Test the Samsung NV40
Samsung NV40 review
Date of Revision: May 8, 2008 Author: Mark Goldstein
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Page 1
Introduction / Ease of use
Page 2
Image quality
Page 3
Sample Images
Page 4
Design
page 5
Features
page 6
Conclusion
introduction
Announced in January, the stylish Samsung NV40 is a new addition to the now extensive range of NV-branded compact digital cameras (12 in total). As with the rest of the NV range, the NV40 uses the same Smart Touch interface unique, which completely removes the traditional camera menu system. The Samsung NV40 offers 10 megapixel resolution, 3x zoom lens with true optical image stabilization, 2.5 inch LCD screen, face detection , an ISO range of 80-3200, and a full manual shooting mode for the most experienced photographers. New features include Auto Contrast Balance, which compensates for backlight conditions, Self-Portrait Mode, and a photo style selection with 7 types of photo style effects.Mark Goldstein found out if the Samsung NV40 has enough style and substance to justify its $199/$280 price tag and stand out from the crowd.
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Ease of use
With a sleek and substantial metal body (also available in black) and two mysterious rows of unlabeled buttons on the back, the Samsung NV40 is a radical departure from your everyday compact digital camera. stands for New Voyage, and in terms of the NV40's look and feel, Samsung certainly delivered. From the front, it looks like a sleek, but fairly conventional digital camera. is so different from the norm.
There is a distinctive blue ring around the NV40's 3x optical zoom lens (34-102mm), indicating that it is quality Schneider optics. Samsung is trying to do something similar to the Canon's red ring (used to denote its "L" series pro SLR lenses) and uses the blue ring to denote its highest quality digital cameras. Focus assist, there's a built-in flash above the lens, along with a minimal but effective vertical grip that ensures you can hold the camera securely.
The rear of the NV40 is where things get really interesting. There's a 2.5-inch LCD screen surrounded by a vertical row of 6 square buttons on the right and 7 buttons on the bottom. A single button is labeled, the OIS/Back button, and there's also a Play button. The rocker zoom lever becomes the zoom button when reviewing footage you've taken, while the metal strap eyelet of the camera cleverly doubles as a handy place to hold the camera with your right thumb. So what do these unlabeled buttons actually do? Samsung calls them smart buttons, briefly explaining in the user guide that are "used to move the menu cursor to select or confirm the selected menu". Not the greatest of explanations, I'm sure you'll agree!
What Samsung has actually done is replace the conventional main menu system of most cameras (usually accessed via the Menu button) with a pop-up system that is always displayed on screen. Depending on the shooting mode of view currently selected, each button corresponds to a specific option, for example the autofocus mode, which is represented by an icon on the LCD screen. Simply press the corresponding vertical or horizontal button to display and select the sub-options for that feature. You can also scroll through the options by simply moving your thumb up or down, left or right on the touch buttons.
More importantly, being able to see the entire menu system on screen makes it much easier to understand and access. You no longer have to try to remember which menu there is a particular option. The downside is that the icons, although quite small and unobtrusive, are displayed all the time, superimposed on the live image preview. If you find this really irritating, Samsung has provided a solution in the menu of configuration.Simply change the OSD setting option to Hide, and the icons will disappear from the screen after 3 seconds of inactivity, then reappear instantly when you press any of the smart buttons again.
Rear controls
Superior controls
I initially found Samsung's tactile smart button system more groundbreaking than effective, but once I discovered the Hide option and used it for a while, it became much more intuitive, making the various menu options much more accessible and accelerated. camera operation. This is a very brave step from Samsung as it may put some buyers off (particularly because it takes some getting used to), but overall it's also a great idea. There are still some weak points. In some shooting modes, there are simply more options than there are buttons. Samsung solved this problem by switching the button on the bottom to the right between two rows of options. Press once to bring up and choose the second row, press again to return to the default row. This kinda works, but you have to try to remember what options are in the second hidden line. More importantly, the touch buttons aren't the most accurate way to select options that use on-screen sliders, such as exposure compensation and in particular shutter speed.
The top and bottom of the Samsung NV40 are more conventional. There's a small, recessed power button, a touch-sensitive shutter button, and a conventional mode dial on the top for selecting different shooting modes (more on these later). A new addition is a second dial on the left (looking from the back of the camera) that defines photo styling. At the bottom is a centrally positioned plastic tripod mount and the battery/memory card compartment. Overall the Samsung NV40 is superbly built making it a premium product. The metal body is indestructible, everything is well positioned and all the different controls are designed and finished by high standards. The Samsung NV40 is definitely a camera you'll want to show off to friends and family, and one that should survive more than a few bumps and scrapes.
