the D3 is better than I expected), but people who have seen the screen tell the AMOLED of the WB1000(TL320) is better.

I’m not a professional about display, so I can’t tell the difference between LCD and AMPLED, but I could see the color of AMOLED is better.

Smart Control Dial

One more advantage of the WB1000(TL320) is the smart control dial. The wheel dial representing the middle and high level camera interface has some inconvenience, but thanks to the wheel dial, some weakness is concealed a lot.

Samsung also hasn’t got a good grade on the interface, but through the smart control dial, they show the better interface than Canon. Not only through rotating the wheel, but also 8-way multi selector, the convenience becomes better. Besides, the OK button in the center of the multi selector is connected to the smart control dial very well.

I could see the Samsung has considered the interface much. However, other interfaces are still not intuitive, so I’m not satisfied with it. The video clip shows that this is controlling various functions through the Smart Control Dial.

D3′s LCD

WB1000(TL320)’s AMOLED

Menu selection

Picture review

Exposure setting

Noise test

I executed the noise test of the WB1000(TL320) this time. I saw the noise level from the image of right eyes and neck.

This can’t be compared to the D5000 which is a popularized DSLR camera at all, but considering the 1/2.33 inch small image sensor, it’s good on ISO 400, okay for web on ISO 800, and a lot of noise from ISO 1600.

The color change from ISO 1600 is not because of the noise, but it was taken under fluorescent light with relatively high shutter speed. I didn’t append the image of ISO 3200, because the ISO 3200 reduces image size automatically, so it’s impossible to compare.

Photo Style

Various makers support various color setting mode such as Kodak’s Custom look, Fuji’s Film Simulation, Canon’s Picture Style, and Nikon’s Picture Control, and Samsung named it Photo Style. Personally, I like classic the most, and used largely vivid and normal for scenery. You can see the difference of color from the image above.

Video function of the WB1000(TL320)

The WB1000(TL320) supports up to 720p. But on 720p, up to 30 fps is supported. When it comes to 320×240, it supports up to 60fps. These 2 links below show 720p HD video and 320×240 60fps video.

As you know, while zooming, voice recording stops. Instead, while recording zooming is possible. I don’t know if the quality is good or not, but it’s good. The first image of the video can be captured, but I don’t recommend this, because the quality is not that good.

As a fun function, the successive shot is possible. After pausing, you can resume recording. As a result, it is recorded as one file.

1) Video recording mode selection

2) After setting the focus with half shutter, and shot starts with the full shutter.

3) Hoping to pause to record, push the OK button

4) Resume by pushing the OK button

5) Hoping to stop recording, finishing with the full shutter

You can record it like this. You can see the result from the third link. The Photo style can also be applied to videos. Other 3 video samples show the result of Negative, Classic, and Vivid.

Other functions WB1000(TL320) has

Recent contrast AF cameras support a face recognition function. When setting a focus, face is recognized preferentially, and this includes a self shot function, smile shot, and blink detection function.

When it comes to the self shot, the camera makes beep sound to show the camera is ready when the camera is ready to take a self shot. Therefore, the photographer can take a shot after getting the feedback. When it comes to the smile shot, you don’t need to push the shutter when the person smiles. I assume the camera detects the shape of mouth or the position of eyes. The blink detection function takes one more shot when people blink while taking a shot. The photographer doesn’t need to check it and the camera automatically does it to help the photographer get a good picture.

1280HD

320 60fps

Selective Record

Photo Style – Negative

Photo Style – Classic

Photo Style – Vivid

Sample picture

This part is not a sample picture by theme, but the pictures will be separated by wide angle or not. Outdoor pictures were mostly taken with vivid, and indoor pictures were with Normal. Certainly, it’s resized not compensated and with P mode.

The 24mm angle gives cool feeling. It’s quite wide. Because the ratio is 4:3, scenery wasn’t that cool, but I couldn’t see the distortion much around. I think they have considered much to fix the surrounding distortion.

FOV not 24mm

Like the picture with 24mm, they were taken with no compensation and resized on P mode.

Due to the relatively small image sensor, the depth is quite good. To take the pictures of this level by the D3, it sets to minimum iris, but the WB1000(TL320) can secure good depth with F5.6~7.1. For me who take portrait or sport pictures with expensive DSLR, these pictures with this depth were quite new.

Conclusion

Good function, but unsatisfactory small image sensor

The strong points were all written in the first part. Especially, the smart dial control shows Samsung could make a good interface. I don’t know it’s because of the AMOLED, but the battery time is not very long. It’s not enough for travel. So optical view finder should have been added. After seeing a picture with a view finder and checking it at home, then the battery consumption will be much less.

And the small image sensor is insufficient for noise reduction. Besides, it was even harder because of 12M pixels. To expect the expression and noise reduction of the GX-20, the image sensor is too small. It should have been 1/1.7″ as a high end digital camera, I think.

I’m a mania of Samsung. I used the i100 before and my brother used the i8 before.

As the last product in the first half of 2009, I hope the WB1000(TL320) will be good in the market even at the high price.

This review represents the sole opinion of their individual authors and KIMSAEHOON and don’t express the opinion of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Samsungimaging.net or the opinion of any affiliates unless specifically marked as such.
For any further questions, or feedback, please visit KIMSAEHOON

Samsung Electronics has provided the author of this review with the mentioned digital imaging device.

Prologue

I used the WB1000(TL320) for a long time. Most of all, I like the WB1000(TL320) providing setting for good picture in various situations, and it’s even precious to me. This is the first review posting for me. I’d like to help you who are looking for a stylish digital camera.

1. Features

Having everything for great pictures!

1. A/S/M mode making pictures free

2. 24mm ultra wide angle lens

3. Incomparable hVGA AMOLED screen

4. Analog Dashboard

5. Great interface, Smart dial

Plus,

I. Smart mode taking pictures you want

II. Customizing like DSLR

III. HD quality HD video

2. Why WB1000(TL320) / Main function

Lens

The most important thing of digital cameras is the lens performance. The WB1000(TL320) has F2.8[W]-5.8[T], and has great image quality using the Schneider lens. Especially, the 24mm ultra wide angle is suitable to get all angles when taking pictures. When taking a traveling picture, there’s no cut for building or scenery, and it’s also good for portrait shots.

24mm wide angle lens can take famous buildings without cutting.

(Especially, if you consider trip to Europe, you should select a digital camera having wide angle such as the WB1000(TL320).

AMOLED

Different from other digital cameras, the WB1000(TL320) has adopted the AMOLED for the first time. The AMOLEDS shows incomparably great color and clean image, so it’s called “˜Display of dream’. From any angle, there’s no difference of light and darkness, and under the sunlight, you can see the screen, so it’s the best screen.

AMOLED screen showing a vivid picture under the sunglight. Everyone will like this.

Manual shot mode A/S/M

It’s the representative function of the WB1000(TL320), using the smart dial, you can adjust iris and shutter speed to take pictures. You can freely adjust out focusing and exposure, so you can get pictures you want. It’s useful for those who want to learn pictures with manual shot function like DSLR and want to have a sub camera.

Picture taken In the dark place on the shutter speed mode with exact exposure

Smart Dial

Setting shots by rotating a dial is another advantage of the WB1000(TL320). Almost all settings can be done by rotating the dial such as shutter speed, iris, white balance, and focus region. When setting the M mode using iris and shutter speed as a fully manual set, the convenience of the smart dial is more outstanding. Easy and fast setting is possible, so it helps take good pictures.

Fast setting by using the smart dial is so effective.

Great high ISO noise reduction (High ISO test)

Even though it’s a 12.2M pixels camera, the WB1000(TL320) has relatively stable high ISO noise. The noise reduction as an advantage of Samsung cameras gets better with the WB1000(TL320). There’s no noise from ISO80~400, and ISO 800 shows great quality. There’s some noise on ISO 1600, but not as much as other cameras, and it’s good enough to upload on the web site after resizing.

High ISO picture gallery

ISO 800, there’s no noise.

ISO1600, it’s surprising that it takes the detail as it is.

ISO1600, the atmosphere is rather cool.

ISO1600, this can be the best of all compact cameras in the high ISO shot.

ISO1600, it also has great color expression.

HD video recording function

The video quality of the WB1000(TL320) using H.264 codec is as great as some handy camcorder. This can take an HD video for 20 minutes at 30 fps, and by adopting the H.264 format, it can record the best quality video with a small capacity. When recoding, if you are zooming, the sound is not recorded, but it’s good enough to take life with high quality videos.

3. Sample pictures / Gallery

-The market in Venezia-

-The texture is quite good..-

-Image quality in tele angle is great.-

-Rialto Bridge..-

-Calle Noris street..-

-Basilica San Marco..-

-Palazzo Ducale..-

-Laughing, bread..-

-Beautiful Gondola..-

-Notre-Dame.. The flowers in the park near..-

(All pictures were not compensated, but resized.)

4. Design

Sensible and stylish design

The appearance of the WB1000(TL320) is outstanding with metallic and luxurious design. Adding the rubber grip on the front, this looks better. On the whole, the color and design are mixed well.

Rubber grip showing luxurious design and stable grip

Analog dashboard (Finishing the design of the WB1000(TL320))

The dashboard showing the status of memory and battery is the second face of the WB1000(TL320). As a unique design, I saw people were so wondering when they saw this.

Neat design finishing…

By putting the smart dial, buttons were minimized at the back. The neat whole composition is noticeable.

Wonderful quality AMOLED and rotating Smart dial

Precious digital camera WB1000(TL320) for digital camera mania

Epilogue

The WB1000(TL320) will be a great gift looking for a high performance and good design camera. The general resolution of the camera is really good, and there’s rarely chromatism on the lens. 12.2M pixels shows the real value for high ISO pictures, and the screen of AMOLED deserves to be loved by digital camera mania. Except the weakness stopping voice recording while zooming, the HD video recording function is much more useful than any other cameras. And the manual shot function is good for beginners and users who want to know more about pictures.

This review represents the sole opinion of their individual authors and KIMMINSEOK and don’t express the opinion of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Samsungimaging.net or the opinion of any affiliates unless specifically marked as such.
For any further questions, or feedback, please visit KIMMINSEOK

Samsung Electronics has provided the author of this review with the mentioned digital imaging device.

The line up of Samsung digital cameras have been various such as NV, WB, and PL series. With those various specification to satisfay customers, they are expanding their market share. It is obvious that the compact digital camera market is not made only by Canon, Nikon, and Olympus. And the important thing is which maker releases more attractive products with good specification. For me, after releasing a book about DSLR, people ask a question which compact camera is good to buy to me. It’s so ironic. I got an easy answer for this question, because I could answer like people prefer Canon, but it’s expensive. Olympus has a good design, Fuji has a good performance in a reasonable price. However, this thing has changed lately. The camera of former brands is good, but I consider Samsung a lot recently, because Samsung has developed new products much and released them. I also can’t help focusing on the Samsung camera. However, I don’t praise it with no reason. Like I mentioned F value, usefulness, size, and Chromatizm from the previous model, I’m going to focus on the strong and weak points depending on my experiences.

The Samsung WB1000(TL320) which I’m going to introduce you today is a High end compact digital camera. At the end of last year, the first model WB500 (HZ10W)of WB series was released. It got an attention from all over the world with 28mm wide angle lens and optical 10x zoom. And the WB1000(TL320) is also getting an attention with 24mm wide angle, F2.8, and optical 5x zoom. Let’s start the review from design to quality.

Noticeable Specification!!

24mm wide angle, HD recording, F2.8, 160g of weight (Except battery and memory), smart dial

Especially, when it comes to the smart dial of the WB1000(TL320) , it has adopted the rotational dial used for medium range of DSLR camera, so users can quickly adjust iris, shutter speed, and exposure, and it’s a quite charming function.

I think you might decide if this camera is enough to be a sub camera of DSLR, after reviewing.

Design & Appearance

General Feeing

Before I got this camera, by looking at a photo, I though it’s as thick as the WB500(HZ10W). However, I was surprised at the small box, and again at the real size. It’s small in a word. When reminding of a high end camera, we think of good grip and performance rather than portability, and I also did. Anyway, the portability of the WB1000(TL320) is great. I’ll show you the real size at the size comparison part.

FRONT

The camera I’m reviewing is black. But it’s not whole black. You know the 90% cacao chocolate, right? It’s like it. It’s coated with high glossy material, and rubber has been used for grip for stability and luxurious feeling.

BACK

Looking at the design of back, you can see the wide display. It has adopted the 7.6cm (3.0 inch) hVGA+AMOLED for the first time in the world. After only seeing LCD screens, the LED screen is much more vivid and deeper. Of course, it’s really good to review pictures, but the color is not exactly the same as in the computer. At the right size, various function buttons are located to go inside the internal interface. The smart dial which is one of the greatest things of the WB1000(TL320) can be seen here. Former buttons were circular shape, but they were pushed like cross type, so when I tried to change the setting, I had to push them one by one. The smart dial can adjust values by rotating the dial with pushing the function button. The back is so simple with the display screen and function button, so it’s very neat. The small picture at the right side is the front and back of the black model.

The WB1000(TL320) has high end level specification with analog emotion design. The dashboard which was shown in the NV9(TL9) first has been adopted for the WB series, and it seems they try to chase two hares. The information in the dashboard is not for convenience, but design point, I think. When turning it off, the needles point at one direction, but when turning it on, after 1~2 sec, the needles start to move, and display the battery and memory status.

Compact cameras have to catch 3 things such as performance, portability and design. This has 97x61x21mm(Except protruding part) of size and 160g (Except battery and memory card) of weight.

It’s a little larger than a name card, and looks very look in man’s hand. When it comes to the portability, it’s much better than the WB500(HZ10W), I guess.

Hardware function

1. Max. 24mm wide angle

The maximum wide angle among all compact cameras in the world is 24mm. if a camera supports 24mm wide angle, it can be a high level camera. Of course, the price is more expensive than other models. The WB500(HZ10W) had adopted 28mm angle earlier, and the WB1000 (TL320) has also adopted 24mm early. The wide angle means you can take a wide shot in the same distance. And it also supports optical 5x zoom, so the angle is very useful. It also shows some surrounding distortion, so it can properly be used for scenery or portrait. It’s also strong in shake.

Thanks to the 24mm wide angle, it’s possible to take pictures without shake under no tripod and low shutter speed in the late evening. It has F2.8, so using the wide angle properly, despite insufficient light, the chance to get clear pictures is rather high. The picture was taken on iris mode (A mode) adjusting to low ISO. On auto mode, it automatically activates flash or increases ISO, so I recommend manual mode. Using the manual mode, a compact camera can get a good picture as much as DSLR.

2. Optical 5x zoom

The WB1000(TL320) supports optical 5x zoom from 24mm~120mm. Normally, compact cameras support 3x optical zoom, and some model focusing on zoom supports optical 10x zoom. The FOV from 24mm~120mm to those who weren’t satisfied with 3x optical zoom, Especially, it supports 12.2M pixels, so you have enough pixels even after taking tele angle shots with full size and cropping them. Below is the picture taken on max. wide angle and tele angle from the same place.

