Review: Samsung Camera ES70

”Review: Samsung Camera ES70”

* Specifications *

-12.2M pixels

-35mm angle (27-135mm) 5x optical zoom

-2.7” LCD

-VGA 30fps movie

-Digital Image Stabilization

* Appearance *

Front: Samsung lens is attached.

 

Reverse: 2.7” LCD and buttons

Right side: letter “12.2M pixels” and speaker

 

Left Side: Strap ring and USB/AV/DC input port cover.

 

Top: Model name, Power button, and shutter

Bottom: Battery and Memory card slot and tripod mount hole.

The ES70 is made of aluminum, so among compact cameras, it’s smaller and light.

If it’s too rounded, it sometimes caused worse grip especially for a person

with large hands, but the ES70 is not too rounded, so it’s quite stable to grab it.

Especially, the slated shutter makes fingers more comfortable.

* Shooting 1: Smart Auto *

The ES70 is a full automatic camera, because it has no manual mode and half manual mode (Aperture/Shutter speed priority mode).

Based on the selected metering mode, it works in a program mode.

Instead, it supports Smart Auto which automatically recognizes the situations and sets the camera to the optimized mode.

With pushing Mode button located on the right center, selecting Smart Auto, the ES70 automatically sets the best shooting mode among 16 modes. (Selected mode is displayed on the left top of the LCD as an icon.)

These are the shooting modes selected in Smart Mode

Icons showing the status of Smart Auto mode

 

When lining up dulls for sample shots, Smart Auto automatically sets the Macro.

* Shooting 2: Photo Style Selector *

Without using editing software, various effects/colors can be applied to shooting.

After shooting, they also can be applied in the camera.

By pushing Fn button, Photo Style can be selected.

This is the color comparison of normal and each style.

Normal                      /                         Soft

Normal                     /                        Vivid

Normal                     /                     Forest

Normal                   /                    Retro

Normal                  /                   Cool

Normal                  /                   Calm

Normal                   /                   Classic

Moreover, it supports reverse mode and user setting mode.

Especially, user setting mode allows users to adjust

R/G/B on their own to get the right colors.

Normal                   /                 Custom

In conclusion,

At the moment (March, 2010), there are a lot of cameras similar to the ES70 in specifications at a similar price. Even though the specifications are similar, I don’t think there are a lot of cameras as great as the ES70 in the price and compact size.

For those who consider aperture and shutter speed is useless and a compact digital camera is heavy, and need a sub camera at a reasonable price, I strongly recommend the ES70.