Here's my user report/test of the Samsung WB650.
Solid, well made feeling, attractive and rather easy to handle.
The AMOLED display is really first rate. Bright, sharp and clear, it's
certainly not ideal in direct sun, but actually
usable where any other LCD I've tried would be hopeless. It also has a very
broad viewing angle, allowing it to be held
in positions, at angles other fixed screen cameras won't allow. Not as good as
an articulated screen, but larger and
adding less bulk and weight to the camera.
I wish it had a dedicated EV button, but the F menu makes changes relatively
painless
In close-ups, it seems the AF central point may be too big, or perhaps it's
some other thing, but it doesn't always
focus were I expect it to. I've had occasional similar trouble with the G11.
When you use manual focus, the center of
the image is magnified full screen, so focusing is pretty easy, but not great
for hand held close-ups, where I, at
least, have some trouble holding the focal distance steady during all the
fussing.
It feels very quick, especially for such a long zoom camera in such a small
size. I don't do sports and such, and found
it never got in the way with the sort of shooting I generally do. The zoom
smoothness and the fine granularity of
available FL settings is excellent.
Haven't tried the HD video yet.
I gave it a real workout, 200 shots right away. I've put just over 100 of them
in a gallery. Seems like a lot, but
there's so much to test, a wide range of focal lengths, direct sun, high
contrast, shadows, close-ups, and so on.
I commend the gallery to you for at least a casual visit. I think it says
things not only about this particular camera,
but about the state of the better current compact cameras. In spite of the
still remaining limitations of really small
sensors, they have come a loooong way and can give excellent results a fairly
broad range of circumstances.
I also think there are some excellent images there, regardless how captured.
And to those who still think you can't capture wide dynamic range landscapes
and bright red-orange-yellow flowers with
your digicams, check it out. If this camera and I can do it with a 6.16 x 4.62
mm, 0.28 cm² sensor, you should be able
to do it with an 18.00 x 13.50 mm, 2.43 cm², 4/3" sensor, let alone larger APS
and FF sensors.
So here's the pics, and a detailed commentary on what they showed me follows.
<http://galleries.moosemystic.net/MooseFoto/index.php?gallery=SFBayArea/BlakeHouse/WB650_First_Shots>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All focal length references are FF equivalents.
21. 'Normal' close focus is 80 cm @ 24 mm and 2 m @ 360 mm. The relatively
close focus at intermediate focal lengths
allows choice of perspective for close-ups. The perspective here, @ 81mm is
much nicer than @ 24 mm in #158.
23. Wow, the optical IS is amazing! 1/20 second @ 360 mm holding this small
light camera by hand, trying to hold it and
act casually so they won't notice I'm pointing the camera at them - and the
only blur is from subject motion.
27. Two things that will repeat many times in these images appear first here.
The 24 mm eq. FOV is really useful. Shoot
to the right and a very wide dynamic range is available for post, at least at
lower ISOs.
30. Another theme - nailing focus on close-ups will require more practice/care.
I'd prefer this to focus further
forward. Should have shot with longer FL and more vertically.
34. Oh My, I do love a long lens! This little girl was the only person who was
aware of what I was doing, and later
asked me to take her pic.
40. As with #30 at the WA end, this shot at the Tele end still doesn't have the
DOF I would like, and would expect from
such a small sensor and short actual focal lengths. I suspect the camera is
using ND filtering for small 'apertures' to
avoid diffraction effects.
43. Different medium, rather different visions of what's in front of us.
46. The first of several shots with the sun in or very near the frame, to
assess flare. Yes, the lens flares immediately
around the sun, and the sensor clips, but there is are no individual artifacts
beyond those local ones. I'm impressed.
This image didn't come out as I'd anticipated. It seems that the sensor system
has been overloaded in some way, dropping
overall color saturation. It's quite different, and I rather like the effect.
Next in the gallery is a version with
saturation increased.
48. Which version, with or without bright green lily pads? I like both, but the
bright green pulls attention away from
the subtle interplay of cloud reflections and underwater weed shapes.