Some Canon users said 24-105mm FOV is really convenient, and now I know the meaning of it. I always have a tele angle lens and get used to it, so I didn’t have a change to experience 120mm angle. And after using this mode, I could feel the 120mm tele angle. Sometimes, it took some time to have a focus from high zoom cameras, but there’s no focus delay with the WB.

3. F2.8

Other competitive models support F2.8 or less. For high end cameras, the F vale is more important. However, the F5.6 at the tele angle is unsatisfactory. Any cameras can cause hand blur in the dark evening with the F5.6. Personally, because the WB500(HZ10W) supports F5.6 on maximum tele angle (10x zoom), I expected lower F value for 5x zoom, but I need to wait for the next model. In the near future, compact digital cameras supports fixed F2.8, right? Or we can expect it form the NX market having Samsung‘s hybrid system.

4. hVGA AMOLED display

The WB1000(TL320) has adopted the AMOLED called a dream of display! Recently, multimedia devices start to adopt the AMOLED. In the compact digital camera market, Samsung has adopted this for the first time. Like you see from the picture, the color looks real. I have reviewed so many Samsung compact cameras, but this is the first time to see the clean and vivid screen. The AMOLED unlike former display doesn’t have backlight to make light, so it’s much slimmer, and no quality loss and afterimages even with fast moving videos. I could see the real value of this display when playing a video. It’s like a camcorder, and I felt that it’s like watching a digital TV. And as you can see from 3 pictures below, the AMOLED has a wide viewing angle, so you can enjoy clean and vivid screen from any angle.

5. Hardware and Software prevent shake at the same time

The WB1000 (TL320) can compensate shake with 2 ways. The first thing is Optical Image Stabilization, and then the DIS (Digital Image stabilization) Samsung developed. So both mechanical and digital ways can be applied at the same time. This is called Dual IS (Dual Image Stabilization), and you can select this from the camera dial mode. It’s useful under the place with less light or in the night.

6. Upgraded Battery

There was a camera having a strong battery from NV series. That was the NV9, it has PMP functions, and it needs to be controlled any time as a convergence product, so it adopted 1050mAh high capacity battery. However, the WB1000(TL320) has 1130mAh battery. The NV100HD has a similar capacity battery, but due to strong heating, the battery efficiency wasn’t that good, but I could experience the strong battery time of the NV9(TL9). After 3 days of short sample recording, I got 2 third of battery, so I don’t think we need an additional battery.

With a computer, you can charge it by connecting to the USB port any time.

7. Smart dial mode

It’s the main feature of the WB1000(TL320) . The smart dial on the back gives convenient control of manual mode, so it allows users to adjust iris, shutter speed, and exposure quickly. When it comes to DSLR, popularized models don’t have a dial on the back, but have cross type buttons. Middle range products support the dial on the back to adjust values. Compact digital cameras also support cross buttons, if they are popularized models. However, the WB1000 (TL320) can adjust values by rotating it with a finger like the 8 picture below. For me, I frequently adjust exposure from the iris mode, and it’s really convenient. When adjusting the value through the touch screen from other models, it was almost impossible.

Circular type cross buttons supported from popularized compact cameras

Putting a finger on a projection and rotating it, it’s easy to rotate it without sliping.

8. HD video recording function

Key specification of High end camera! It’s HD video recording. Probably, you will be surprised when you watch the video with this camera after recording a video. The vividness of AMOLED is really what you haven’t experienced. Of course, we couldn’t feel the same thing from the computer. Video quality is similar to former HD video of Samsung cameras. The picture is the scene recording a video, and the cover of the book is as it is.

When recording an HD video with [1280x720HQ], 12 min 22 sec of recording is possible with 1GB memory. Compared to the WB500 (HZ10W)only 8min 28sec, it’s 4 min longer. The price of SDHC memory is 17820 won for 8 GB, so the price would be reasonable.

Software function

1. Bulit ““in Retouching function

Samsung cameras have built-in color retouching function. It’s called photo style and supports various preset such as normal, soft, vivid, forest, retro, cool, calm, and classic. For beginners who feel difficulty on photoshop, this will be very useful.

By directly adjusting the RGB value, you can express your color.

The picture was taken with classic mode. I used inside stand for light, and I think it’s a satisfactory black and white picture. The picture below is the scenery of Insadong. The feeling of Insatong fits well with black and white color.

Image Qulity

1. White balance

Let’s see the change of white balance mode. You can select 8 white balance options such as auto [AWB], sunlight, cloudy, fluorescent light H, fluorescent light L, light bulb, custom mode, and calvin adjustment. Users can select proper options and give the objects the original color feel.

Auto : Optimized light source is automatically set according to the light condition

Sunlight : Good for outdoor shot on a sunny day

Cloudy : Good on a cloudy day with shadow

Fluorescent light H : Good under Daylight fluorescent light or Daylight fluorescent light type 3 frequency light

Fluorescent light L : Good under various white fluorescent light

Light bulb : Good under Hallogen lamp or light bulb

Custom : User setting

2. ISO test

The picture was resized to 400 pixels, and for uploading on my blog, up to 1600 might be used. After checking with a big size, up to 400 it’s stabilized, but from 800, there’s some noise. I still don’t think 3200 is needed. Of course, DSLR supports high ISO, but they have files enough to hold retouching. However, when it comes to compact cameras, the detail will be ruined, so ISO 3200 is useless, I think. Practal ISO is 800. On ISO 100,  you can get the images of DSLR level.

The same parts were cropped. Resized to 400, it’s difficult to see the noise, so I just cropped certain parts. You can see the noise difference between 400 and 800.

Evaluating the quality, it can take great quality of images under the sunlight, but there’s quality degradation in the night if the ISO increases. Especially, when it comes to high ISO, color noise happens a lot even in the bright place, so the pictures are getting impure. No compact camera can show high ISO and low noise at the same time, so we can’t expect too much from the WB1000(TL320) . For night shots, using a tripod with low ISO and high exposure, you will get better quality pictures. This is the same as DSLR, and sometimes we expect some functions difficult to get for DSLR from a compact camera. Anyway, I have to say a tripod is necessary for both DSLR and compact digital cameras. It’s hard to evaluate the WB camera through the noise by ISO.

Despite this weakness, let’s see how great the WB1000(TL320) shows in the next part.

I think people are wondering the DSLR concept of the WB1000(TL320) . What is possible? Honestly, I’d like to handle this part the most. In conclusion, if you use it like DSLR, you can take a shot like DSLR. If you buy this camera, I recommend you to use this camera like DSLR. I used the camera with frequently used function for DSLR such as the adjustment of value under the iris mode, exposure and photometry control through the smart dial.

Smart dial mode [Exposure and White balance]

I had to push the Fn button to use the smart dial. And then I could adjust exposure, white balance, and photometry. It’s so simple to approach each value that the speed of adjustment was so fast. If this intuitive approach is difficult, especially supporting touch screen, it’s really inconvenient to adjust values. Normally, it’s adjusted by one level, but using the smart dial, it can adjust several levels, so it’s much faster.

Smart dial mode [Spot photometry]

Taking shots with various ratios

You can take a picture with various ratios which couldn’t be seen from DSLR. Of course, you can say after taking a picture with the largest size, we can crop it , but I think taking a picture with the original intention would be better.

These pictures were taken with 2976×2976 size. Limited square frame might give some unique feeling. Especially, taking a picture for essay, I think we can get a good picture.

Macro Test

The WB1000(TL320) supports 5cm macro shot. Compared to 1cm macro model, it’s a little distant, but I prepared to show you the way the macro shot is taken. For the first picture, I took it on manual mode to limit the ISO 100 under insufficient light, so I could take a clean candle picture. I think this shows enough function for those who review restaurants.

Taking a shot with light

I took a flower using a stand as a temporary light at home. I could confirm the detail of pile on ISO 100. Even with the temporary light the color feel is great.

Retouching is possible?

I didn’t use retouched picture for reviews, but this part is to handle pictures under the similar condition to DSLR, so I retouched original pictures. With the 12.2M pixels, I was satisfied with the retouching. I could see the distortion of wide angle under 24mm wide angle shot, and I made humans smooth by pushing the shutter when the focus is not exactly right. Using the wide angle properly, it will be very useful for portrait.

Finishing

Through this review, I could realize the convenience of compact cameras. Especially, I like 24mm wide angle and smart dial quickly changing setting values the most. And the smaller size , lighter weight compared to the WB500(HZ10W), and AMOLED display are the charming points of the WB1000(TL320) . I already mentioned the various advantages here.

Taking about the weakness, I wasn’t satisfied that the noise on ISO 800 is not advanced. I hope the same feeling of the AMOLED can be felt in the computer. When recording a video, the recording is stopped while zooming, and I don’t like that either. Actually, when recoding a video, we will use zooming a lot, but stopping voice recording every time is so unsatisfactory. One more thing, when using the manual mode, I selected the macro mode, but after using the Fn button, the macro mode goes away, so I had to select the macro mode again. Except those things, this camera is so satisfactory, I guess. Especially, under the sunlight, this camera can get as great pictures as DSLR.

Strong point

1. Very wide angle [24mm] as a compact camera

2. Light weight [160g]

3. HD video recording

4. Strong battery [1130mAh]

5. Convenient smart dial

Weak points

1. Noise on the high ISO

2. Voice recording cut when zooming

3. After setting the macro mode, the macro mode goes away when using the Fn button

Recommendation

Blogger who visit restaurants, users who emphasize portability and performance, people looking for a sub camera of DSLR.

This review represents the sole opinion of their individual authors and GOYOUSEOK and don’t express the opinion of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Samsungimaging.net or the opinion of any affiliates unless specifically marked as such.
For any further questions, or feedback, please visit GOYOUSEOK

Samsung Electronics has provided the author of this review with the mentioned digital imaging device.

Recently, I see people with DSLR a lot. It’s because of the price which becomes cheaper than before, and also people want the better quality picture.

Compact digital camera so called a toy camera”¦The WB1000(TL320) is the high level compact digital camera called High-end digital camera, and the high means not only the price, but also the functions the camera has.

Not as good as DSLR, but the quality is enough to appeal people used to DSLR.

The second posting about the WB1000(TL320). (Exactly third)

I don’t like much, but I need to introduce the package of the WB1000(TL320), or you will be disappointed.

The package is not bad. Compared to Apple or Sony, it’s so simple. It could be better if there was a pouch.

It might mean using it with your own style like the iPod (I really don’t want this way.), but a bundle case should have been provided for people like me who satisfied with the included one. I hope there will be a basic pouch, even if it’s so simple. (Will be?)

The unique thing in the items is that the power cable can also be used as a data cable. In other words, it can be charged through the USB by connecting to a PC. (At home, of course it transfers data with charging.) For those who don’t like complicated cable or travel, this would be very good. (However, I’m telling again. For portability, the case should have been included as a high-end product.) Anyway, this is it.

Just imagine the power adaptor. (Unkind Mr. Davin.)

The battery 3.8V 1,130mAh could take 350 pictures (Largest size) and 3 min video. I also reviewed and deleted pictures, so I can’t say it spend a battery very much. (But not enough, also.) Fully charged battery would be enough to take shots for one day..I’m not sure.

As a maniac, it’s not enough for a main, but enough for a sub.

With the windows XP SP3, it was recognized as soon as connecting it. The CD could be used for emergency.

At first, the appearance appeals, and then the second appealing point is the 3 inch LCD.

As the Samsung famous for LCD, the LCD is not the LCD, but hVGA+AMOLED. In other words, it’s not LCD, but LED. As you see from the picture, different from other LCD, it shows great viewing angle, brightness, and clean images without brightness change depending on the light. This is a very important part for a compact digital camera depending 100% on the monitor without a view finder.

The next special thing is the mini dashboard on the top.

It seems Samsung has prepared much for this dashboard on the top. The classical design appealed to many people. However, this part could be good or bad depending on people. There are people like digital rather than analog emotion. Anyway, it’s not innovative, but stimulates the old feeling, I guess. But, there’s a little delay for the initial movement.

Video of the initial acting of the WB1000(TL320)

The booting is so fast. The moving needles in the dashboard are cute, aren’t they?

The shot mode dial consists of 10 modes. In clockwise, auto is automatic, S inside the camera is a smart auto to automatically set proper options, camera is a video, SCN is scene, Dual is Dual IS, user is user option, M is manual mode which users can adjust iris value and shutter speed, S is shutter priority, A is iris priority, and P is program mode. The SCN mode consists of 13 scenes, and it helps take appropriate pictures according to the situations without any settings.

The below picture is the initial screen of the SCN mode. When the shot mode dial is “SCN”, it always shows up every time turning it on. (It could be bothering, or convenient.) When the camera is on, this is shown up by pushing the Menu button.

The movement of the SCN mode is made by the wheel rounding the OK button. Turning the wheel clockwise, it turns to the right, vise versa. Selection is made by the OK button.

It’s not easy to introduce all the SCN. Simply move on to the Beauty shot mode.

The beauty shot mode makes a whitish picture without retouching, and it’s quite good.

SCN, Beauty shot modeã…£f/2.8ã…£1/30sã…£ISO200ã…£Cherin, Namsan Gol, HanOk village.

Brightness of skin can be adjusted to 3 levels. The setting for the picture is the level 1. The higher the level, the more compensation and brightness.

SCN, Beauty shot modeã…£f/3.6ã…£1/45sã…£ISO200ã…£Cherin, Namsan Gol, HanOk village.

The beauty shot mode includes the popular face recognition function, and the interesting thing is the smile shot and self guide. The smile shot automatically detects smile and shots, and the self guide tells us if the face is recognized by the camera.

Even if we can’t see the screen while taking a self shot, you can push the shutter when hearing a beep sound. So, I took a self shot which I hadn’t taken for a long time.

SCN, Beauty, Self shot modeã…£f/4ã…£1/750sã…£ISO80ã…£National Museum of Korea

So whitish… =ㅁ=)//~~

Approach mode among the SCN mode

The WB1000(TL320) has a 24mm wide angle lens on 35mm with F2.8 value. The lens maker is the Schneider-KREUZNACH famous for high level lens. It’s bright and wide lens in a small DSLR, so it’s quite appropriate to take these pictures.

SCN, Approach modeã…£f/2.8ã…£1/180sã…£ISO80ã…£Samcheong-dong

And for the approach mode, the picture like less depth taking out background only possible by DSLR can also be taken.

SCN, Approach modeã…£f/2.8ã…£1/90sã…£ISO100ã…£Samcheong-dong

SCN, Approach modeã…£f/2.8ã…£1/350sã…£ISO80ã…£Samcheong-dong

SCN, “Scenery” mode

Before taking about the Scenery mode of the WB1000(TL320), I “˜d like to talk about the feeling of the scenery mode.

Except a few professionals, taking pictures is so amateur. However, the amateur job becomes professional with DSLR. Walking around palace, part, or university, I saw a lot of people holding DSLR.

