Gary Wolstenholme takes a look at Samsung's waterproof WP10, which can resist water to a depth of three metres.
Samsung's WP10 costs around £120 and is a water resistant camera capable of depths of up to three metres, which should make it ideal for use by the beach, swimming pool or even for a bit of snorkelling. It's the only water resistant compact Samsung currently make, but is priced so that it is not out of reach of those on a budget.
Samsung WP10: Features Within the sealed waterproof body Samsung have provided a 5x optical zoom lens, covering a range equivalent to 35-175mm on a 35mm camera, and a 12 megapixel sensor for recording images. HD video can also be recorded at resolutions up to 720p and HDMI connectivity is included for seamless integration with your television set.
The usual array of detections found on modern digital cameras is included, such as Face Detection, Blink Detection, Scene Recognition in the Smart Auto Mode and Smile Detection, so that you can take a step back and leave the technical stuff to the camera. A variety of automatic scene programs are also available, including the Aqua mode, which optimises the camera for underwater shooting. Digital image stabilisation is provided to help iron out camera shake, which is a welcome addition, although a mechanical solution would be more effective.
I’m expecting Samsung’s cameras the most in 2010. With this expectation, Samsung WP10 has been released. It has stylish and elegant color and design. It also has waterproof function with great camera performances. With the WP10, style. will never get wet.
Samsung’s First Waterproof camera
Now is the Rain Scene
It’s so impressive as the first waterproof camera. It’s not a touch camera, but as a cute waterproof camera, it has user friendly and great performance. It allows up to 3m waterproof and dustproof. It also supports Smart Auto(16 modes), Perfect Portrait System, 1280x720p 30fps H.264 format HD move recording, and 35-175mm optical 5x zoom lens. The beginning – It’s another evolution of Samsung compact digital cameras.
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Smart and Easy
Small, Simple with great performance
The WP10 has not only waterproof function, but also Smart Auto for still images and videos, Smart Album, Smart Filter, and Perfect Portrait system. It’s a waterproof camera for summer, but it’s not just a waterproof camera. It has all functions as a multi playing camera.
Image Edit : Resize Trimming Photo , Style. Selector : Normal, Soft, Vivid, Forest, Retro, Cool, Calm, Classic, Negative, Custom RGB Special Effect : Color Filter, Elegant, Add Noise Image Adjust : Face Retouch, Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Red
Image Play
Single image, Thumbnails, Smart Album, Advanced Slide show, Movie Clip * Slide show : Slide show with Effect & Music - Smart Album Category: Type, Date, Color, Week, Face, Favorite (External Memory card is needed for Sorting the photos by Face)
Voice Recording
Voice Recording (max. 10 hours) Voice Memo in Still Image (max. 10 sec.)
Date Imprinting
Date&Time, Date, Off (user selectable)
Movie Clip
Recording
With Audio or without Audio (Zoom Mute)
(Max Recording time : 20min) Size : 1280x720(30/15fps) High Quality,
1280x720(30/15fps) Standard Quality, 640x480(30/15fps) , 320x240 (60/30/15 fps) * Due to noise while optical zooming the mic is turned off.
1M : 1024x768 pixels, 9MW : 3840 x 2160 pixels, 2MW : 1920x1080 pixels, 10MP : 3984 x 2656 pixels
Interface
Digital Output Connector
USB 2.0
Audio
Microphone : Mono Internal Speaker : Mono
Video Out
AV : NTSC, PAL (user selectable) SCC-AV20
DC power input
4.2V
Power Source
Rechargeable battery : BP70A
(Included battery may vary depending on sales region.)
Physical Specification
Dimensions (WxHxD)
93.8 x 61 x 18.5mm (excluding protrusions)
Weight
Approx. 121g (without battery and card)
Operating Temperature
0 ~ 40 °C
Operating Humidity
5 ~ 85%
Software
Intelli Studio
Compact Camera for all
Anytime, anywhere, anyone
When it comes to a waterproof camera, people think of a lot of things. If it has only a waterproof function, it’s not that useful in its camera functions, but it’s different in the WP10. Even though it has no shock protection function, it has 3m waterproof and dustproof function with 12M pixels sensor and optical 5x zoom lens which is similar to other compact cameras.
