Samsung ST500

Give it to Samsung, they've come up with a lot of innovation on their compact cameras. The 12.2-megapixel ST500, with its 3" touchscreen on the back and 1.5" screen on the front , crams so many features into its slim little body that we're not quite sure where to start.

Front LCD

The camera's main selling point is its front LCD screen, which if you've seen the ads is there to help you compose your shot when taking a picture of yourself. If you don't like ask other people to take a photo, then this camera is for you. It can also display animations to catch children's attention or display a countdown timer when using the self-timer. touch and works quite well, although it sometimes takes a few presses to activate.

Touch to focus

We love the touch focus method of the iPhone and we're very happy to see Samsung implement it on the ST500's rear touch screen. It of course offers a host of face detection options, including smiles, blink detection, and something Samsung calls smart face recognition. With this, you can register six people manually and 14 people automatically as 'Stars', with the ST500 then being able to pick them out in a crowd. and set the correct focus and exposure specifically for them.

Even more

Samsung didn't stop there. Another feature we liked was the Smart Gesture UI, which lets you simply tilt the camera to select the mode you want. Although it's limited to selecting Movie, Smart Auto or Program mode and none of the other features is a step in the right direction and we can see the future possibilities of this feature. Also, there is a Recycle Bin to restore photos you have deleted , an excellent Smart Auto mode that worked brilliantly, and 720p HD video recording, although we did miss an HDMI port to hook it up to an HD display.

Too much

All in all, there are a bunch of features to keep track of. Almost too many, and that's a problem. You really have to spend some time with the camera and the manual to figure out how to activate some of the features. neither do things, information about what a certain icon does can really quickly disappear from the screen.

Display issues

Another big drag is the 3" screen on the back. With no optical viewfinder, you're really dependent on the screen for focusing, but also for image playback. The problem is that the screen is made up of 230,000 pixels, compared to for example Canon's S90 with 461,000 (the S90 costs around R2500 more). when viewing a scene and when reviewing your photos. This makes, for example, using the touch focus feature difficult, as we were never quite sure if the subject was in focus or not. In camera mode, the actual display shrinks to about 2.5", so you have even fewer pixels to compose your shot.

Conclusion

If you make the effort to familiarize yourself with the ST500 you may find the functionality you want, but Samsung could have done a better job with the LCD on the back by stuffing more pixels. doesn't find the same amount of use of the LCD screen on the front, it helps sometimes. The R2999 seems like a reasonable asking price for the ST500, especially with the 720p HD video recording feature and a host of additional features.

ADVANTAGES

Touch focus, 720p HD video, Smart Gesture UI, smart face recognition, optical and digital stabilization.

THE INCONVENIENTS

Lack of pixels on rear LCD screen, hard to keep track of all features.