Some of them only have neat and simple one body-one lens, but many of them carry 2 or 3 lens together for the advantage of changeable lens.

It’s also the same for me, and I usually carry 17-50 lens by Tamron, 70-200 lens, and flash with a body mounting 28-75 lens.

The reason I talked about the lens is that it’s not easy to replace lens for amateur to take scenery outdoors. For example, walking around with the 28mm lens, when they need wide angles, most of the amateur photographers give up the shot. It’s because they know that once securing the angle, the scenery they wanted has already gone.

“˜High level amateur’ photographers know the advantage of wide angle by experiences, but a lot of time, they couldn’t use it appropriately.

When it comes to professional photographers, most of the time, they use 2 bodies. According to the concept of the day, they use semi tele or wide angle.

The operation of “Two bodies” is almost impossible for amateur, because of the heavy weight, and the price.

SCN, Scenery modeã…£f/4ã…£1/500sã…£ISO80ã…£kyungbok palace

It’s too obvious, but that’s the reason I talked about “Two bodies” or “One body” in the scenery mode. The WB1000(TL320) is an alternative of the two-bodies.

Like I told you, the lens of the WB1000(TL320) has 24mm wide angle on 35mm film lens. For all day long, I took the wide angle shots which the standard zoom lens of DSLR couldn’t cover, and it’s so cool.

The moment I gave up because of the replacement of mount has remained as pictures. The function of a sub camera could be made by a mini digital camera, but here I can tell you the reason I chose the world “˜High level amateur’ photographer.

It’s because we are so disappointed at pictures taken by normal compact digital camera after getting used to DSLR. That’s the reason we need a camera having a certain level which adjust iris and shutter speed.

SCN, Scenery modeã…£f/4ã…£1/1500sã…£ISO80ã…£kyungbok palace

SCN, Scenery modeã…£f/4ã…£1/750sã…£ISO80ã…£kyungbok palace, Hyang Won Jung.

Speaking of bright and wide lens, let’s talk about the zoom function. The back of the WB1000(TL320) is like the picture.

Moving the zoom button up/down, it’s zooming from24 to 120mm. Up to 5x zoom is possible, but not good enough to use.

It’s the comparison of 24mm and 120. See the difference.

SCN, Scenery modeã…£f/4ã…£1/1500sã…£ISO80ã…£kyungbok palace.

SCN, Scenery modeã…£f/7.5ã…£1/350sã…£ISO80ã…£kyungbok palace.

The zoom button moves up/down without feeling of hanging on something. The force of repulsion is suitable, but for portability, it’s widely arranged from left to right, and because it’s not high enough, so the control is not very good. The response of zoom button is not so slow, or so fast. Some people might be impatient with the zoom button.

Putting the zoom button up is tele angle, down is wide angle, and turning the camera off, it’s reset to 24mm.

Character mode of the SCN

The character mode is optimized to take a text or a part of books. The picture was taken indoors. The magnified part with the orange circle is original cropped.

SCN, TEXT modeã…£f/2.8ã…£1/30sã…£ISO400ã…£indoors.

There are various SCN such as night scenery, beach, snow, fire work, dawn, sunset, backlight, and kid. Each SCN showed reliable pictures. The basic function as a compact digital camera is really good.

Color expression and auto white balance were kind of better than the Nikkon D300 in some places.

M-modeã…£f/3ã…£1/6sã…£ISO80ã…£National Museum of Korea.

SCN, Approach modeã…£f/2.8ã…£1/125sã…£ISO80ã…£Insa-dong

“Video” function of the shot mode dial

The WB1000(TL320) supports HD resolution (1280×720) videos, and up to 20 min video is possible to record as H.264(MPEG-4.AVC) format. Actually, the quality of image and sound was very good. The file extension was MP4.

It’s the short video recorded in the National museum. The file has been converted to 720×840 avi file, and there was some quality loss while converting. (The original is better.)

End of the second posting of the WB1000(TL320)

I’d like to talk about more, but the NAVER gets slower with pictures and videos.

To be continued with the third posting (Actually 4^th)

 

This review represents the sole opinion of their individual authors and Imhunyoung and don’t express the opinion of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Samsungimaging.net or the opinion of any affiliates unless specifically marked as such.

Samsung Electronics has provided the author of this review with the mentioned digital imaging device.

High end digital camera from Samsung

The WB1000(TL320) is the highest compact digital camera from Samsung. The high end means the best, and the best technology is put in this camera. The WB1000(TL320) from Samsung digital imaging which has shown the great result in the compact digital camera market. Let me show you if the high end fits the WB1000(TL320) with this review.

Like I already told you, the WB1000(TL320) is a high end compact digital camera representing Samsung, and has adopted the Schneider lens (24mm), world’s first 3 inch AMOLED, smart dial, A,S,M, and full manual mode. Below is the specification.

Design

What is the most important point of compact digital cameras? It’s the design rather than function or resolution. Many people want slim body with great design. Samsung digital cameras have focused a lot on the design, and got a good evaluation from many users around the world. The WB1000(TL320) is also with the good design of 97x61x21mm of size and 160g of weight.

In design, from the WB500(HZ10W) to WB1000(TL320), they have similar design. This is called a family look, and selected from a large number of makers in a lot of field from car to camera. Like the phrase “We can see the company by the design”, the firm and strong image of the WB series can be engraved on lots of users.

There’s a part noticeable, and it’s a mini dashboard and smart dial. The mini dashboard was firstly shown from the NV9(TL9), and because of the good evaluation, it’s installed again on the WB1000(TL320). The smart dial allows users to set menu, iris, and shutter speed more quickly. However, the plastic tripod hole is a little unexpected.

World’s first 3 inch AMOLED hVGA

As a high end digital camera, it seems focused on the display much. For the first time as a digital camera, it has adopted the AMOLED and solved the weak points of the TFT-LCD such as afterimages and viewing angle. The inappropriate color on the earlier model looks arranged. And the high resolution for 3 inch size shows the smooth screen.

Advanced image processer in quality with 12M pixels

By adopting 12M pixels, pictures can be developed with the large size, and remain the image quality after cropped. With this strong point, users can take tele angle images using crop, and for macro shots, it can be developed closely. The image processor has also been upgraded, so it shows better gradation and noise.

World first 24mm, 5x zoom Schneider lens

The WB series from Samsung has adopted the Schneider lens, and WB1000(TL320) has also the Schneider lens. The WB1000(TL320) supports 24mm~120mm. The difference between 24mm and 28mm is quite big, even though it looks a little. The FOV is F2.8 for maximum wide angle and F5.6 for maximum tele angle.

It’s the photo with 24mm. Like you see, the ultra wide angle as much as DSLR could be taken by the WB1000(TL320).

Using the 5x zoom, it’s good to take leaves or birds in a long distance. Outfocusing effect can be made.

Wide and tele angle

The detail in wide angle is so good. It describes each grass, and so vivid on the initial setting. It’s a little bit obscure in tele angle, but compared to other cameras, it’s not bad.

Full manual mode (A/S/M)

It’s not common to supports full manual function as a compact digital camera, but the WB1000(TL320) supports it as a high end model. Iris and shutter speed are adjustable like DSLR, and fosus and white balance can be 100% manually operated. With the smart dial controlling this manual function, they are considering the users’ convenience.

From the top, focus, white balance, iris and shutter speed adjustment.

In fosuing picture by setting the iris and shutter speed manually, and adjusting the focus manually

Dual IS

Before the WB1000(TL320), I thought it could be better if the IS works double. The WB1000(TL320) can activate both OIS and DIS at the same time, so it can prevent shake under low light conditions.

Looking at the pictures, you can see the big difference. Without IS, pictures were shaken much, but with the OIS, minute shake was prevented, and in Dual IS mode, it’s perfect. But on Dual IS mode, the ISO is automatically set, and noise increases.

Smart dial

The smart dial is almost the same as the quick control of Canon which is only seen from high level products. By turning the smart dial, you can adjust the iris and shutter speed, and when focusing with MF, it’s so convenient and easy to control.

It’s good as a second digital camera having DSLR performance for DSLR users.

And it’s also good for beginners as a digital camera supporting manual operation.

Smart auto function

The difference between the smart auto and normal auto function is AI. The smart auto automatically set the mode optimized for the situation. After the actual test, it showed the good result. There are 11 scene modes such as scenery, white, night scenery, night portrait, backlight, backlight portrait, portrait, macro, macro text, tripod, and action.

Perfect portrait system

Recently a lot of compact digital camera focused on the portrait function, and the importance of portrait has been mentioned much. The WB1000(TL320) supports the mode focusing on portrait called the Perfect portrait system. It has a lot of functions regarding portrait such as face recognition, blink detection, smile shot, self guide, and beauty shot.

Face recognition

It takes about 5 sec to recognize a face, and the recognition rate is quite high. Setting this mode, exposure and focus are optimized on the face. Therefore, this would be very helpful when the difference of exposure between faces and background. (Up to 9 faces can be recognized at the same time.)

Beauty shot

Beauty shot is like a handsome mode taking out flaw on your skin and making it smoothly. There are 3 levels to adjust. This function makes faces handsome and deletes flaws. Level 1 or 2 is appropriated. 3 is too much.

Other than these, a lot of useful function such as blink detection, smile shot, and self guide are supported.

HD video recording

Samsung camera is famous for the strong video recording function. The WB1000(TL320) also has an HD video (720p, 30fps) function, and optical zoom is possible during recording.

HD video takes a lot of memory space, but the WB1000(TL320) has adopted the H.264 format, and it allows users to take much more time than MPEG-4. While other makes still adopt MPEG4 or MJPEG, supporting the H.264 format is a good advantage, I guess.

It’s the video recorded outside. Large resolution video of 720p HD can be recorded and also optical zoom can be applied. While zooming, the sound keeps silent. I think this is because of the operating sound of lens, but I wish users could set the sound on. Strange thing is that the sound is also getting louder by zooming.

If you want to pause the recording, you can push the OK button on the smart dial. Pushing the OK button again, the recording resumes.

OIS on

OIS off

Applying the OIS for a video recording, you can prevent the minute shake. The difference is so noticeable. Other than that, it supports various video functions like a camcorder such as stereo voice, video extraction, image captures, and so on.

Smart Secretary, smart album

Sorted by Schedule, theme, color and week

The WB1000(TL320) supports more organized album function. This is not just a basic album. Users can sort pictures by schedule, theme, color, and week. Especially, the sort by color will be very useful.

Image quality

Recently, compact cameras support high ISO. A few years ago, high ISO can only be made by DSLR, but the WB1000(TL320) also supports up to ISO 3200.

The high ISO resolution is just normal. From ISO 80 to 200, it shows the clean images without noise. From ISO 400, there’s some noise particle on the dark part, and some rough expression on bright spot. From ISO 800, rough expression shows up on both dark and bright spot, and from ISO 1600, details are lost a lot with much noise. On ISO 3200, the image size is reduced with a lot noise and details are destroyed, so this will be limited for some special case. The Max ISO considering the quality is 800.

Color feature

The WB1000(TL320) shows the high contrast colors and it doesn’t need color compensation. It supports 10 photo styles such as normal, soft, vivid, forest, retro, cool, calm, classic, negative, custom RGB. On the custom RGB mode, users can adjust R, G, and B channels.

Like you see, the dark contrast is the WB1000(TL320)‘s own color feel. If you don’t like this, you can adjust it from the image setting.

WB1000(TL320) good for everyone

The WB1000(TL320) supports full manual operation with various function, so is very good for those who want to buy DSLR, but don’t have enough much, experience manual operation before DSLR, and look for sub camera for DSLR. Also with a lot of convenient functions such as OIS, perfect portrait system, and smart auto system, the WB1000(TL320) is suitable for beginners, I guess.

I have found some weakness. Non-intuitive interface and tripod hole made of plastic material are not suitable for a high end digital camera. However, the WB1000(TL320) has more strong points than weak points certainly, so I’m expecting the reaction of the market from now.

Sample

 

This review represents the sole opinion of their individual authors and Yoonwooseong and don’t express the opinion of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Samsungimaging.net or the opinion of any affiliates unless specifically marked as such.

Samsung Electronics has provided the author of this review with the mentioned digital imaging device.

A hero dreaming to be DSLR

Prologue

The Samsung digital imaging divided from Samsung techwin and doing strategic marketing has released 13 premium digital cameras in the market on the first half of 2009. I expect the company as the only camera optical company in Korea to be a great company as much as other makers producing DSLR, and I hope this will be loved by customers all over the world as a Made In Korea.

The WB1000(TL320) is the highest level of product among the lineup of Samsung. The WB1000(TL320) has adopts the Schneider lens which is one of the world’s top 3 lens, 12M pixels image sensor, 24mm wide angle, full manual function allowing free shots, and AMOLED clearing out the weakness of LCD. Besides, with the smart dial and analog dashboard on the top, it gives classical feeling. On top of that, the WB1000(TL320) has a lot of functions, and let’s find out them through this review.

Package

The WB1000(TL320) adopts the white box. This box design gives a neat image to users, so users will have a good feeling about the camera. Of course, this is not only for Samsung product, but also other various package designs, I guess. Let’s take a look at the package with unboxing and see the WB1000(TL320) more.

It’s the box design. You can see the text printed in English, and on the black ground, it tells the main specification with a orange color on the left and right side. As a compact camera, the box is also compact.

Opening the box, you can see booklet like a user manual, and then you can see the WB1000(TL320) on the left, and accessories on the right.

They are items in the box. There are camera, AV cable, battery, adaptor, charge cable, hand strap, program CD, product manual, and warranty. I couldn’t see something special in the package, but I could see the thought of Samsung imaging for world wide users by looking at the text in English.

Design

This is the front of the WB1000(TL320). Internal flash is on the right top, remote control sensor is on the left top, and on the left there’s a rubber hand grip to provide better grip. And the Schneider 24mm ultra wide lens is hidden.

From the right top, shot mode dial is located. It’s like a manual shot such as a DSLR, and with the various shot modes, you can take a shot in good situations. The shutter buttons is running smoothly, but the power button is not very good to control. And you can see the analog type dashboard showing the completion of design. On the left, there’s a internal microphone and speaker.

On the bottom, there’s a memory/battery port. On the center, USB/AV port is located. Because there’s also a tripod socket, you can enjoy group pictures with your family using the tripod during picnic.

On the left and right side, there’s nothing special. On the right, hand grip is located, and a hand strap hole is located between the back and side.

It’s the back of the WB1000(TL320). The 3 inch AMOLED is one of the best things of this product. This gets over the weakness of LCD, so it’s very convenient to take a shot and review with wide viewing angle and less afterimage. With zoom in/out, scale up/down, menu button, and convenient smart dial, you can enjoy the convenient and interesting control. Below the smart auto button, play and delete buttons are located.

Feature

The WB1000(TL320) has adopted the AMOLED for the first time as a digital camera. The AMOLED gives a solution for the weakness of LCD such as afterimages and viewing angle, and the HVGA+518 4M pixels 3 inch big AMOLED is very good to review pictures.