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It might become a heroin of Samsung digital cameras in 2010. 2.7” TFT LCD takes more vivid and dynamic moment and stylish life. It also has Aqua mode as an optimized mode in water.
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Images taken in water
Images taken in water
Images taken in water
Stylish Design
Samsung WP10
The WP10 comes in 4 colors such as Blue, Black, Red, and Yellow. Its unique colors and tones allow users to have different life style. The small difference in color makes more accomplished life style.
In the 18.5mm slim body, it has optical 5x inner zoom lens. Self Timer lamp/AF assist light and flash are located in the left side of the lens. The front shows minimalism design with lines finishing the front.
On the left side, USB/AV/DC input port with steel cover is located and black latch prevent the cover from opening. A microphone is located on the right side.
Waterproof with Rubber packing
The USB charge cover on the left side is covered with rubber packing for waterproof. A strap ring is located on the left bottom.
2.8” 230K pixels LCD,
more vivid in water
2.7” (6.9cm) 230K pixels TFT LCD is located on the back and the buttons are in the convenient position to control. It’s a little small and dense, but its protruding design is rather convenient with its accustomed interface. It allows magnificent color and vivid images in water and land.
Lithium-ion battery
SD/SDHC Memory
A tripod hole, battery chamber, and memory card slot are located on the bottom. The battery is 3.7V 740mAh slim Li-Ion BP70A and it can take up to 180 shots (Based on CIPA standard) and 70 minutes of videos. It can also be charged through USB cable and using AV adapter, it takes 150 minutes to be fully charged.
Memory is SD/SDHC and up to 32GB can be applied with SDHC. Battery and memory are inserted into the bottom and the cover is protected by rubber cap and latch.
02_Smart Auto & Smart Album
Simple control with convenient functions
Smart Auto for beginners is supported. Smart Auto is a function to help everyone take great pictures. Because it automatically recognizes the situation without a lot of settings, users can get right pictures. 16 different scenes can be recognized.
Program Auto Smart Auto - Backlight
Program Auto Smart Auto - Backlight
<Smart Auto>
Backlight - Portrait Close up - Portrait
Close up Close up - color
Landscape Night
Scene mode for optimized shooting mode
This also helps users take great shots with setting and mode. Various 14 modes such as Aqua, Beauty Shot, Frame. Guide, Night Scenery, Portrait, Children, Landscape, Macro, and so on are supported and users can select the mode they want and optimize the settings before taking shots.
Program Auto Scene mode - Backlight
Program Auto Scene mode - Backlight
When Night Scenery mode is selected, aperture and shutter speed can slightly be adjusted with options. Aperture can be selected from 3 options Auto/3.6/8.1 and shutter speed can also be chosen from Auto/1s/1.5s/2s/3s/4s/6s/8s. That means a manual shooting is possible for Night Scenery.
Scene mode - Night : F8.1 , 2s
Scene mode - Night : F8.1 , 4s
Skin Correction
Beauty Shot
By pushing the mode button, Beauty shot can be selected in Scene mode. It can adjust skin brightness and correction level, and the corrected pictures can be saved in the camera. After setting the level, in Recognition mode, smile shot or self guide mode can be used. When the face is not recognized well, a message pops up and gives information.
Program Auto Beauty Shot (Face Tone 1 / Retouch 1)
Beauty Shot (Face Tone 2 / Retouch 2) Beauty Shot (Face Tone 2 / Retouch 2)
If the correction is too strong, pictures might be a little awkward, so I think level 1 of brightness and level 2 of skin correction are appropriate.
Face Tone 1 / Retouch 2 Face Tone 2 / Retouch 2
Self Portrait
When taking self shots, it’s not easy to confirm the position of my face. Let’s use Self Portrait function at that time. When the face is recognized in the screen, it makes beep sound in order to locate the face on the right position.
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Pictures taken with Self Portrait
Blink Detection
You might have an experience to blink eyes when taking shots. This has been developed for that experience. When it detects blink, it automatically takes one more shot.
Smart Filter
By using Smart Filter function, it allows unique pictures with various effects like DSLR lenses. Vignetting and Fish Eye filter are supported.