The NV40 is the first compact Samsung NV to feature a proper mechanical anti-shake system, which can be activated in any shooting/scene mode. Turn it on and the camera automatically compensates for camera shake. the camera, which is a slight blurring of the image that usually occurs at slow shutter speeds when the camera is hand-held. In practice, I have found this to make a noticeable difference , as shown in the examples on the
Image quality
page. You don't notice the camera doing anything different when anti-shake is on, just that you can use slower than normal shutter speeds and still take sharp photos. the activated anti-shake system did not negatively affect battery life, with the camera managing around 200 shots using the supplied rechargeable lithium-ion battery.
The Face Detection feature can detect up to nine different faces and automatically set the correct focus and exposure, as well as remove red-eye. In practice, this won't make too much of a difference to the more experienced photographer, because there's the tendency to pre-focus the subject - and obviously a face if you're taking a portrait - before fully pressing the shutter button. It will prove most useful for the novice user who just want to take a good portrait without worrying about anything. I didn't notice a noticeable difference between having face detection settings on or off in terms of focus speed, so I just adjusted the camera on the latter.
Manual mode gives you full control over aperture and shutter speed. It's quite surprising to find this on what is primarily a style-focused camera, but very welcome nonetheless. When you press down to press the shutter button halfway, the camera tells you how much the resulting image will be underexposed or overexposed at the current shutter speed and aperture by displaying the exposure compensation symbol and a plus or minus value, with values greater than +-2 indicated in red. It's a simple system that works fairly well, although there are some notable drawbacks. touch user to quickly and accurately select a shutter speed. More importantly, only two aperture values are available, for example f/2.8 and f/7.0 when the lens is set to wide angle, which may explain why oi there is no aperture priority mode. This effectively restricts what you can do, but I would still rather have a limited manual mode than no manual mode at all.
Memory card slot
Battery compartment
The new Photo Style dial on the top of the camera offers direct access to Normal mode and 7 additional special effects (Soft, Vivid, Forest, Retro, Cool, Calm, Classic). When you turn the dial, a preview of the current effect is displayed on the LCD. If you want a quick and easy way to change the look of your photos in the camera, or if you don't have access to a computer, the are very effective. Remember that the photo is only taken in the specific mode you have selected - unlike some other cameras, a "normal" copy of the image is also not saved. The Auto Contrast Balance feature does what it says on the tin - automatically adjusts the contrast of a photo by measuring darkness and brightness. This is particularly useful when the main subject of the image is dark on a dark background. -very clear shot. In this case the NV40 will lighten the subject so that it is correct ly exposed, but note that it does so at the expense of losing background detail.
If you've never used a digital camera before or are upgrading from a more basic model, reading the easy-to-follow manual before you start is a good idea, even if it's not isn't exactly the deepest read. Luckily, Samsung has chosen to provide it in printed format rather than PDF on CD, so you can also take it with you. The 2.5-inch LCD screen is the only way to frame your shots, so if you must have an optical viewfinder, look elsewhere now. Samsung used a screen with a perfectly acceptable 230,000 pixels that is visible in all but the brightest sunlight. used to represent camera settings are clear and readable, which is a good thing given the camera's primarily visual operation.
The startup time from powering on the Samsung NV40 to getting ready to shoot is fast at less than a second, and it takes 1 second to zoom from the widest to the longest focal length. Focusing is fast in good light, and the camera focuses mostly indoors or in low-light situations. The visibility and refresh rate of the 2.5-inch LCD monitor are good. It takes less than a second to store a JPEG image, allowing you to continue taking photos while they're saved to the memory card - there's a very short LCD blackout between each frame. In the fastest continuous mode, the camera shoots 3 frames per second for only 3 frames, which is somewhat limiting. As with the NV20 model, you cannot use the flash at all in the shooting modes of continuous view. Overall, the Samsung NV40 is quite fast in t operating speed limits.
Once you've captured a photo, the Samsung NV40 has a pretty good range of options for playing, reviewing and managing your images. You can instantly scroll through the images you've taken using the touch sensitive smart buttons , view 9 thumbnails and zoom in and out up to 11x magnification.You can view slideshows with audio, set print order, delete, protect, rotate, crop and resize image.Various effects can be applied to an image (Color Filter, Shaded, Elegant, Add Noise). Note that there is no histogram available during shooting or playback.
In summary, the Samsung NV40 is an innovative, stylish and well-built digital camera. The smart touch menu system takes some getting used to and won't be to everyone's taste, but works surprisingly well in the practice.
Page 1
Introduction / Ease of use
Page 2
Image quality
Page 3
Sample Images
Page 4
Design
page 5
Features
page 6
Conclusion
PhotographyBLOG is a member of
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organization. Our test results for the Samsung NV40 were submitted to
DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model provided by others
DIWA
member sites.
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PhotographyBLOG support: Buy the Samsung NV40 from one of our affiliated retailers: