I purchased a Samsung NV8 a few weeks ago for taking snaps on a skiing holiday. I was lucky enough to pick it up for £79 at John Lewis because it had been out of the box as a demonstration item.
The camera comes boxed with rechargeable battery, USB cable, mains charger, software CD, AV cable, wrist strap and manuals. The USB cable plugs into the mains plug to act as a standalone charger - this is a great plus in my opinion as more and more different products adopt this approach nowadays. It means that I only have to pack one 3-pin plug part when going away, and all my USB-charging devices can use it. The cable itself is simple and functional, with an LED light in the end which connects to the camera to show (through its colour) the charging status.
The camera itself goes for a design
which blends retro with modern, and looks very stylish in sleek black with blue accents. The front of the camera has a bulge on one side with a rubberised grip which makes it easy to hold with one hand. It felt entirely secure in my hand while skiing at a leisurely pace for snapping photos. The top of the camera is home to the mode selector wheel which resembles what is found on most cameras, as well as the power button and shutter release. It also houses the built-in flash which pops up when required. The bottom is home to the battery and SD card slots and the charging/USB sync port, as well as the tripod hole (for want of a better word) which is hard to see into but appears to have a metal thread which is very pleasing. The back has a generous 2.5" LCD screen, the zoom button and the "Smart Touch" interface - 7 buttons along the bottom of the screen and 6 along the right hand side. There is also a button to quickly switch into review mode, which I found to be a very welcome feature.
Operation
The camera starts up and is ready to shoot in about 1.2 seconds. In automatic mode the user only needs to hold the shutter halfway for focusing and flash metering (which usually takes under 1 second, but in dark conditions can take several and sometimes needs refocusing) and then press fully down to take a photo. The pop-up flash will by default open automatically if necessary, although the Smart Touch buttons work as soft keys allowing the user to select fill-in flash or no flash at all. All the settings are taken care of in AUTO, but there are plenty of opportunities to tinker in program and manual modes, which is where the Smart Touch interface really comes into its own. Buttons presses open up sliders for things like aperture, ISO level and shutter speed, and then the row of buttons can be used as if it were one touch-sensitive strip to move the sliders around. It beats standard arrow button or joystick-based navigation systems hands down, eliminating the needs for labyrithine menu systems and putting all the necessary controls on the same screen as the main viewfinder. The Smart Touch controls play a similar role when replaying photos and videos. A simple finger swipe across the row of buttons is all that's needed to browse through photos, while the two sets of buttons act as scrollbars when zooming or cropping. I simply cannot emphasise enough how this is not just a gimmick, it is a pleasure to use. The ASR stabilisation mode does what it says on the tin, and helped no end when taking heavily zoomed shots from a rocking ski chair lift! Battery life was very satisfactory, lasting a few days of moderate use before needing to be recharged. The video recording mode looked good on the camera, and I have yet to look at it on the computer screen.
Storage
The camera uses SD cards and is SDHC compatible - perfect for me as I take lots of photos and cannot stand having to take around many cards. One 4GB card was enough for my trip, but even bigger cards are available and could keep you going for ages. The photos are easily transferred via USB in mass storage mode without any hassle or software required - just drag and drop really. The camera also has 16MB of built in storage so if you're ever caught without a card you can still get a few snaps.
Quality
Picture quality is excellent; the 8.1 megapixel images are great at almost full size, with some grain and noise present but expected on a full size crop.
Key features
- All standard features (self-timer etc.) - Face recognition identifies faces for focusing - Excellent stabilisation - Smart Touch interface is a joy to use (and awe-inspiring among my friends!)
In short, for the money this is an excellent compact camera, well worth the £100 you can get it for online. If you are looking for a camera for casual/leisure/holiay snaps use then don't hesitate to go for this beauty - I see no point in paying any more for anything else within this category of camera.
Apr 9th, 2008
(Apr 10th, 2008)
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