The WB1000(TL320) has adopted the world first 24mm ultra wide Schneider lens as a high end compact camera. Comparing other products in the same range, it’s a remarkable feature. The ultra wide angle lens is good enough to take more various expression and wider scenery. The FOV of the lens is F2.8-5.8. If you have some insufficiency of wide angle, the 24mm ultra wide angle lens would be a big help for that.

This adopts the 12.2M pixels CCD, and 4000×3000 pixels image can print out A1 size without any problem. Especially, the strength of high pixels is that there’s no much loss, when cropping for a certain part of a picture. Also the WB1000(TL320) expresses sharp images, so it will give fun to users enjoying macro pictures.

SMART DIAL

The smart dial makes it possible to take a convenient and fast shot. Once used to it, you can quickly control it. On the M mode, you can adjust iris, shutter speed, flash control, shot information, shot mode, timer, and remote control. It’s similar to a quick control of DSLR.

MODE DIAL

For the shot mode dial, A [Iris], S [Shutter], and M [Manual] are perfectly supported like DSLR. With the full manual function, more creative pictures can be taken. It also supports P [Program], USER, AUTO, DUAL IS, SCENE, SMART AUTO, AUTO, and Video, so you can conveniently take a picture you want.

DASHBOARD

For the dashboard on the top, there are analog type dashboards for classical feeling as a digital product. You can see the status of battery and memory with the red pin. This allows users to feel both touching and seeing together.

DUAL IS

Dual IS function which is combination of DIS and OIS helps take pictures without shake at the place with less light. You can see the blur on the above picture without DIS, better picture with DIS, and much better picture with Dual IS function. But it automatically makes ISO 800, so it increases noise.

5x OPTICAL / 5x DIGITAL ZOOM

With Optical 5x zoom and digital 5x zoom, 10x zooming shot is possible. Compared to other compact digital cameras supporting 3x optical zoom, you can feel the performance of 5x optical zoom with the WB1000(TL320). After optical zoom, it starts to apply the digital zoom, and unlike optical zoom using lens performance, it scales up with software, so the image quality is degraded. Of course, this is the same as other digital cameras.

SMART AUTO

The smart auto function includes 11 different situations, and it helps take optimized pictures. Sometimes using the manual mode dial, creative pictures can be taken. Using the smart auto function, stable shots are easily possible. The below picture was taken with the macro function of the smart auto.

The perfect portrait system tells theWB1000(TL320) is optimized for portrait. This supports 6 portrait functions such as face recognition, self shot, blink detection, red eye elimination, and smile shot. When it comes to the self camera, once an appropriate part of faces is taken, the speaker sounds to take a good self shot, and the smile shot detects the smile and automatically takes it. When blinking, it takes 2 consecutive pictures to reduce the failure with the blink detection. The beauty shot is the noticeable function of the WB1000(TL320). Among the portrait functions, the beauty shot is the most remarkable function. The beauty shot is to take a shot as if the image editing software such as the Adobe Photoshop is applied. It deletes flaw on the face and changes the color of faces to more splendid. This can be adjusted to 3 levels, and you can apply this both before/after shot.

FRAME GUIDE

The frame guide is used when asking someone to take a picture of you and your people. At this time, I want a certain frame, but people used take a picture with a composition that I didn’t like. At this moment, using the frame guide function, you can take a picture in the frame you want. Selecting the frame guide function and pushing the shutter, like the picture above, the frame remains, and when taking once more, you can take a picture with the same frame on the left and right.

SMART ALBUM

When reviewing, the WB1000(TL320) allows you to see them with various types. It has normal, 3, 9, 20 pictures, week, and color, and when sorting by color, pictures are sorted by the color which is used the most. It’s not a very important function, but gives some fun when reviewing pictures.

HD MOVIE

It supports 30fps 720P HD video recording. The WB1000(TL320) features H264 format, and as an advanced format compared to the MPEG4, this shows a great video function as much a digital camcorder.

The WB1000(TL320) supports various convenient video functions such as stereo recording, voice recording, optical 5x zoom, IS, and successive shot. It also supports an image capture function.

Comparison of the format

The video play of the WB1000(TL320)

Through the internal HDMI port, I could watch the full HD image without loss with the WB1000(TL320). By supporting the HDMI which is non-compressed Full Digital AV type, it provides incomparable high quality, and with the Anynet+ (CEC) function, when connecting it to Samsung HDTV, through a TV remote controller, all functions of camera play can be conveniently used.

Test

I have tested the exposure, white balance, ISO, and Photo style. I introduced the hardware of the WB1000(TL320), and this test is for the understanding of the picture quality of the WB1000(TL320). All tests were under the fluorescent light indoors, and the tested pictures were only resized.

EXPOSURE VALU

For the exposure, it has 5 levels such as -2 / -1 / 0 / +1 / +2, and through the exposure function, you can take a picture you wanted in the situations of backlight or snow.

WHITE BALANCE

There are 8 white balances such as auto, sunlight, cloudy, fluorescent light H, white fluorescent light, light bulb, manual, and color temperature, but I only tested 7 of them. I didn’t test the manual and color temperature.

ISO

The WB1000(TL320) supports ISO 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, and 3200, and as many of you are aware of, we raise the ISO when we need to secure a shutter speed indoors. The higher the ISO, the more noise we get, so many companies try to reduce the noise.

PHOTO STYLE

The WB1000(TL320) has 10 photo styles. When it comes to the Canon, it’s defined as Picture style. This is useful for those who want some characteristic pictures and are not used to retouching.

Epilogue

 

The WB1000(TL320) is the compact camera of the highest level by Samsung imaging, and can appeal to users who want sub digital camera of DSLR and full manual function with a compact size.

As a digital camera, analog dashboard on the top reminded me of old feeling, and the shot mode dial with full manual shot gives the feeling of DSLR for DSLR users. Also compact digital camera users would be satisfied with this camera if they want manual function with a compact size. Especially, the H264 forma HD video recording is a very strong function. And the smart dial which is one of the most important features of the WB1000(TL320) helps users take interesting shots by controlling the camera easily and quickly.

The WB1000(TL320) has a lot of advantages and interesting functions, but has some weakness. It’s a slow response time for buttons, no sound when zooming, and noise.

I take pictures with DSLR, compact digital camera, and cell phone camera, but for snap shots, I usually use a compact digital camera such as the WB1000(TL320).

The 8mm camcorder has already thrown away, and I have a DSLR supporting full HD video recording, but due to the volume and weight, it’s not easy to use. Former digital cameras supported a video recording, but the quality was not that good, but the WB1000(TL320) supports the HD video, so I’m really expecting it personally.

I’m looking forward to seeing the next step of the Samsung digital imaging which released 13 cameras already at the first half of this year. I can’t wait for their future as the only company producing a camera in Korea in the camera market. Lastly, I will be very happy with this good company for shots.

Sample

 

This review represents the sole opinion of their individual authors and Choiilhyun and don’t express the opinion of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Samsungimaging.net or the opinion of any affiliates unless specifically marked as such.

Samsung Electronics has provided the author of this review with the mentioned digital imaging device.

1. Prologue

Premium mini DSLR camera with 24-120mm ultra wide lens

DSRL users always want to have a sub-compact camera. This is because compact cameras have portability. Compact cameras have charming functions and much easier to carry outside than DSLR cameras. The most important things in a subcompact camera are FOV and handling. Its definition and power of expression are also important, but if you do not expect the same quality with a DSLR camera from it, a sub-compact camera with definition above an average compact camera and fast shot performance is good enough. A digital camera, the WB1000(TL320) which is combined with analogue features and has 24-120mm wide lens, HD video recording, and full manual control functions is the very thing attracting fine users in that point.

The flagship of a Samsung compact digital camera with 3.0″ AMOLED screen

The WB is the high-end series of Samsung compact digital cameras. When the camera was named, the name the WB1000(TL320) was changed from the WB1000(TL320) because it is a higher model of the WB550(HZ15w). Although the WB1000(TL320) doesn’t have higher magnification than the WB550(HZ15w)., it has an AMOLED screen which has the best color expression, full manual control, and higher level functions. It has a strong and slim body of good make. So, when you carry just the WB1000(TL320)to take pictures, you will be satisfied. That’s the privilege of the flagship product.

The world first 24-120mm ultra wide angle zoom lens

Kodak introduced a 23mm dual lens compact digital camera before, but Samsung has had the title for the best wide-angle lens camera after the company introduced a 24mm wide-angle lens camera. Like the WB550(HZ15w)., the WB1000(TL320) also has from 24mm wide-angle to 120mm 5x Schneider optical zoom lens. Wide-angle lens plays an important part in taking scenes and snap pictures. The company is in a good competition with Panasonic which has won popularity with wide-angle lens.

Smart dial fun and easy to operate

The WB1000(TL320) has a smart dial which is much better to operate than any other compact digital cameras that adopt wheel type. The smart dial could be a negative thing in the camera, but it is more convenient to use than a command dial of a DSLR camera because it has fast reaction time and is easy to manipulate.

H.264 format HD movie

The HD movie has become one of the major functions of a compact camera. Users who are interested in the WB1000(TL320) should see this movie function which is upgraded from the NV24HD. The WB1000(TL320) offers H.264 1280â…¹720 of video resolution, and with a separate cradle you can watch HD videos more lively on HDTV connected by HDMI cable.

Seeing the core of the WB1000

The important thing is high performance of the WB1000(TL320). In addition to explanation above, the WB1000(TL320) has a lot of good functions”•smart auto, dual IS, beauty shot, full manual control, etc. Whether a camera has many functions is important, but it is more important whether these functions would operate properly when users use the camera. I’ll make a thorough review of the camera and give you all the information about it. The WB1000(TL320) is the last Samsung digital camera for the first half year and it is the best product from the representative brand of Korea, Samsung.

2. Premium

Premium stylish design

Design of the WB1000(TL320) is very stylish and attractive, so you will want to get one if you see this camera. It is slim but strong, and finishing is excellent. It is worth having this premium digital camera. Though the view varies with people, I think it is less classical but more charming than previous NV series with the rounding corners. This external appearance is good enough to attract both men and women. Mini dashboard, which is associated with a car’s dashboard, with battery and memory status gauges, a smart dial of the back side, and a big 3-inch AMOLED make the overall appearance a lot nicer.

Analogue type mini dashboard

The top of the WB1000(TL320) is special. Two status gauges that are associated with a car’s dashboard give you its residual battery and memory quantity information. Because it is more accurate to check the information from the gauges than the LCD, users can work with this camera on the basis of the information more effectively. And it will never happen that the battery is gone dead or the memory is full when it really counts. After pressing the power button, gauge indicators move and show you its residual quantity about battery and memory.

Blue ring lamp, blue dot shutter, and excellent mode dial

There is a mode dial on the right side of the top and it sticks out slightly, so handling by the thumb is easy. The mode dial has P / A / S / M / Auto / Smart auto / Video / SCN / Dual IS / User mode functions. Beauty shot is included in SCN. You can store and use your own setting through the user mode. The reaction time and handling of the mode dial is far better than other Samsung cameras’. The power button and shutter have blue lights”•blue dot and blue lamp”•which symbolize Samsung. The position of shutter is also excellent.

The speaker is dented as if clay is pushed by fingers. On this part your index finger is put on for comfort shots. At this time, because fingers hide the speaker, AF and shutter sounds are also stopped. Microphone is located on the top as stereo.

Ultra wide angle lens hid in 21mm

The rounding grip part is impressive. Rounding the grip part with moderate friction and the connection part, the body gives classical feeling. The front made of strong metal is so smooth. Inside, hairline process is made. It looks steady to scratch or anything from outside. AF and flash are located on the other side of the grip. The 24-120mm Schneider lens which is a face of the WB1000(TL320) is located. The blue ring encloses the lens barrel. Looking at it like this, I’m wondering how it is if the edge is not rounded.

Optimized button position, great grip

The 3 inch AMOLED fills the back. Zoom button is controlled up/down. The zooming is so smooth, but when adjusting the zoom lever, the snapping sound can be recorded when recording a video. The position of various buttons and smart dial is ideal. On the 4 way button of the smart dial, display, flash, macro, and self timer are allocated, and to show the function icons, the position of icons can be confusing, because their positions are not a little indistinct. Especially, the strap ring holds your thumb comfortably, so you can take a shot with better grip.

Satisfactory battery performance

The battery is 3.8V 1130mAh SLB-11A which is better than other Samsung cameras’. This battery can take more than 300 pictures. For me, I took 340 photos for 3 hours, recorded 20 videos of 15 sec, and then the battery was out. The battery performance is changeable depending on the number of flash and power on/off, but this is so satisfactory. One more spare battery will be perfect just in case.

Battery charge can be made by AC adaptor or PC USB. The connection port is on the bottom, and the port is not 20 pin frequently used for Samsung digital cameras, but the same as the battery the IT100(SL820) uses. This port is used for both AV output and charge, and once connecting a cradle separately purchased, you can enjoy HD videos and picture more vividly by the HDMI cable connected to an HDTV.

Compared with the strong body, the tripod mount on the bottom is made of plastic. It’s a bit weird. SD/SDHC memory slot is located together with the battery. The maximum SDHC capacity is 8GB which is the same as other Samsung models.

3. Ultra wide angle 5x zoom

24-120mm optical 5x zoom ultra wide angle OIS Schneider lens

The most important thing for scenery and snap shots is the FOV. The WB1000(TL320) has the widest angle among compact digital cameras. It has 24mm on 35mm, to realize this with a digital DSLR (1.5x cropped), 16mm wide angle lens is needed.  Then, the lens has to be bigger. Based on a small sensor, I’d like to give a huge applaud to the lens covering 24-120mm made on our own technology. Because it can extend the FOV more than the NV24mm supporting optical 3.6x, it will be sufficient for tele angle. It only takes 1.3 secn for zoom adjustment from wide to tele angle, and moreover, OIS function has been installed.  FOV comparison

The 24mm ultra wide angle can secure much wider region than 28mm which became common. It’s incomparable with 35-38mm normal wide angle. Even better thing is that it has less chromatism and no distortion for wide angle. The image quality on FOV is also good.

F2.8-5.8 good value

The F value is good as F2.8(Wide)~5.8(Tele). It’s a little dark on tele angle, but considering the 24mm wide angle, it’s understandable. The zoom adjustment is made with 10 levels, and these are the maximum value for each FOV.

It gets more than 36mm, the F value increases to F3.6 And on 70mm, the F becomes F5.0, so you should be careful of hand shake on tele angle region. When the WB1000(TL320) was released as the WB1000(TL320), the F value for tele angle was F7.3, so people could misunderstand that, but the real product has F5.8, so you don’t need to confuse anything. This value is enough to take a shot.

The special gift of ultra wide angle

Lens is the same as our eyes. Depending on its sight, it can capture some people and scenery or can’t. The ultra wide angle can take a huge region for scenery and snap shots, so it records as we see with our eyes. However, it might go over the place we don’t want, or for portraits, faces might be distorted. It sometimes makes some embarrassing moment.

When we take shouts with low/high angle using the ultra wide angle, legs become longer, or faces get distorted. It’s because of the feature of the lens which is stretched out if it gets to surroundings. This ultra wide angle lens is not everyone’s favorite, I think. For those who take pictures of human or baby, this angle may not be what they want. However, for women who want make their face small, height tall, or arms longer, it’s a different story.

If you want flat pictures without any distortion, you need to take picture with zooming in. Of course, it’s possible outdoors. If you zoom in, the FOV of background becomes narrow and you can take humans as they are. The picture below was comparison of maximum wide angle and tele angle pictures.

One more feature of the ultra wide angle is easy self shot. Of course, when taking self shots, arms are longer, or faces are distorted, but if you accept them as fun, you will enjoy the WB1000/TL320 the most. This camera is light and slim, and provides various functions for self shots such as face recognition, smile shot, and so on.

5cm Macro shot looks good as a specification, but considering the 24mm ultra wide angle, it’s not that good. Taking 5cm macro shots with 24mm, it’s fast, but the background goes to wide. You’d better take harmonious macro shots taking objects and background together. The tele angle macro shot is not that good, and exact focusing is not easy, too. When taking close-ups shots, the selection AF which users can move the focus region is better.

 

4.  AMOLED & Smart dial  

World best 3 inch 518K pixels (HVGA) AMOLED existing

Active Matrix-Organic Light Emitting Diodes

AMOLED (Active Matrix-Organic Light Emitting Diodes) which is the first developed by Samsung SDI has been a display in the future. It’s incomparable with LCD, and has 5 features such as Thin Form Factor, True color, Fast response time, Higher Contrast, and Free.

Slim (Thin Form Factor)

It’s slimmer because there’s no backlight and it uses organic material glowing itself.

True Color (Great Color expression)

Using the self glowing organic material, it expresses vivid colors under any light conditions. It doesn’t change colors depending on temperature, and always shows cool and natural videos.

Fast Response Time (0.001ms)

Because the response time is 30,000 x faster than TFT LCD, there’s no afterimage. Therefore, it can show natural images with less eye fatigue even when playing active videos.

Higher Contrast

It can express more detailed images of the dark parts with the high contrast of 100,000 : 1

Free (Wide viewing angle)

It plays the same clean colors from any angles, because the light is made on the face of the display. And it has the widest viewing angle.

Accurate color expression at any time anywhere

The former model NV24HD also adopted the AMOLED, but that was not an issue. The WB1000(TL320) has bigger 3 inch and 518K pixels (HVGA) which is more than twice. It means the best display in the digital camera world now. What I felt the most is the color expression, details, and clean wide viewing angle.  The AMOLED of the WB1000(TL320) expresses colors so brightly and also has a bit pastel tone.

 

AMOLED ““ WB1000 Pixel pattern ““ Smooth dots, detailed dark part, accurate color expression 

230K pixel LCD PL10 pixel pattern ““ Rough dots, cold colors, less detail

Vivid even under the strong sunlight

With the multi-coated panel having high reflection rate, there was no problem to see even under the strong sunlight. Comparing with normal LCDs, the difference is so noticeable. Vividness and wide viewing angle allow users to take pictures from various angles, even though it’s not tilt or swivel panel. The WB1000(TL320) users need to protect the panel. The outside panel is relatively weak to fingerprints or scratches.

The weak point of the AMOLED is high power consumption, but the battery efficiency of the WB1000(TL320) was better than I expected. The real problem is the difference between the real color and the color in the screen. You need to get used to the difference. The display is high brightness and less chroma on auto brightness.  Among auto/bright/normal/dark, you might need to think of normal or dark.

Fast control “˜Smart dial’

The smart dial might become both merits and demerits, but it’s the best thing of the WB1000(TL320) with fast response and cool control. Especially, when operating A/SM manually, the smart dial is good. Basically, fast movement between menu and option is possible, and picture search is cooler when playing pictures.

Fn Menu quickly setting main functions

Fn menu can select the most frequently used options such as exposure, white balance, ISO, face recognition, photometry, drive (Way of shot), and picture style (Photo style selector). It has a merit to quickly set the main items, but for manual function and detailed options, you have to go into the internal menu inconveniently. Even though the menu consists of more than 1 page, picture size (picture ratio), AF region, and image compensation have to be included in the Fn menu, think. When taking pictures, I should click the menu more than twice for picture size setting.

 

5. Manual mode shot

P/A/S/M control full manual function

Because of the full operation function, there are many customers having a trouble to select one from the WB550(HZ15w) and WB1000(TL320) When it comes to the WB550(HZ15w), it can adjust only 2 irises, so manual operation is a bit limited. Especially, at night needing to adjust the shutter speed, it’s more. The iris value of the WB1000 changes depending on zooming. On wide angle, more minute adjustment is possible from F2.8 to F7.2 in 12 levels. The values are F2.8/F3.6/F4.3/F4.7/F5.1/F5.6/F6.0/F6.6/F7.2 which is kind of different from other cameras. On maximum tele angle, it changes from F5.8 to F7.5. It also has wide range of shutter speed as 16~1/2000 sec.

The brightness changes depending on the manual operation, but you’d better refer to the -, + exposure value displayed on half shutter rather than real brightness of the display. Slight bright is appropriate, and the exposure value should be a little negative value rather than 0.0. (On 0.0, the exposure value is not displayed.) The histogram is also moving in real time, so the manual operation is really good. There are only a few slim cameras supporting full manual operation, and if there is, they could have this good operation.

Use of the manual mode

The first thing I’m reminded of is the night view by the full manual mode. You can have faster shutter speed with closing the iris, and opening the iris, you will need faster shutter speed to have appropriate brightness. Using the manual mode, closing the iris with a slow shutter speed, you will get longer headlights of cars. Through this feature, smoother water flow can be made.

(Long time exposure)

The thing I’m not satisfied with is the less spread of light. However, looking at it more closely, there’s 6 way spread, so it’s much better than the WB550(HZ15w) which has always roundness. Uniquely, the WB1000(TL320) sometimes shows more vivid light spread with open iris.

The iris value changes the background blue. The tore opening, the more the background becomes blur and vise versa and gets more depth. If setting the iris to more than F5.6, the resolution is degraded, so you don’t need to raise the iris for macro or night scenery shots.

(Depth adjustment)

Manual operation is better for inside shots. Smart auto, auto mode, and program mode are also good for inside shots, but you can’t modify brightness and flash intensity freely. The manual mode is the way to get the pictures I want, and the privilege of the WB1000(TL320).

(Inside portrait shots)Let’s practice the manual mode for inside portrait shots. When it comes to the smart auto mode, the ISO goes up to 400, but users can’t adjust the shutter speed. The 24mm wide angle of the WB1000(TL320) can get over shake with ISO400~800 and 1/15 sec shutter speed, so for lighter pictures, the manual mode is the best choice. It also makes colors more natural.

On top of that, the flash intensity is adjustable, so users can adjust them depending on the distance. Please refer to that sometimes the color feel looks different up to flash on/off. When the flash is activated, the color temperature is set to a little cold. 

6. HD movie

H.264 format 1280x720p HD video

Recent Samsung high level digital cameras have the HD video function basically. Depending on the model, the performance and functions are different, but the best is the WB550(HZ15w) among Samsung cameras. The WB1000(TL320) has also less noise, vivid voice, and good quality. However, it can’t record voices while zooming, and there’s no AF while zooming in which the WB550(HZ15w) has. But if you don’t take a close shot, it doesn’t lose the focus much, even though you use zooming.

A video is 1280×720(30fps) with 2 type of compressions, and 640×480 and 320×240 sizes are also possible. For the 320×240, 60fps is supported, and depending on the use, users can select various qualities. The maximum recording time is 20 min, and using 8GB memory, it can take 1 hour and 41 minutes for find compressed HD, and 3 hours and 18 minutes for 640×480.

1280×720(30fps) High

1280×720(30fps) Standard

640×480(30fps)

320X240(30fps)

The video quality is not so much detail. Chroma is relatively deeper than pictures, and more vivid on portrait. The FOV becomes narrower than pictures, too. It’s about 30mm?

Although pixels get rough, but it’s useful inside with less noise, I think. But smear effect caused by the direction of light or sun still exists. Therefore, you might see the unexpected vertical lines when taking videos outdoors.

You can apply various effects to videos. They are the photo style selector with various colors, and white balance, and exposure compensation. When recording, if you pause with the Ok button and record again, you will record various scenes on one file.

The great thing of HD video of the WB1000(TL320) is good color feel, various video effect, H.264 format, and noise reduction. The weakness is no voice recording while zooming, smear effect, less details, and narrow FOV. On the whole, the performance is good enough to take at times, but because it still has a few thing which the NV24HD users point out, so more upgrade will be needed.

7. Smart Auto

“˜Smart auto’ pursuing the perfection of the auto mode

The green icon on the mode dial is the smart auto. The different thing from other auto mode is that it activates more auto systems, so uses face recognition, scene recognition, etc. together. For example, if the camera recognizes the scene as night port mode, it automatically activates a little longer shutter speed with flash, or if recognizing as backlight portrait causing shading faces, it automatically activates the flash.

There’s no option to adjust, so everything is up to the camera. It supports 11 scene modes such as scenery, white, night scenery, night portrait, backlight, backlight portrait, portrait, macro, macro text, tripod, and action.

Finding out the best scene

Applying the smart auto mode, it automatically recognizes the scene as 11 different scenes depending on the present environment, type of objects, and distance. And the Smart icon around the green icon is also changed in real time. The below picture is comparison of auto mode (Left) and smart mode (Right). The feature of the smart auto mode is the dark park is taken more brightly. Besides, without any change to macro mode, the focus is accurate and for scenery shot, chroma is deeper.

Compared with normal auto mode, the smart auto takes pictures with much more efficient photometry, and the flash function is also smarter. Especially, when it comes to backlight mode, ACB which is natural dark part compensation function of Samsung is automatically activated.

 

The best mode for night scenery is the M mode.

When taking a shot at night, the camera automatically recognizes a tripod. To recognize a tripod, the smart flash has to be set as off, and when the camera recognizes the tripod here, it’s set to ISO160 and takes pictures with a relatively long time exposure.

The best mode for night scenery is to use a tripod on M mode. Both the smart auto snap night scenery and tripod night scenery are good, not as much as the M mode quality. Taking with the M mode, it’s possible to capture the movement of cloud with the long time shutter.

Slow Syncro flash

Let’s use the slow syncro flash on the M mode or P mode which takes pictures for night portrait. It might be shaken a little, but it can take pictures with brighter background than night portrait. The important thing here is the flash set. No matter how great the smart auto as an auto mode, you need to be smart enough to turn off the flash.

Picture management “˜Smart album’File type

Date 20 thumbnails

The smart album is to sort video according to setting, movie files when playing files, and then enjoy them. There are 4 items to set such as file type (Picture, video, and voice), date (month), date (Week), and color. Using the zoom lever, sometimes this function can be slow depending on the number of files, so at this time, you can turn off the smart album function. It’s very convenient to sort and play when the memory is filled with videos and pictures.

File recovery function “˜Recycling function’

This function is to recover files mistakenly deleted. There’s some limit of quantity. When you delete wrong files, this function is really useful to restore your valuable pictures.

Recycling function

8. Perfect Portrait

The WB1000(TL320) focuses on the scenery rather than portrait, but like other products, it also has enough functions of portrait. The difference from the WB550(HZ15w) is that there’ s no beauty shot mode in dial, but in the scene mode. All functions such as face recognition, blink detection, smile shot, and self guide are included.

Beauty shot to make flawless skin

Same Samsung, Same beauty shot, but they are slightly different. When it comes to the WB1000(TL320), the beauty shot is more red and brighter. The warm color feature of the WB1000(TL320) is reflected on the beauty shot as it is. You can set the compensation intensity and skin brightness to 3 levels. The compensation intensity affects the skin more than the brightness. Level 1 or 2 is appropriate. Setting it to 3, scenery and portrait might seem weird or too unnatural.

Beauty compensation with taken pictures called post-process is also possible. Not only the beauty compensation, but also chroma and brightness compensations are also possible continuously. Like this, the post-process function of the WB1000(TL320) is really powerful.

Various face recognition function

The face recognition can be applied to any mode. This is to set bright exposure when faces are getting darker, not only for face focus. The face recognition function gets better, but sometimes under special circumstances, such as backlight, the face recognition box doesn’t show up. I hope this will recognize side face, and the usefulness will be higher.

The self guide is useful for taking self shots by making beep sounds with short interval when faces come to the center. This helps and guides self shots without any help from others. When faces are coming to the center, the sound interval gets shorter, and when faces move around, the interval increases. And if faces disappear from the screen, it doesn’t make beep sounds any more.

The smile shot captures the smiling moment, and automatically takes a shot itself without any shutter control. It can be used as self timer, and takes a shot more accurately and quickly. I feel this is a lot better than former models. There’s a slight delay between detection and shot, so I hope this will be reduced.

Blink detection function is to take 2 consecutive shots when it detects blink, and one without blinking can be selected. Although you set the blink detection, if you open your eyes, it only takes one picture. I hope incorporated function which is combination of this and the self guide function will come out.

With the frame guide, you can ask someone to take a picture on your own composition and background. This frame guide also can be set from the scene mode. Once taking a picture on your composition, then the person can take pictures with transparent background on both sides.

9. Photo style & Shooting

Photo Style selector which is the special of the WB1000

The Photo style selector is Samsung’s trade mark. For each mode, it provides characteristic color expression and depending on the situations such as portrait, scenery, night scenery, and so on, you will adjust this option much. This function can be selected by the Fn button on the back among normal, vivid, soft, forest, retro, cool, calm, classic, and negative.

Gradation is a little bit degraded, but the most powerful color is the Forest. The vivid was also stronger than the normal, but not very noticeable. Especially, olive color is very strong. If you like deep chroma, the forest will be appropriate the most for scenery and night scenery. The most natural mode is the calm, and the retro with brown or cool can be used to give some special feeling. For portrait, calm or normal will be great. Other than the photo style, separately, contrast, chroma, and sharpness can be adjusted to 5 levels.

Dual IS (Image Stabilization mode

The Dual IS is the best IS mode which is combined with OIS and Advance DIS. Firstly, the body shake is compensated by the lens compensation, and the second is the advanced DIS using high shutter speed and 2 level noise elimination. Taking pictures with the Dual IS mode indoors, generally ISO moves up to ISO 800, and this will do the best to prevent the shake of objects, noise elimination, and maintaining colors.

You can rely on the Dual IS inside. This might be a better choice than the Smart auto mode. Because the performance is so high, I recommend this to beginners, but in this mode, you can’t activate the flash.

Great Shooting performance

The booting speed is a little more than 1 sec. The AF speed is not so fast, but it can set less than 0.5 sec under any circumstances. Besides, you can rarely feel the release lack between shutter and real shot. When taking tele portrait or macro, this used to set auto focus on background not objects, so more accurate AF system is needed for tele portrait and macro.

45 regions setting AF

It supports central, multi, and selection AF. I recommend the selection AF for macro shot. The multi AF is good at focusing on close objects, but for higher accuracy, the selection AF is better. Unfortunately, AF region and spot photometry on the region can be integrated. The spot photometry can only be set on the center as a point of reference.

“˜Motion capture’ good for making GIF

The motion capture is take 6 pictures successively with 640×480 size up to 30 pictures at a high speed. Although the size is not that big, but to make GIF, this would be the best.

At the best resolution, you can take 1.5 shots per sec, but this will be getting slow when taking a lot.

Natural Dark spot compensation function ACB

The ACB only compensates dark spots naturally, and is also applied to the backlight mode of the smart auto mode. You can’t adjust the intensity of compensation, and it reduces the contrast between bright and dark spots. The ACB could be applied for both when taking and after taking, and the after taking compensation is a bit more powerful. Please do not depend on the ACB for backlight portrait. The ACB or face recognition would be good.

AEB exposure change

The AEB is to select on among 3 pictures taken with different exposure interval (0.5). The speed of shots is very slow, but it’s displayed on the screen, so users can check out the exposure while taking shots.

Various picture ratios

4:3/3:2/16:9 and 1:1 sizes are supported. When it comes to 1:1, the FOV gets narrower and the pictures will be 2976×2976 size.

Like some people say this square mode is the most comfortable position in the wild, this eliminates other miscellaneous background and provides stable composition. Besides, it feels like giving more focus on the objects.

10. Resolution

Warm and deep colors

The WB1000(TL320) has less reddish and more natural color feel than the WB550(HZ15w) or other models. Through the photo style selector I mentioned, you can realizes various color feels, but on normal, once taking pictures of portrait, they are less reddish and more yellow tone. It’s so different from the WB500(HZ15w) and PL series. I’m not sure it’s because of the wide angle, but it has less exposure over effect by image color or background than other products, and it’s rather deep and warm than splendid.

Stable White balance, color temperature, and minute white balance adjustment

This can catch white color well. I think Samsung is the best to deal with various light sources. Especially, if sunlight comes a bit inside, skin expression is so natural. It supports 7 kinds of white balances including custom white balance, and color temperature from 3000K to 10000K by 100K. It’s different up to the situations, but I suppose 3500~4000K would be appropriate inside.

The WB1000(TL320) even supports the minute white balance adjustment. Unfortunately, you can’t use this function for the auto white balance, so you’d better set the sunlight white balance at outside, and custom white balance or color temperature K mode inside. Moving a point from the G(Greem)/A(Amber)/M(Magenta)/B(Blue) graph, the right color would be decided.

Wide angle 12.2M pixels resolution without distortion

The detail of the 12.2M pixels is moderate. It has less chromatism, no distortion, and good resolution on the central part. The closer it goes to surroundings, the lower the sharpness is. And when it goes to tele angle, the quality gets degraded and has dent effect. The image quality degradation of surroundings is the common thing of compact digital cameras. The more the iris opens the better. And like other compact digital cameras, the quality is noticeable degraded, so users need to know this.

Maximum wide angle 24mm (Rare distortion)

  

Resolution by iris value

The WB1000(TL320) is based good image quality and color expression in ultra wide angle. The less distortion deserves to get a high grade.  But the great sharpness of central part should also be reflected on the overall region including surroundings. Nothing can be perfect, but including me, everybody always wants the best as the same.

Enlarging the sensor, the body and lens have to be larger, so the appropriate solution is expressed not to harm the slim design. Those who want the great sharpness are not satisfied with this, but this would be enough for snap, scenery pictures in ordinary life. Compared to color expression and functions, this has a lot of advantages.

Max ISO ISO3200

The feature of the WB1000(TL320) in high sensitivity is the smoothness without color noises. Therefore, this becomes an advantage for inside portrait shots. While reviewing, because the range of FOV was so wide, I didn’t use more than ISO800 much. This supports up to ISO3200, and on ISO3200, the size decreases to 3M.

Generally, particles are relatively large. Up to ISO400, it sustains certain details, but from the ISO800, the particles get smooth, and details start to be degraded. And even though the ISO increases, it doesn’t harm the detail and has less color noise. It’s normally good to use up to ISO 800, but from ISO 1600, the resolution gets detailed. It’s a good way to take on ISO 400 manual mode with the flash at the 1/8~1/20 sec low shutter speed or if the flash is not necessary, it’s nice to use the Dual IS mode. Those can keep the good image quality on the same pictures. Of course, with the low speed shutter of manual mode, you can’t vividly capture moving objects.

11. Epilogue

High level Full manual operation compact digital camera with wonderful control

The high graded and firm appearance is unique, less male and classical. This is a great premium compact digital camera for those who take rather scenery and snap than portrait. The things I like the most is wide FOV, good color feel and balance, and manual operation. Especially, the manual operation is the best among the same range compact digital cameras, I think. And the operation of the smart dial is also good. The operation response is so fast, when taking shots with manual shots. When setting menu or functions, it moves quickly.

Cool shooting using ultra wide angle and AMOLED

The WB1000(TL320) is good enough with the ultra wide angle. Through the vivid display ALOLED, the screen on the ultra wide angle takes the world more dynamically. The vision, color expression, and vividness of the AMOLED are unbelievable. There’s a slight difference between real pictures and the screen, but the pictures are stable, so I could always enjoy taking shots.

Samsung‘s masterpiece in 2009

The WB1000(TL320) is the finishing product with Samsung’s spirit for the first half of 2009. Some unsatisfactory things are reminded, but looking at the functions, design, and operation, this is the best digital camera from Samsung, I’m sure. It’s time to wait for the next model after the WB1000(TL320). Samsung digital imaging. I’m giving my best applaud to their technology team. 

　

This review represents the sole opinion of their individual authors and POPCONET and don’t express the opinion of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Samsungimaging.net or the opinion of any affiliates unless specifically marked as such.
For any further questions, or feedback, please visit POPCONET

Samsung Electronics has provided the author of this review with the mentioned digital imaging device.

First Class WB1000

Samsung Digital Imaging released 13 new products, and changed the whole compact camera line-up. The goal was to invent cameras for anyone to easily take good pictures with, so they made 13 different cameras with various design, specifications, and features. And the last but least is WB1000. WB1000 is the first class out of new line-up, with attractive specifications and features. It is the first class camera coming out in the first year of newly starting Samsung Digital Imaging, so it’ll become a barometer for Samsung’s technology and possibility in the future. For the first time, it has introduces 5x optical zoom with 3 inch AMOLED screen and 24mm wide angle.

24mm ultra-wide zoom lens

WB1000‘s Schneider lens starts from 24mm wide angle. Compared to regular cameras which start from 35mm, it provides attraction of wider view. At the same time, it extended the zoom up to 120mm. So it has 24-120mm in 35mm equivalent, 5x optical Schneider zoom lens. And it starts from as bright as F2.8. Lens, the most fundamental factor, is the best grade. And it also provides full manual exposure feature with which you can control aperture and shutter as you want. You may control the aperture and shutter using Smart dial, which is a convenient interface. There’re A/S/M exposure mode, USER mode with a user’s setting, and Smart auto mode which automatically applies the optimal shooting condition by recognizing the circumstances.

3 inch hVGA AMOLED

For the first time in the world, it adopted AMOLED type display device in digital camera. Compared to TFT LCD which is usually used in cell phones or digital cameras, it’s about 1000 times faster and is well seen in bright places since it shines itself, and its energy consumption is low. Another strength is that AMOLED can be made as 7times smaller volume than LCD. Compared to other cameras, it shows the screen pretty well even in bright outdoors. WB1000 supports 1280×720, 30 frame HD video function. And thorough HDMI connection, you can watch HD video and photos on HDTV without loss. Dual IS stabilizes image in both optical and digital way. Plus, there’s Perfect portrait system that helps portrait shots in many ways based on face detection features.

Stylish stainless steel

WB1000 looks a little different from former WB series style. WB series lineup have provided traditionally stable grip, wide angle, and high zoom lens. So body and grip part is usually thick, and wide barrel lens is located on the front. WB1000 also has 24mm wide angle and 5x optical zoom lens. But its body is slim and lens is also smaller than other WBs. Its surface is finished stainless steel which protects it from scratches, so it’ll stay safe for a long time. When you hold the smoothly processed body in your hand, you’ll get notice its durability. Overall, it looks more like NV series than WB. The edges are rounded, and there’s something put over the grip part for the anti-slip. In order to reinforce the grip of a slim body, hand strap loop is on the back of the camera to hold a thumb. And on the upper left side, there’s a part around the speaker, which is caved in for comfortable left-hand grip.

Classical body

If the former WB series had design for comfortable grip and operation, WB1000‘s style focuses on classical code. There’re two color options: all-black version and silver one. In the silver version, two tones of the black and silver are matched. In the silver model, lens barrel, grip part, and the top side are black. Silver and black harmony seems a little unbalanced. Lens barrel, with Schneider logo printed, takes up much space and flash and AF assist light are placed on the top. Next to the grip part, Samsung logo is carved. And remote control reception is at the bottom. WB1000‘s front looks solid without many curves, expressing its classical style.

Dash board for battery and memory

Two dash boards on the top show the classic code of WB1000. Those round boards with moving red gage display the capacity of battery and memory left. If you compare it to ca car, it’s similar to gas gage. WB1000 also provides battery and memory information on LCD like other digital cameras. But analogue boards provide you unique feelings. Three blue points for VLUU series, blue ring on lens, blue dot on shutter, and blue lamp on power button, are all applied. On the upper side of grip part, there’s a shooting mode dial so that you can easily change modes. On the back of the body, the side of the dial is exposed so you can easily handle it with your thumb. But maybe it’s too easy, because there were some occasions that the dial was turned by accident. There’re two mikes on the top. With WB1000, you can insert stereo sound to the HD video clips. 

Camera with the best quality screen

WB1000‘s proud AMOLDED screen is 3 inch big and has hVGA image quality with 520,000 pixels. But more important thing is its screen is AMOLED which completely different type from the cameras’ LCD is so far. AMOLED shines by itself, so it’s brighter than TFT-LCD; but consumes lower energy. And it’s slim and is seen well even in bright outdoors. If the screen of regular digital cameras is recognizable about 30% under strong sunlight, in WB1000, you can check about 70%. It’s a big difference. (about 40% difference in lux) And since its response is quick, when you move the camera or the subject moves, the screen changes smoothly in real time. It is said that it is about 3,000 times faster. It is the next generation’s display tech that solves the common problems in compact cameras, difficulty to see the screen or slow response. AMOLED, adopted in WB1000 for the first time, should be used for all cameras from now on. AMOLED screen is better seen that TFT-LCD from above or sides. It has the most satisfying screen that I’ve ever experienced from compact cameras so far.

AMOLED and TFT-LCD

TFT-LCD needs back-light under color filter, but AMOLED uses chemicals that self brighten. It is 87% more precise in its expression than LCD type with back-light. It is 150% brighter and shows twice contrast, 1:10,000 and 1:5,000. In short, it is bright and clear. There’s also difference in viewing angle. When you look at it from the front, if the contrast in AMOLED is 1:10,000 and in TFT-LCD 1:5,000, TFT-LCD’s contrast drops to 1:20 in 60º. On the other hand, contrast in AMOLED stays 1:9000. You can see WB1000′s screen accurately in any angles. Since it shines itself, the screen looks clear even under strong light. TFT-LCD under 3000 lux and AMOLED under 5000 lux seem about the same. There’s a definite reason that WB1000‘s screen is the best out of all the digital cameras.

Improved battery performance

WB550 provides lithium battery only for SLB-10A. WB1000 provides the lithium battery in the same form only for SLB-11A, but with bigger capacity. The capacity of SLB-10A is 1050mAh (3.8Wh) and that of SLB-11A, 1130mAh (4.2Wh). Since it uses AMOLED with low energy consumption, the battery stands for a long time. It uses SD card and SDHC. There’s 34-pin terminal at the bottom, so you can charge and connect to computer or AV using a connector. It supports HDMI, but you need to purchase HDMI cable and cradle separately.

WB1000′s classical style

It shows different style from the WB series compact cameras; it’s slim and chic. It covers from 24mm wide angle to 120mm telephoto zoom, with 21mm slim 5x zoom. It even has optical image stabilizer. NV9, a slim digital camera with inner zoom lens released last year, has similar body type, but protruding type 5x optical lens WB1000 is even slimmer than that.

Its slim base body and analogue dash boards and many decorating elements completed the classical and elaborate design. But because of many decorations, the consistency in design seems somewhat weak. My personal preference is all-black model rather than two-toned silver. WB1000 has AMOLED, outstanding lens, and strong body.

Easy-to-use WB1000

If you think highly of image quality and want to express what you want exactly, DSLR is a right choice for you. On the other hand, compact cameras are easy to use. Considering that people put purpose before price, the biggest strength of compact cameras is convenience. So the ideal compact camera is the one that is easy to use but produces good quality pictures. WB1000 is a high-end product among Samsung Digital Imaging compact cameras. It also has detailed manual features that other cameras don’t have. In this section, I’ll introduce many smart functions of WB1000.

The world of 24mm wide angle

WB1000‘s x5 optical lens starts from 24mm (35mm equivalent) wide angle. It kept the 120mm telephoto zoom, widened the angle, and heightened zoom. Compared to regular compact cameras that start from 30mm or compact cameras with 28mm wide angle, it shows wider angle and view. WB1000 is the world’s first 5x optical zoom with 24mm wide angle. It can express spectacular landscape and wide open view of horizon. Since you cannot change the lens in compact cameras, the angle supported by lens can become a very important selling point. Its wide angle and telephoto zoom lens is an important attraction of WB1000.

24mm 120mm

24mm Sample

F2.8 bright lens

24-120mm 5x optical Schneider lens starts from F2.8. It is amazing that it made the bright lens in this 20mm-small lens in slim body. Its image stabilizer also helps reduce trembling, but if the lens itself is bright, there’s basically less shakes. In dark places, you’d better use F2.8 in 24mm wide angle. Thanks to fast shutter speed with bright lens and wide angle effect, you can take stable pictures. WB1000‘s lens can be used with F2.8 in 24mm, and gets darker to F5.8 in maximum zoom.

Fast moving lens

When you press the power button, the lens comes out forward. And it takes about 1.1 seconds to do that, which is very fast. It is a protruding type lens, but as fast as an inner zoom lens. It takes about 1.2 seconds to move from 24mm to 120mm. Lens movement is fast, too. And when the lens moves, it doesn’t make much noise, so you don’t need to worry at quite places. It is convenient that you can use zoom during shooting, but the sound isn’t recorded while moving.

Schneider lens with optical image stabilization

WB1000 has optical image stabilizer as a premium compact camera. By detecting the trembling of the camera, it moves the lens unit to the opposite direction to prevent shakes. Since it offsets trembling, the stable light reaches the sensor. Generally, OIS can stabilize image in 2-3 step slow shutter speed. Considering that it doesn’t shake in maximum zoom if it’s over 1/60 sec, obtaining 1/15 sec can stabilize images with OIS. In 24mm wide angle, you can take a shot with your hands up to 1/3 sec. There’re only two options for OIS- on or off. There’s no panning mode or always working option. The basic setting is that OIS works when the half-shutter is pressed.

[OIS off, ISO80, 120mm, 1/2s],[OIS on, ISO80, 120mm, 1/2s],[Tripod, ISO80, 120mm, 1/2s]

High-sensitivity for fast shooting

WB1000 supports from ISO80 to ISO3200. In ISO3200, 12,200,000-pixel resolution is well kept. If you use Auto ISO option, the camera automatically adjusts within ISO80 to ISO800. If you use high-sensitivity mode, you can take successive shots without noise processing time. It only goes through the basic noise processing that is set in image processing. But, if it is shot in high-sensitivity mode with low shutter speed, noise processing for long exposure follows.

DIS (Digital Image Stabilization) for good image quality

DIS (Digital Image Stabilization) is a function that applies strong noise processing in high-sensitivity. In Dual IS mode, it is used together with OIS function. If it’s a bit bright indoors, ISO200 or ISO400, and ISO800, if in dark places, are automatically set. If you use DIS function, strong noise removal is applied, unlike normal high-sensitivity shorts. Using high-sensitivity fast shutter speed, it reduces shakes, but prevents quality drop at the same time, which is the weakness of high sensitivity. But since it takes time to process noise, successive shooting is hard. It takes about three seconds to process noise. Samsung DIS used to combine high-sensitivity and low-sensitivity shots. Compared to this former way, the processing time has decreased.

OIS + DIS, Dual IS

In Dual IS mode, OIS and DIS work at the same time. Normally, indoor shots can be done with over 1/30 sec shutter speed. Even though your hand shakes, OIS stabilizes light and strongly removes noise. If you used Dual IS mode, you can take stable indoor shots with less noise compared to regular high-sensitivity shots. As I explained earlier, WB1000 has bright lens, so its Dual IS shows higher effectiveness than others. In widest angle, you can get stable image under indoor light without much care. When you take pictures of kids without using strong flash, it’ll be very useful.

WB1000′s Perfect Portrait System

The main purpose of compact cameras is portrait shots. Most of the time, a camera is evaluated based on the result of portrait shots. Based on face detection features, Samsung has invented and improved various functions to heighten success rate and satisfaction of portrait shots. All of those functions together are called Perfect Portrait System, and WB1000 has that, too. Not only Face detection, it has Smile shot, Self Guide, Blink detection, and Beauty shot that edits skin tone and texture.

Increased success rate of face detection

There’s a Face detection function that detects faces on adjust focus and exposure accordingly. It has become the common function in most of digital cameras. However, what matters is its detection rate. Compared to the first time Samsung has introduced the Face detection function, Samsung’s newly released ones show success rate improved more than 50%. Within 2-3m distance, which is normal for portrait shots, it detects faces with no exceptions. However, if the face is tilted or seen in too small size, the camera may not detect it. It cannot be said to be in the best level compared to other cameras.

Beauty shot for bright and clean faces

Beauty shot, one of the features in Perfect Portrait System, has become independent Scene mode. When you use Beauty shot mode, the camera automatically edits the subject’s skin tone and saves the image. The fact that it’s not afterwards-editing but on-the-process editing is unique. There’re two editing options- skin brightness and texture. You can set those in three levels. It is convenient since you don’t need Photoshop to remove your facial flaws and brighten it. If you enjoy uploading portraits on your homepage, you’ll love this feature

A camera for anyone to take pictures easily

Every camera maker probably would want to develop a camera for anyone to take good pictures with. WB1000 is also developed for users to take good pictures easily with its features and various technologies. I’ve emphasized this many times, but its24mm bright zoom lens will help you produce good images for landscape and portraits. And it has DIS which that adds noise processing to high sensitivity for better indoor shots. Plus, there’s OIS that stabilizes images by moving the lens. Bright lens and Dual IS make indoor shots stable, and it can be said the best among compact cameras. Samsung was not the first one to adopt face detection and Smart Auto function, but its completeness is rapidly growing to chase other brands. In 2009, the features are even more improved. Another strength of Samsung cameras is they have most of features that other cameras have. Self Guide and Beauty shot functions are Samsung’s exclusive. I hope that it will keep tuning the accuracy of features and provided options.

A                                          B                                          C

A. Regular shot in backlight, face looking dark

B. Face detection shot in backlight, automatically detecting the face and shooting it brightly

C. Smart Auto Backlight Portrait in backlight, detecting backlight and automatically turning flash on

Powerful features and convenient interface

It is hard to meet a compact camera with manual functions these days. That’s because most people use DSLR for manual functions. However, DSLR users also use a convenient sub-camera that is easy to carry every time. They hope for a complete manual functions in a compact camera. WB1000 has a manual exposure mode with which you need to set aperture and shutter, aperture first, and shutter first mode. The types of features are important, but what’s more important is how convenient to use those. If you have to adjust aperture and shutter speed one by one using the 4-directional button, it’s not that useful. In order for users to use manual functions easily, WB1000 offers Smart dial interface. So it has powerful manual functions and convenient interface to use them. A compact camera that can also satisfy professionals is a WB1000′s core aspect.  

Smart dial and OK button

DSLRs that are better than middle grade usually have dials to control aperture and shutter one on the front and another on the back, so users don’t need to keep an eye off the view screen. With WB1000, you look at the screen instead of the view finder, so it doesn’t need dials both on front and back. However, button clicking type should better be avoided in compact cameras. So it chose a Smart dial that keeps horizontal with the back side. Instead of 4-directional button, this dial can be turned to clockwise or anticlockwise. And it also detects the click of 8-directional pressure. It is called Smart dial because wheel and button type are combined here. Through Smart dial, you can move through menu, select options, turn over photos, and select aperture, shutter speed, and exposure value. In M mode where you can control both aperture and shutter speed, press OK button to change modes. Users’ thumb does not slip to other sides, and every option can be controlled quickly and easily on a small dial. I think that it has the most convenient interface among the compact cameras that I have used recently. I’d like to give a high credit to the OK button in the middle of the dial with which you can control aperture and shutter speed.

Live view and manual features in AMOLED

Compared to TFT-LCD, AMOLED can express color accurately and helps to utilize manual functions in outdoors. In M mode, if you changes aperture and shutter speed, you can check the expected image brightness on the screen. AMOLED displays the change in the screen more accurately and quickly compared to other compact cameras. Thanks to the screen’s outstanding quality, WB1000‘s manual functions are easier to use. First you turn the Smart dial to adjust aperture and shutter speed. And then when the screen looks in the appropriate brightness, press the shutter. You don’t need to depend on only the experience to expect the combination of aperture and shutter speed according to lights. You’ll rarely fail even if you take pictures depending only on the AMOLED’s brightness. WB1000‘s outstanding screen and convenient interface will heighten the value of manual functions.

Live view and manual features in AMOLED

Compared to TFT-LCD, AMOLED can express color accurately and helps to utilize manual functions in outdoors. In M mode, if you changes aperture and shutter speed, you can check the expected image brightness on the screen. AMOLED displays the change in the screen more accurately and quickly compared to other compact cameras. Thanks to the screen’s outstanding quality, WB1000‘s manual functions are easier to use. First you turn the Smart dial to adjust aperture and shutter speed. And then when the screen looks in the appropriate brightness, press the shutter. You don’t need to depend on only the experience to expect the combination of aperture and shutter speed according to lights. You’ll rarely fail even if you take pictures depending only on the AMOLED’s brightness. WB1000′s outstanding screen and convenient interface will heighten the value of manual functions.

24mm F2.8 Maximum exposure              24mm F7.2 Minimum exposure

Shutter speed that captures the flow

With compact cameras, shutter speed change is more effective than aperture control in manual function. It’s because the aperture range is not that wide in small lens. On the other hand, the effect from shutter speed is not that different from DSLR. If you slow the shutter speed in bright outdoors, you can express the flow of people’s movement. In this case, use shutter speed mode which automatically sets apertures once you set a desired shutter speed.

Different image quality depending on aperture

Better lenses show less quality drop even with much exposure. So far, I haven’t done aperture test because it was impossible to control aperture in compact cameras. But you can control it in WB1000, so I’ve done some test for comparison. Normally, when you open aperture, image quality drops. But the result of the WB1000 test showed that the image quality was better when I opened the aperture than when I closed it. In the minimal closure, it showed lens diffraction. and ideal quality seems to be between F2.8 to F5.6. In the Auto mode, it is usually set for the best, so it’s ok to leave it Auto.

12,000,000-pixel stable image quality

WB1000‘s resolution is the best quality that 12,000,000 pixels can ever express. In the chart, it definitely distinguished up to 2000^th sample. Samsung IT100 with 28mm, 5x optical zoom distinguished 20^th vertically, but couldn’t reach 1800^th horizontally. 24mm, 5x optical lens is more disadvantageous condition, but WB1000 shows superior resolution. Both of them are from Samsung, but premium camera has the lens that performs better.

Central and peripheral image quality

A camera with wide angle must produce good image quality in wide angle. That’s what WB1000 is like. In 24mm widest angle, it shows stable expression not only in central area but also the peripheral area. Dropping of the quality in peripheral area is inevitable in wide angle, but that area is very small and minute. Out of the competing models that offer wide angles, I think this one shows the best stability.

Stable image quality in zoom

It looks both stable in central and peripheral area in 120mm maximum zoom, too. Since the wide angle feature is so outstanding, the capacity of telephoto may not stand out. But it is also excellent as 24mm 5x optical lens. It offers attractive angle with high-quality lens.

Ability to pick out the light

IT100 was not able to pick out strong light well. But WB1000‘s lens is great even in backlight. In backlight or tilted light, it rarely showed diffused reflection or quality decline. In the image that keeps the glittering light of backlight, the expression in dark area is not lost. It is a rare occasion that digital cameras have the clarity of Schneider lens.

Stable White Balance tuning

WB1000 is invented to satisfy sensitive high-end camera users. So its white balance function is tuned in detail compared to other Samsung cameras. You won’t see white balance inconsistent or unstable. It is stable in bright area or shadow, or under artificial light. In addition, there’re various white balance settings, so you can adjust it through color matrix in Preset mode. And there’s also Custom white balance and Color temperature setting mode.

Auto white balance       /       Cloudy Preset         /       Cloudy Preset+White Balance

Detailed color tuning

Along with White balance, color expression is tuned in detail. Thanks to that, it shows accurate colors based on the stable White balance. Vivid color looks clear, and medium tone looks stable. It looks simple and refined rather than splendid. Personally, I feel that the blue tone seems to be brightly tuned compared to the former models. And overall balance seems to get very stable. There’s nothing to pick at the color expression. On the other hand, the unique feelings have become weaker.

From ISO80 to ISO3200

It supports from low-sensitivity ISO80 to high-sensitivity ISO3200. There’s no resolution limit in ISO3200. It looks quite clear in ISO80, ISO100, and ISO200. In ISO400, noise starts to appear. But considering it’s a compact camera, it is still stable; the particles are minute and unnoticeable. In ISO800 and ISO1600, the noise increases. ISO800 seems to be the suitable sensitivity you may use without concerns. In the standards of compact cameras, it seems stable.

Photo style

Eight preset Photo styles are provided, so you can change the color tone in many ways. The frequently used ones are Vivid mode with strong color tone, Cool mode, and Calm mode. The last option is Custom RGB with which the user can select the level of RGB channel.

WB1000 for better pictures

Not only it has the attractive angle, its lens is very stable. It shows stable expression in outdoors with strong light. White balance and color are clear, too. Recent compact cameras with high pixels don’t express great details when you look at the imaged 100% enlarged. However, WB1000‘s image processing is good enough to express details well. If you look the several original images linked, you’ll see that how great the image quality of WB1000 is. Attractive angle, high image quality, good features, and convenient interface make the impression of WB1000 as a good camera to take pictures.

1280×720, 30fps HD quality video

It has HD video feature that records videos in 30fps in 1280×720. You can use zoom during shooting, but when the zoom movers, the sound isn’t recorded. Through the two mikes on the top, lively stereo sound is recorded. However, the sound through the small mike isn’t spectacular. Considering it’s a compact camera, its image quality is fairly good. It shows smooth movement, expressing the details well. It uses H.264 Codec. If you purchase a cradle separately, you can connect HDMI to HDTV, so you can enjoy HD quality video clips without loss.

Smart Album and Recycle bin

You can turn over images using Smart dial in Play mode. And you can sort the images under various categories- by file names, dates, etc. Dates can be specified by days or weeks. Also, there’s a unique arrangement by color spectrum which analyzes the color tone of images. In addition, when you deleted images by mistake, you can restore those using recycle bin function. When you delete an image, it goes to recycle bin folder in the internal memory and can get restored later.

CRITIQUE : Samsung Digital Imaging WB1000

Attractive 24mm Schneider lens

For me, 24mm wide angle was a big attraction of WB1000. 28mm is good, but 24mm is even more satisfying. When the angle gets wider, the image can carry more stories into it. With WB1000, you can express special landscape and be able to select the angle. Not only that, the capacity of Schneider lens is better than expected. 24mm-120mm high zoom in small size! It is small but stable. It deals with strong light well and gives clear expression. There’s some color difference on leaves part, but not that much. WB1000‘s 5x optical Schneider zoom lens is perfectly satisfying.

3 inch hVGA AMOLED

I even question why they didn’t use AMOLED sooner. AMOLED is much greater than LCD. AMOLED solves the compact cameras’ long-standing problem- not seen well in where it’s bright. With WB1000, you can check the screen in bright places relatively well. Since it has wide angle, you can check the screen from various directions without turning the screen. LCD spends the most of energy in digital camera, but since its energy consumption is low, the battery lasted longer. From now on, it is expected all the cameras will adopt AMOLED type. WB1000 was the first one.

A compact camera with various manual functions

It has a manual mode with which you can adjust both aperture and shutter speed, and aperture first, shutter first mode. It is a rarely seen feature in compact cameras. It is a compact camera that can satisfy professional users, so you can tune white balance and control colors in detail. It selected Smart dial that senses 8-deirectional clicks, so it’s easy to control many features. The convenience of features and operation is almost as good as DSLR. But the effect that manual functions can create is not as big as DSLR. Rather than using it all the time, you’d better use it for special intention. The combination of outstanding AMOLED and manual exposure function is outstanding.

Diverse speed

The speed for turning on, zooming, and saving is all satisfying. It’s fast to turn the camera on, control zoom, and take a shot. One thing disappointing is its AF sometimes fails. Especially in close-up shot, the focus is often pushed back than the desired point. To solve this problem, it supports selective AF for you to move the focus point and manual focus function. Also, it has Smart dial, so you can control focus easily.