Cameras are not getting very well with water, especially, when it’s raining. I bet you understand what I mean if you have experience to try to close the camera bag with a plastic bag. It’s true that most of the lenses with a few exceptions are weak to water and rain. However, Samsung has released a waterproof camera, the WP10.
The WP10 comes with 4 colors and includes an optical 5x zoom inner zoom lens having a waterproof cap inside.
Looking at the front from the simple power and shutter button on the top, you will see the neat design of this product. Especially, in order to have the international standard which I will explain later, it has only an inner zoom lens on the front without flash and assist light. As a waterproof camera, the inner zoom has an advantage, because it can zoom without protruding the lens. That means it can protect the lens from water. It has 175mm of focal length and F3.6-4.8. It also has 1/2.33” (7.79mm) CCD with effective 12.2M pixels.
On the side of the WB10, USB cable port is located and it’s like USB cable for everything such as, recharge, data transfer, and video output. On the back side, SD/SDHC memory card and battery chamber are located and taking a closer look at it, you will see water and dust proofing shield made of rubber.
This shield is necessary. How well is the camera protected from dust and water? The WP10 has gathered IP6X for dust-proofing and IP8X for water proofing. IP gathered from IEC(International Electrotechnical Commission) means ‘Ingress Protection’ not Internet Protocol. Like the above table, the left is for dust with IP6x and the right is for water with IP8X. And the number is the level and the higher is the better. However, this isn’t about chemical materials, so it will be damaged if rubbing it with a chemical product.
I explained so hard, and take look at it. I put it in water.
It’s recorded by the WP10. The sound of water flowing was also recorded well. This product supports up to 20 minutes of recording in 720HQ and 1 hour for standard quality.
After the waterproofing issues, let’s take a look at the functions. The WP10 supports 4 modes and Smart Aufor comes first.
Samsung has invested a lot for Smart Auto. That’s why the category and process has been drastically developed. Especially, a lot of modes for nature and portrait have been added. Smart Auto has been made to take great landscape and portrait shots even by the small change of the lens angle. As a compact camera, it supports great portrait shooting features with 4 portrait modes among 16 scene modes of Smart Auto.
The performance of the WP10 can also be checked in Program Mode. It supports various image sizes from 12M pixels with 4000x3000 size to 1M pixels with 1024x768 size, ISO 80 to 3200, Auto Focus including tracking AF, and Smart Filter such as Vignetting and Fish eye effects.
It’s not only the concern of the manufacturers, but also of reviewers. I think it will be used in a sea and swimming pool with friends and lovers at first and also considering that it has received the highest standard for dust, not only waterproofing, I will also be used for people enjoying extreme sports like related Internet clubs. I think we need explanation for this, because portrait shots are the most important when traveling.
The WP10 supports 5 kinds of portrait shooting options. Standard is usually selected most of the time and it automatically recognizes up to 10 faces. Then, there’s Smart Face Recognition and the second one is when My Star is not registered.
It has Face Registration registering up to 14 faces orderly and My Start registering up to 8 faces. When registering a face in My Star after taking 5 shots from different angles, it’s marked with ‘*’ and focus and exposure are automatically set for this face.
It also supports Self, Smile, and Blink Detection, so with the WP10, you will no longer worry about water when taking shots of your lovers, friends, and family.
In Scene mode of the WP10 supporting 14 various modes, Aqua mode has been added and located on the top.
When selecting this mode called Aqua mode, on the first page, it says that you have to check the battery and USB cover closed firmly. Users don’t really have many options to choose in Aqua mode, but please set the flash and use it while taking shots in water.
When it comes to video recording allowing up to 20 minutes in 720HQ and 1 hour in SQ, the WP10 also supports Smart Scene Recognition recording. Especially, by using Vignetting or Fish eye effects in high quality, you can take rainy streets or I also want to recommend taking shots with the sea as a background.
I don’t want you to consider the WP10 is just an item to take to Swimming pool in summer. Dustproof and waterproofing mean endless usage of compact cameras which have not been before. For example, you don’t have to worry about water and mud when taking fish, shooting in a rainy day, and enjoying fishing or MTB. One more happiness is that you don’t actually need to just push the shutter when you go out with your family with the WP10. Now you can have fun together with your family.
