SamsungImaging

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

In a camera market, compact digital cameras has a different line from DSLR cameras, People select a compact digital camera, because of a lot of reasons such as portability, convenience, and so on, not if it’s professional or not. This tendency of customers is still the reason people buy compact digital cameras.

Like I mentioned, a lot of customers want compact digital cameras, but recently, just small, light, and stylish compact digital cameras are not good enough to appeal to customers.

That’s why camera makers have been releasing high-end or professional type digital cameras with the advantages I told.

Samsung also have been releasing a lot of compact digital cameras with high technology, and getting high evaluation. Today, I’d like to introduce the new ST series ST550(TL225).

The ST550(TL225) as a following model of the ST50(TL100) has 12.2M pixels CCD, 3.5” wide full touch screen, and 1.5” TFT LCD dual LCD on the front. Unlike other products, it is optimized for self shots. (This model I’m reviewing is for a test, so it might be different from an official model.

Hidden – Front Display

Looking at the overall design of the ST550(TL225), it has adopted the high glossy on the front, and side and back are designed with no-glossy black. The lens surrounding Schneider Kreuznach engraved is made of silver metal, so it’s the design point of the simple design.

The Samsung logo is on the left top, and a flash on the right of the logo. The lens is located on the right side. On the right top of the lens, AF and self timer lamp are located. Looking at the front, it doesn’t seem there’s a special function, but on the left of the lens, something special is hidden.

When using it, it doesn’t seem it has any special something. However, when turning on the front LCD, the 1.5” LCD appears. When it comes to a normal digital camera, right and left side of the lens is for a logo, but the ST550(TL225) provides more functions with the front LCD such as self shot.

On the back, 3.5” wide full touch display has been adopted, and by reducing the thickness of the surroundings, it seems that it has more space than 3.5”. And by adopting Smart Gesture UI started from a mobile phone and used for the ST series, there’s no button at all, but the full display. Therefore, it has simple and neat appearance.

On the top of the ST550(TL225), logo, microphone (Mono), power button, shutter button, zoom in/out button, and play button are located. We can naturally put an index finger on the shutter button, so more convenient shot is possible.

Looking at the left and right side of the ST550(TL225), a speaker (Mono) is located, and on the right, a strap ring is located. On the bottom, battery/memory slot, USB 2.0, A/V / HDMI 1.2 output port, and tripod hole are located.

When it comes to a battery, it’s 3.4V 720mAh(2.6Wh) Li-Ion battery, and the memory is the Micro SD type (Up to 4GB) frequently used for a mobile phone.

The battery time is approximately 90 minutes as in specifications (Tested with 12M resolution, High, OIS, with flash or no flash for 5 minutes with 1 minutes of rest)

Grip – Touch? Grip?

Looking at the back, you can see the right side of the bezel is a bit thicker than the left. This is because your right index finger on the shutter button is located and your right thumb and palm   grab the right bezel when holding it. Even though the right side is thicker than the left side, a little large size of the LCD considering the body size causes slimmer surroundings, so the grip might be not good enough.

The design of the ST550(TL225) is not rounding, but rectangular, so the grip is a bit unsatisfactory.

Especially, because the ST550(TL225) has adopted full touch display, we often touch the screen with a thumb or palm, so we should be more careful. If the touch is locked when pushing a half shutter, it could have been more convenient product.

When taking a self shot using the front LCD, the LCD and shutter button are located on the left side, so the LCD might be screened by your right thumb or palm. We need to be more careful.

The ST550(TL225) has 99.8 x 59.8 x 18.6mm of size (except the protruding part) and 167.5g of weight (except memory card and battery), so the portability is okay.

Each Icon

Turning on the ST550(TL225), various icons are displayed on the wide screen. These icons can be controlled quickly and intuitively by touching them, and various functions are hidden here.

Looking at it from the left side, shot mode, setting icon, the number of available shots, external memory, and battery status are located.

6 shot modes such as Auto, Smart Auto, Program, Scene, Dual IS, and Video are supported.

This supports various shot modes such as Smart Auto recognizing scenes automatically, 16 scene modes (Beauty shot, Frame guide, Night scenery, Portrait, Children, Scenery, Macro, Character, Sunset, Dawn, Backlight, Firework, Beach, and Snow), and Dual IS mode (Combination of OIS and DIS).

The icon on the right side of the shot mode is a function icon which set to auto or manual, and you can see various setting icons such as Photo/Video resolution, Photometry, Exposure, ISO, Photo style, Image compensation, and so on, so it helps you see the current setting at once.

When it comes to a shot mode, you can change the mode by using the motion recognition sensor. While pushing the motion recognition icon on the right center, tilting the camera up, it goes to Video, down to Program, and left to Smart Auto mode.

When you need some fast mode change, this function would be very useful. I hope the custom mode which users manually set the most frequently used shot mode will be supported later.

On the right side, Iris/Shutter speed, Flash set, Auto Focus type (AF, Macro, and Super Macro), Self timer (2 sec, 10 sec,, Double, and Motion timer), and Display Information Set (Front LCD and Main display) icons are located.

The Display Information icon is the key feature of the ST550(TL225). This can turn on the front LCD, so when touching this icon, you can turn on the front display and main display. When turning on the front LCD, you can take a self shot through the front LCD.

Touching the arrow on the bottom, you can see the detailed option icons such as Exposure compensation, White Balance, ISO, Skin Brightness, Focus Region, Photo/Video resolution, Photo quality, ACB(Auto Control Balance), and Consecutive shots. When you want to insert the detailed setting, you can use this.

Lastly, looking at the icon on the right side, from the top, Zoom, Motion Recognition Mode selection, and Menu icons are located. The Menu icon includes Language, Brightness, Initialization, Format, Volume, and Haptic Intensity setting.

The Menu icon shows the setting when playing back, so you can use the functions you want without explanations.

Playback

When playing back, you can not only tilt the camera to search pictures like water flowing, but also use various Gesture functions such as drawing X to delete, a circle to rotate, and so on.

When checking the performance of the LCD on the back, one of the most important things is the consistency between the LCDs of the camera and a PC. The result of the ST550(TL225) is not much different from the result on the PC. Moreover, through the quick rotation function of the Gesture function, you can appropriately change the ratio of photos and check them.

In order to watch the pictures, just push the play button. Delete, Multi Slideshow enjoying pictures with background music and various effects, Edit (Size, Rotation, Photo Style, Effect, Face Decoration, and Image Compensation), and Search by file/date/color/bookmark are supported

When looking at pictures, you can control them using the Motion Recognition Sensor. While holding the icon, if you tilt the camera to up/down/side, you can use bookmark, protection, and multi slideshow functions quickly.

We’ve seen the appearance and functions of the Dual LCD ST550(TL225) from Samsung.

There were things I wasn’t satisfied with such as flat design and a bit unstable grip. However, 3.5” wide full touch LCD on the back for wide and cool pictures / videos and 1.5” front LCD for easy self shots are like more than compact digital cameras, I think.

Other than the advanced display, the appropriate arrangement of each icon, Smart Gesture UI, and Motion Recognition Sensor for user interface are the own advantages of Samsung digital cameras as a multi player allowing users to easily take shots under any circumstances.

Next time, we are going to look at the performance of the ST550(TL225) and see how appropriate the ST550(TL225) is to take shots.

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