Focus has been pushed backward

Smart Auto that recognizes the circumstances

Smart Auto mode automatically selects the optimal Scene mode that is suitable for the current circumstance. What’s important in Smart Auto mode is the ability to detect the circumstances. A variety of Scene modes is strength of WB1000 Smart Auto mode, but it seems that its detection rate is not high enough. It’s ok in close-up, portrait, and night scene modes, though. Exposure, focus, and flash are adjusted in Smart Auto mode. I wish color tone or white balance, which affect the atmosphere of photos, would be added later.

Perfect Portrait System

A variety of features related to portrait shots in Samsung is the best. If you utilize Face detection with Smile shot, Beauty shot, or Self Guide, you can get much help in portrait shots. From now on, they have to focus on improving the success rate and adding options. It is a little disappointing that it doesn’t have a function to detect frequently appearing faces like ST10.

Dual IS in high sensitivity

AS a first class camera, it has OIS function, so it makes 120mm telephoto more useful. Since you can use F2.8 bright lens, it rarely trembles. It supports from ISO80 to ISO3200, and noise restraint in high sensitivity is stable. However, it’s not the best level. If you use Dual IS mode, noise is reduced more than regular high sensitivity, since DIS adds noise reduction to high sensitivity. But its effect is not that big. Anyways, it is one step ahead than a competing model which has DIS combination of regular sensitivity and optical image stabilizer.

Classical body

There’s an analogue dash board on the top that displays the remains of battery and memory. Including the dash board, its overall style is classical. It used stainless steel with high durability, and hair-lined finish is cool. It looks solid and classically stylish. In silver model, black is partially used for top of the body, lens barrel, and grip part, looking a little unbalanced. Since it used the former body design and added some points, it seems not so unique. I wish there would be new design which has balanced style in next line.p>

World Best WB1000

It seems for sure that it’ll be the best compact camera released in 2009. WB1000 is qualified for its lens specifications, screen quality, accurate functions, convenient interface, stable image quality, and HD video function. These many strengths are all in a small digital camera. It is one of the few compact cameras that produce satisfying photos. It’ll be perfect as a sub-camera for DSLR users. I’ve been curious about what WB stands for. But looking at WB1000, I’ve started thinking that it might stand for “˜World Best’ I cannot help but admit that WB1000 is the most superior one in the first half of 2009.

This review represents the sole opinion of their individual authors and DIZIN and don’t express the opinion of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Samsungimaging.net or the opinion of any affiliates unless specifically marked as such.
For any further questions, or feedback, please visit DIZIN

Samsung Electronics has provided the author of this review with the mentioned digital imaging device.

- 24mm ultra-wide angle and 10x optical Schneider lens

- Perfect image stabilization with Dual IS

- Photo style of my own, Photo Style Selector

- HD quality video and built-in HDMI port

- Distinguished shooting ability, Smart Auto

Even tempting to professional photographers

It has refined design with creativity, a mode dial for convenient operation, 3″ wide LCD guaranteeing easy recognition, compact size, and high portability for anytime, anywhere. This every feature is in WB500. It will produce fantastic pictures as good as those taken by DSLR.

10x optical Schneider zoom lens/ F24mm Ultra-wide angle for the first time

WB500‘s 24mm Ultra-wide angle, 10x optical zoom lens cannot be found in any digital camera all over the world.

Compact High Zoom Camera

Thanks to its ultra-wide lens, it provides wider angle on the same spot compared to other products. And through 10x optical zoom and 50x digital zoom, it can pull far-away subject to under your very nose.

Advanced Dual IS and 12,200,000 high pixels

Optical IS: It is an optical image stabilization function that prevents shakes by vibrating sensor.

Avanced DIS: Newly equipped Advanced DIS captures one shot in high speed, and removes noise in two steps. It shortens image processing time and helps to get best image under any situation by preventing drop of saturation (saturation maintenance) that can happen while combining.

In addition, it supports 12,200,000 pixels, so you can get high quality image when printed.

HD high quality video recording

If you turn the mode dial to video recording, you can record and save video for 29 minutes in H.264 (MPEG4 AVC) format HD (1280×720) quality.

ISO function that brightens darkness

As you set ISO higher, shutter speed gets faster in the same amount of light. There’re eight ISO options. It supports up to ISO 3200, so you can adjust it depending on the situation. Also, as it gets higher, the sensitivity of the camera gets higher, increasing the ability to take pictures at dark places.

Smart Auto that makes anyone a professional photographer

In Smart Auto mode, the camera automatically detects various shooting environments and optimizes the conditions without any operation of uses, making it possible for beginners to take great pictures without difficulty.

<Conditions that are detected well>

Landscape- outdoor landscape shot

White- in very bright background

Night Scene- landscape at night

Night Portrait- outdoor portrait shot at night

Backlight- landscape in backlight without people

Backlight Portrait- portrait shot in backlight

Portrait- portrait shot

Macro- close-up shot

Macro Text- short distance text shot

Tripod- motionless subject by the help of things like tripod

Action- moving subject

Frame guide/ Scene mode/ Photo Style Selector

If you use Frame guide, the third person can take a picture in an angle the user want.

If you want better pictures, you can use 14 Scene modes such as Night Scene, Portrait, Movement, Landscape, Close-up, Text, Sunset, Sawn, Backlight, Fireworks, Beach/ Snow, Self shot, Food, and Café.

Also, it provides eight Photo Style Selector like Nomal, Soft, Forest, Retro, Cool, Classic, etc.

Smart Album

This is a function that conveniently categorizes lots of contents of photos and video clips, enabling easy search. The categories are Date (day)/ Color/ Date (week)/ File, and you can search for them using the lever.

Recycling bin function

Using recycling bin function, you can restore the images deleted from the memory card. (It is a recycle bin that can store up to 10MB temporarily.)

Dynamic shooting with Face detection

WB550 has a Face detection function, detecting up to 10 faces and enabling more dynamic shooting.

Also its Smile shot automatically takes a shot of smiley faces. And it takes two successive shots when blinking of eyes is detected, leaving the best moment for you.

Convenient Self guide

For self shots, it guides you by automatically detecting the subject’s face location. So you can take self shots more easily and quickly. It notifies you by faster beeping sound when your face is located on the center of the screen.

Perfect portrait (Beauty shot)

If you set your mode dial to Beauty shot and simply adjust face touch/ brightness, you can get beautiful images of you, your family, and friends; they might look like the best makeup artist has put make-up on them.

Cause : This Sample Picture is not 100% detail. just Test Sample Picture.

110mm / F5.6 / 1/45s / ISO400

45mm / F4.2 / 1/125s / ISO80

110mm / F5.6 / 1/60s / ISO80

80mm / F5.3 / 1/180s / ISO80

70mm / F5.1 / 1/90s / ISO80

240mm / F5.8 / 1/90s / ISO80

70mm / F5.1 / 1/60s / ISO200

Beauty Shot

This review represents the sole opinion of their individual authors and NOTEFORUM and don’t express the opinion of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Samsungimaging.net or the opinion of any affiliates unless specifically marked as such.
For any further questions, or feedback, please visit NOTEFORUM

Following the light

As I mentioned in the last posting, shutter speed plays a crucial role in night photography. This is because night photos usually require long exposure. The longer the shutter speed, the larger the penetration of light, resulting in brighter photos. And lower the F value, higher the ISO and longer the shutter speed, brighter the picture. It’s a basic rule, but I get confused every time. Amnesia”¦? :’-l Night photos often use the shutter speed to control the exposure. And this particularly relates to today’s subject. Ca’em, make sure to keep the iris as small as possible because you’ve slowed down the shutter speed!!

WB500(HZ10w) 1.0s l 5.5f l ISO 100 l 16.4mm (35mm equivalent 91.0 mm)

WB500(HZ10w) 4.0s l 11.3f l ISO 80 l 12.2mm (35mm equivalent 68.0 mm)

About 500m away from the subject. I zoom from far and try to focus, but the picture keeps blurring. Why is that? Is there a correlation between shutter speed and the subject? If you know the answer, please let me know!

I tried both manual and program mode, but manual mode produces way more stable photos. In fact, program mode falls a little short of capturing the trace of light because it only supports up to 1s. But, as you know, WB500(HZ10W) supports up to 4s in manual mode. We saw in the last posting that 1.5s was appropriate for bridges, but this time, the value has to be set differently since it includes a moving subject. Set the shutter speed at 4s/ISO 100 and tighten the iris(12.7F) as much as possible. You can see that the different values result in different outcomes.

* If the street lights disturb setting the right exposure to light, use your hand or a book to block the light.

Mini DSLR WB1000 – Shutter speed priority

WB1000(TL320) 4.0s l 7.6f l ISO 100 l 18.9mm (35mm equivalent 105.0 mm)

I tried the shutter speed first mode in WB1000(TL320)will be launched soon. Maybe because I am used to WB500? WB1000 produced much brighter image even though it supports the same pixel as WB500(HZ10W)er, it effectively captured the original light emitted from the street lights that WB500(HZ10W) was not successful at doing. Mystery… Now, I am eager to try the new WB1000 on clear blue sky! Ca’em always eager to try new things!

As with every time, photo taking reminds me of the surrounding that I tend to take for granted. Today’s subject -the cathedral ““ is also something that I pass by everyday on my way back home from work. Ca’em, you need to become a little for appreciative! Supposedly one of the largest cathedrals in Asia, I failed to recognize how grand it was because it was so near. I guess this is a rediscovery of daily life? I think the photo will more successfully highlight the allure of the building if the picture is taken before the sun completely hides away. I promise to upload the same picture taken after sunset. Last is the B/W picture that Ca’em luvs!! You’ve gotta use classic mode for classic buildings. Haha :]

　
　

All photos, above, may not otherwise be reproduced, distributed, cropped, re sized, or otherwise altered without the written permission of the contributor. All photos represent the sole opinion of their individual authors and contributors and don’t express the opinion of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Samsungimaging.net or the opinion of any affiliates unless specifically marked as such.

All photos, above, have been shot with the Samsung WB500(HZ10W), which has been provided by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

In order to become an official SamsungImaging.net blogger, please click here.

Yuyuan is a must-see sight for tourists – there’s even a saying that if you haven’t seen Yuyuan, you haven’t seen Shanghai.

Yuyuan is the garden built for 18 years by Pan Yunduan, a high-ranking official in the Ming Dynasty, to provide his father Pan En, with comfortable later years. After 10 years into construction, his father passed away admitting that it had actually became a place for Pan Yunduan himself. (or for Pan Yunduan’s later years). Let’s take a look around the celebrated spot . a place loved by tourists as well as their people for its luxurious and sophisticated ancient architecture that falls no short of the modern one.

[Samsung WB500(HZ10W) l 45s l F5.5 l ISO 240 l 16.6mm ]

[Samsung WB500(HZ10W) l 45s l F5.3 l ISO 640 l 14.0mm ]

On the way to Yuyuan off the subway.

China’s past and present seen through the picture. On the other hand, the gap between the rich and the poor feels bitter.

View Larger Map

[Samsung WB500(HZ10W) l 45s l F4.2 l ISO 200 l 7.9mm ]

[Samsung WB500(HZ10W) l 15s l F3.9 l ISO 400 l 6.3mm ]

Shanghai old street that continues into Yuyuan.

When you walk around the antique shops lining up in both sides of this fascinating street, you can see other aspects of Shanghai not the splendid city- as if you have taken a time-machine and flown back to ancient period. With so much to see, you can never be bored on your way to Yuyuan!

[Samsung WB500(HZ10W) l 10s l F3.7 l ISO 640 l 5.6mm ]

[Samsung WB500(HZ10W) l 10s l F4.5 l ISO 800 l 9.1mm ]

If you take a look around the stores lining up from the old streets of Shanghai to Yuyuan, you can find lots of cute souvenirs as well as antiques. Mainly handmade accessories made by china’s minority race, Tibet tribe along with Beijing opera masks with traditional theatrical makeup, traditional Chinese costume Chipao for children are displayed to grab tourists’ attention.

[Samsung WB500(HZ10W) l 45s l F5.1 l ISO 640 l 12.3mm ]

[Samsung WB500(HZ10W) l 10s l F3.5 l ISO 640 l 4.7mm ]

In no time the sun has begun to set and the street lights started to lit, the buildings started to light up as well as if they are showing off the grand site of Yuyuan and has started the night. Yuyuan is brighter at night than in the afternoon.

[Samsung WB500(HZ10W) l 1s l F3.9 l ISO 80 l 6.3mm ]

Lu Bo Lang restaurant, specializing in Shanghai epidemic cuisine, located at the entrance of Yuyuan. A famous restaurant best known for their Dim-sum, served guests including Queen Elizabeth, president Clinton and leaders from all around the world.

[Samsung WB500(HZ10W) l 10s l F3.5 l ISO 800 l 4.7mm ]

Not as fancy as Lu Bo Lang but the ordinary dumpling shops are also popular. It’s both cheap and delicious.

[Samsung WB500(HZ10W) l 1s l F4.2 l ISO 80 l 7.9mm ]

[Samsung WB500(HZ10W) l 0.7s l F3.9 l ISO 80 l 6.3mm ]

[Samsung WB500(HZ10W) l 6s l F3.5 l ISO 80 l 4.7mm ]

An artificial pond that adds a touch of elegance. Some who have only looked around the exterior say that it’s too artificial but if you take a look around the interior, your thoughts will change. One thing that lacks from Yuyuan is that it doesn’t have night time ticket office.

[Samsung WB500(HZ10W) l 15s l F3.9 l ISO 400 l 6.3mm ]

Chinese people love red because it’s considered to dispel the evil and bring good luck. It’s very common to see buildings decorated with red lightings.

[Samsung WB500(HZ10W) l 15s l F4.8 l ISO 800 l 10.5mm ]

The tiles’ pointy end that looks ready to pierce the sky.

Within the unconventional architectural luxury, it’s impressive that it hasn’t lost its antiquated style.

[Samsung WB500(HZ10W) l 30s l F3.9 l ISO 320 l 6.3mm ]

On the way out of Yuyuan.

This whole building sells jewelry made of gold and precious stones. I bet there’s no one who doesn’t like gold, but for Chinese people who love luxury, red and gold is the combination that can’t be taken apart, for sure.

Shanghai . a city with so many different faces. How can you not fall in love with this charming and amusing city.

I LOVE SHANGHAI. Where should I go next week? To be continued.

All photos, above, may not otherwise be reproduced, distributed, cropped, re sized, or otherwise altered without the written permission of the contributor. All photos represent the sole opinion of their individual authors and contributors and don’t express the opinion of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Samsungimaging.net or the opinion of any affiliates unless specifically marked as such.

All photos, above, have been shot with the Samsung WB500(HZ10W), which has been provided by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

In order to become an official SamsungImaging.net blogger, please click here