In summary
Available in ‘Noble Wine’, ‘Indigo Blue’ or ‘Milk Silver’ colours, Samsung’s Digimax V700 is a step up from the standard point-and-shoot digicam, with some additional features that will attract more experienced photographers. The lightweight aluminium body feels solid and comfortable – although we have some concerns about the durability of the tether for the DC-in AV-out port cover. However, the battery/card compartment closes securely and the tripod socket is well positioned and the button controls, though small, are logically positioned. The viewfinder eyepiece is, unfortunately, rather small and not diopter adjustable. . . [more]
Full review
Rating (out of 10)
Build: 7.5
Ease of use: 8.0
Image quality: 7.5
Value for money: 8.5
Available in ‘Noble Wine’, ‘Indigo Blue’ or ‘Milk Silver’, Samsung’s Digimax V700 is a step up from the standard point-and-shoot digicam, with some additional features that will attract more experienced photographers. The lightweight aluminium body feels solid and comfortable – although we have some concerns about the durability of the tether for the DC-in / AV-out port cover. However, the battery/card compartment closes securely, the tripod socket is well positioned and the button controls, though small, are logically positioned. The viewfinder eyepiece is, unfortunately, rather small and not diopter adjustable.
The V700’s 7-megapixel CCD chip is partnered with a Schneider-Kreuznach Varioplan 3x optical zoom lens, which promises high picture quality. The lens can focus to within 4cm in macro mode and up to 10x digital zoom extends its optical range. Photographers can record still images in uncompressed TIFF format, and select from eight JPEG image sizes and three compression levels. In-camera re-sizing is possible for large JPEG files. MPEG-4 movie clips are recordable at VGA, QVGA or QQVGA resolution with frame rates of 15 or 30fps. Voice clips can also be recorded. Unusually in the current market, a 128MB card is supplied with the camera, giving purchasers the chance to record 4 TIFF images or up to 36 high-resolution JPEGs immediately. The lithium-ion battery is supplied with a separate charger.
Most essential camera settings are accessed via a mode dial with P, A, S and M shooting modes plus auto and movie settings. The Scene mode contains 11 selectable pre-sets for situations such as Portrait, Children, Landscape, Close-up and Text and a My Set mode supports three customisable set-ups. The rear panel sports a 2.0-inch TFT colour LCD with buttons tagged ‘+/-‘, ‘AEL’ and ‘MF’ ranged down its left side. The arrow pad has a central Menu/OK button plus quick access to the flash, self-timer, voice memo and macro/play & pause functions. Separate buttons are provided for the display and play mode settings.
Although superficially simple to use, the V700’s idiosyncratic menu system makes some controls hard to reach and you must read the manual to discover how many settings are adjusted. For example, you can only adjust aperture and shutter speed settings in the A, S and M modes. In the latter, pressing the ‘AEL’ selects between apertures and shutter speeds, while jogging the lever around the shutter button changes the settings. Eight aperture settings are provided, along with a full range of shutter speeds from 1/2000 to 15 seconds (the latter only accessible in manual mode).
Some novel settings are included to extend photographers’ scope, among them a set of colour adjustments that let you add or subtract varying degrees of red, green or blue to or from the image palette. These are set via the four-way controller. Two Effects menus are provided, the first covering colour effects (B&W, sepia and negative) and the second with three settings: Highlight, Composite and Photo Frames. Highlight contains three pre-set focus frames that allow the photographer to isolate a subject by putting its surroundings into soft focus. Composite lets users combine two to four images into a single file, while Photo Frame provides a choice of three borders for adding to an existing image.
Another innovative feature is the Movie Clip Stabiliser setting, which uses digital frame cropping to minimise the effect of camera shake when movies are recorded. Its effectiveness varies with different shooting situations but, because this function reduces effective resolution in a similar way to a digital zoom control, the end result is not as good as you obtain from cameras with optical image stabilisation. In-camera movie clip trimming is also supported.
The test camera produced images with moderate saturation levels, good overall colour accuracy and low chromatic aberration. Images were sharp and noise was invisible in low light shots at ISO 100 and negligible at ISO 400. The flash could illuminate an average-sized room at all ISO levels and the white balance produced acceptable colours with both the auto and manual settings but failed to totally correct for the warm cast of incandescent lighting.
The V700 took just over a second to start up and extend its lens and only one second to shut down. We measured an average capture lag of 1.05 seconds, which reduced to 0.3 seconds with pre-focusing. The burst mode recorded three shots at 2.6 second intervals, regardless of the selected resolution. [23]
IMATEST RESULTS
Excellent image resolution and very low potential for aliasing (jaggies). Image files from this camera should be printable up to A3 size.
Despite a strange-looking plot, chromatic aberration is low enough to be barely visible in normal photographs.
Overall saturation is modest but orange, red are blue are boosted and colour shifts can be seen in yellows and greens. These should be correctable with editing software.
The above chart confirms the L*a*b* colour error results and suggests that noise will be problematic at high ISO settings.
Specifications
Image sensor: 7.18 x 5.32mm CCD with 7.4 million photosites (7.1 megapixels effective)
Lens: Schneider-Kreuznach Varioplan 7.8-23.4mm f2.8-5.1 zoom lens (38-114mm in 35mm format)
Zoom ratio: 3x optical, up to 10x digital
Dimensions (wxhxd): 105 x 56.5 x 29.5mm
Weight: 150g (without battery and card)
Image formats: Stills – JPEG (Exif 2.2), TIFF; Movies – AVI (MPEG-4)/WAV (VGA, QVGA, QQVGA at 30/15fps)
Shutter speed range: 8-1/2000 sec (to 15 sec in manual mode)
Focus system/range: TTL-AF; range 80cm to infinity; macro 4-80 cm
Exposure metering/control: Multi/Spot metering; P, A, S, M plus 11 scene modes
White balance: Auto, daylight, cloudy, fluorescent (x2), tungsten, custom (x2)
Flash modes/range (ISO auto): Auto, red-eye reduction. Slow sync, fill-in, off; range 0.2-3.0 m
ISO range: Auto, ISO 50, 100, 200, 400
Storage Media: 128MB Secure Digital card; holds 4 TIFF images, 36 high-resolution images or up to 808 VGA shots
Viewfinder: Real-image optical
LCD monitor: 2.0-inch TFT colour LCD (118,000 pixels)
Power supply: SLB-1137 Lithium-ion rechargeable battery
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