By Leonard Goh
01/12/2008
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/digitalcameras/0,39005881,43840698p,00.htm

The NV100HD was announced in August and it succeeds the ultra-wide-angle NV24HD. The NV100HD was a surprise then as it's one of the first point-and-shoots to house a 14.7-megapixel sensor. On top of that, Samsung has implemented a new touchscreen interface. The stylish shooter has a wealth of features that could probably satisfy those who want a camera with loads of functions, though picky photographers will find its image quality not up to expectations.

Design

The aesthetics of the NV100HD don't deviate much from its predecessor, the NV24HD. However, there are more color options available for the new shooter. Besides the typical silver or black version, the Korean firm has also released the point-and-shoot in gold with black trimmings or silver with red accents.

The NV100HD is relatively slim but definitely compact enough to ferry around even in a handbag. What we like about the package is the provision of a pouch which the camera fits snugly.

We found the popup flash on the top left of the shooter to be poorly positioned. While holding the camera with two hands, the flash would automatically (when set to auto mode) pop up in dimly lit areas and push our fingers back. First-timers we tried the camera on received a shock when this happened.

The mode dial on the top deck is placed besides the shutter button whose design didn't allow us to switch between shooting options on the fly. We had to remove our index finger from the shutter to turn the dial before we could snap a picture. While this may not be an issue for some people, we felt that the navigation could have been better.

A 3-inch touchscreen takes up most of the rear estate, with only four buttons at its side to facilitate zoom operation, menu and playback. This clean and simple layout makes the shooter look sleek and less intimidating to use at the same time.

As the NV100HD doesn't come with an external charger, and even though it is functional while charging, you can't go very far when it's tethered to the power point.

Features

At 14.7 megapixels, the NV100HD's resolution is higher than its 10-megapixel predecessor. However, unlike the NV24HD which has a 24mm ultra-wide-angle lens, the new shooter's widest viewing angle is 28mm. That said, we are satisfied with the lens on the new camera, compared to, say, Canon which has only a 33mm lens on its Digital IXUS 980 IS.

Samsung higher-end digicams are known for its SmartTouch interface where users rely on rows of buttons along the side of the LCD to navigate menus and select options. For the NV100HD, SmartTouch 2.0 is implemented. This is similar to what the previous iteration offered but which uses touchscreen operation instead. As with other touch-sensitive cameras, we could tap on any point on the screen to focus on the subject. In playback mode, we could swipe our fingers across the screen to scroll through the images, pretty much like what the iPhone is capable of. However, this was slightly laggy which dampened the experience. Nonetheless, it's a nice change from the usual button interface.

Aside from automatic and program, the NV100HD also offers manual exposure mode. Although there is a full range of shutter speeds to choose from, there are only two aperture settings for selection at any focal length. This can be a bit restrictive for shutterbugs who wish to experiment with different exposure combinations.

The advantage the NV100HD has over other 14.7-megapixel shooters would be its video-recording capability. The point-and-shoot can capture 720p-quality clips with stereo sound. These features were first implemented on the NV24HD and we are glad the new camera has it. Video clips recorded under sunlight or with ample lighting looked good in our tests, but there was some noise in the darker regions of the scene.

The lenses in the Samsung are optically stabilized and worked well when we took shots with slow shutter speeds in dimly lit areas. There is an option to use the dual image stabilizer which bumps up the ISO sensitivity, but we advise against using this function as the image quality will suffer.

A lithium-ion battery powers the NV100HD and an SD/SDHC expansion slot allows you to expand the memory on top of the 40MB internal memory.

Performance

The NV100HD's performance was quite speedy in our evaluation, making this shooter suitable for those who want a camera that can be powered up fast for quick snaps. The startup time measured slightly over 1 second, and the shutter lag was about 0.1 second.

In High-Speed burst mode, the camera rattled off around 2 frames per second (fps) for about four shots, then slowed down to about 1.5fps. This is not much of a big deal as we don't foresee using this Samsung for shooting action shots such as sports.

Focusing speed was average, but its accuracy was something we felt could be improved on. When we left the focusing mode to Multi-AF, the point-and-shoot often locked onto the wrong subject and we had to switch to Touch AF where we tapped on the subject onscreen to focus the camera properly.

Image Quality

So far, the NV100HD delivered average performance in our tests and, besides the HD-video recording function, most other features are similar to what other 14-megapixel shooters from Canon and Nikon offer. Can the Samsung camera's image quality match those of the big boys?

In our review, we realized the NV100HD had the lower ratings for image quality compared with the Coolpix S710 and Digital IXUS 980 IS. The Canon fared the best, showing plenty of details with minimal digital artifacts, while Nikon, too, did pretty well with acceptable levels of slight smudging. Images from the Samsung displayed murky details with visible speckles dotting the picture.

On its own, the pictures from the NV100HD were relatively acceptable. At ISO sensitivity of 80, images were smooth, free of noise and we could make out fine details. Going up to ISO 100, we could tell that fine lines were beginning to look blurry, and as we increased the ISO settings, more details were lost and the digital artifacts became more obvious. We found pictures taken at ISO 800 to be unusable for printing photographs (maybe 4R-sized, but nothing bigger) as it looked as though it's a watercolor painting.

For dynamic range, the NV100HD displayed as much as what other typical point-and-shoots could, but details in highlight and shadow regions were often lost.

Conclusion

The NV100HD is probably the only touchscreen 14.7-megapixel camera with HD video capture on the market right now, so those are its unique selling prepositions which distance it from its competition, namely the Nikon Coolpix S710 and Canon Digital IXUS 980 IS. However, fussy shutterbugs who want quality images should probably consider other options as we found the pictures from the Samsung camera to be slightly below average.