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Features
Like its name suggests, the NV7 OPS has 7.2 effective megapixels, which should be sufficient for the casual photographer. Higher resolutions don't necessarily translate to better image quality and we'd rather trade a megapixel or two for optical image stabilization or better sensitivity control.

Samsung's Optical Picture Stabilization uses the CCD-shift mechanism guided by internal sensors which move the CCD in the opposite direction of camera shake. There are two modes to choose from. In OPS1, the image stabilizer activates when the shutter opens to capture the image, whereas in OPS2, the stabilizer turns on when the shutter button is pressed down halfway. When we primed the shutter for a shot in OPS2 mode, the camera emitted a noise which resembled a motor running continuously.

The Korean chaebol also has a second system in place known as the Advanced Shake Reduction (ASR) which it claims will reduce camera shake in low-light scenarios for better exposed and sharper pictures without flash. Unlike the OPS which involves mechanical parts, the ASR uses the camera's engine to post-process your shots. That means you'll have to wait longer than usual between shots if you intend to use this mode.

There are several touchscreen cameras in the market but these usually result in nasty fingerprint-stained LCDs. Samsung's Smart Touch user interface gives a similar experience sans the ugly marks on the screen. Surfing the menus on the NV7 is a whole new game but, fortunately, the learning curve is gentle and we actually like the whole intuitiveness of it. Our only gripe is that it takes effort to scroll through our pictures frame by frame. There's a tendency for us to skip several shots at one go.

For the record, Sony had a rather similar user interface in one of its portable audio player back in 2004. The VAIO Pocket used Sony's G-sense pad with 25 buttons in a five-by-five row array that roughly corresponded to the screen display.

The camera records MPEG-4 VGA 30fps movie recording (with audio) and there's also a successive recording feature which allows you to pause/resume during recording. There's no way to adjust the volume when you are playing back your video clips and we couldn't find the onboard speakers even after tearing apart the user manual. The closest we came to the sound "leakage" was on the top edge, far left (opposite side of the mode dial) of the camera.

	The power button lights up in a cool blue ring.

The NV7, however, is not just a point-and-shoot but offers manual settings for photographers who want to have more control over how their pictures turn out. In aperture-priority, the lens begins at F2.8 on the wide end and F4.0 at maximum telephoto. Shutter speed can be set from 15 seconds to 1/1,5000 second in shutter-priority mode. There's also a full manual mode on the camera where you adjust both aperture and shutter speed settings concurrently.

The 7x optical zoom begins from a tight 38mm to 270mm (35mm equivalent) which, frankly, we'd have preferred a wider 28mm on the NV7. Metering choices include multi-segment, center and spot and you can compensate for exposure in 1/3EV steps. The NV7 is also capable of taking pictures up to ISO 1,000 according to the specifications. With the wealth of features on the shooter, including the ability to adjust sharpness, we've to admit we were rather surprised to find controls for contrast and saturation missing.

On a lighter note, the NV7 does come with little treats in the form of photo frames (nine of them), composite shooting functions, voice recording, various color effects, and it records animated GIF clips which should appeal to the user on the street. To go with the whole sophisticated look, the power button lights up in a cool blue ring--just think Xbox style, but in blue.

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