50. Sun through thin cloud is just barely out of the frame. I'm so used to
shooting RAW, and adjusting no image
parameters in the camera that I didn't think to try turning down JPEG
sharpening. DOH! I'm hoping that may make things
like the tree silhouette nicer, with no sharpening until after down sampling
for the web.
59 & 65 I'm not necessarily unhappy with the hyper real sharpness, but had
little choice in post. I'm probably fighting
the default JPEG sharpness setting.
60. The EV setting is misleading. Using shutter control and max full tele
aperture, I shot this very dark, to hold the
highlights. The stone work looks a bit 'off' from being pulled up so far, but
the primary subjects look good. Impressive
for a long tele shot in deep shade with a few bright shafts of full sun.
Here's a shot from another day that shows the same location with a "normal"
focal length of 46mm.
<http://galleries.moosemystic.net/MooseFoto/index.php?gallery=SFBayArea/BlakeHouse/20090710&image=_MG_6755ia60.jpg>
(That girl is still keeping tabs on my movements.)
64. The girl who has been watching me whenever I'm in sight finally finds a way
to engage her fascination with me and my
camera. She bobs and weaves around while exhorting me "Take my picture!" Every
time it spears I may actually do so, up
comes the frisbee. I appears her name is Erina and she was born in 2002.
68. Having dealt with me in her own way, Erina is free to pay full attention to
her companion.
69. Light or dark?
71. Bad background, but a chance to try out close-up sharpness and DOF.
73. This house and garden belong to U of Cal. The house is the official
residence of the President of the UC system, but
not now as it awaits repair and renovation. The gardens are maintained by
students in horticulture and landscape design
as part of their curriculum. There were several installation of various kinds
from student projects around the gardens.
Some are gone, others, like this, hanging around.
76. Another example of different perspective shooting small things with long
tele. There are a few more images of these
little flowers, taken from close up to come, I like the perspective compression
of this one.
78 & 79. I like 'em both, but which better? Very different exposures, to avoid
clipping of highlights in #79. And nature
intervened to change the reflection patterns.
80. I like this a lot. Some shots' dynamic ranges are just beyond this little
sensor. I had to let the sky go - or was
it just white clouds? If I use a tripod, I might as well bring along the 5D,
too. This is about using the little camera
on its own. Still, the misty look of the light in the distant shrubbery makes
it seem as though the pat goes off into
the mist. The tonalities of the steps are carefully chosen for my monitor.
84. This just doesn't work. I'll go back and try it with JPEG sharpness turned
down. I hope that's what's making the
pagoda look edgy in a funny way.
85. Same flowers as #76; they come in several subtle ranges of color from white
to violet. Here, their relationship to
the leaves and ground is quite different than #76 and If I got down on the
ground to shoot horizontally, it would be
different yet.
87. The house mostly doesn't appeal to me visually, but this is one angle I
like. Again, shot intentionally dark to hold
the clouds.
92. As the day heats up, the gardeners tend to shed garments wherever they are.
93 & 95. Life out of Death I & II
97-99. What am I?
100. What shall I do for shot 100? How about a slightly odd angle on an almost
monochrome subject?
101. The tiny sensor just doesn't quite hold clear fine detail of some kinds.
My first shot was of a squirrel, and the
fur doesn't quite hold up, looked at closely. The detail of the knit shirt in
#127, looked at at 100%, shows very nicely
in most of the image and slightly blurry/artifacty in parts.
107. I love images of paths disappearing into the unknown just over the hill or
around a bend. Another high DR subjet
that came out OK by shooting to the right. That's the sun through the tree in
the upper right.
108. And I like abstract patterns. More high DR.
115. The sun is completely blown out, but it transitions nicely into the bright
cloud.
116. Who says leaves don't turn in Calif? Of course, this may not be a native
oak. This is looking toward the arbor and
benches of #96 from the other direction.
124. This is a color shot, the subject is almost monochrome.
140. Nothin' fancy, but I really like this different take on one of the most
photographed things in the world. The full
pixel sample seems remarkable to me in the detail visible. the lens is great
and sometimes the sensor really does the trick.
141. OK, this doesn't work, but look at the way the camera limited the flare
and clipping, without messing up anything
else. If this were a money shot, some cloning could save it.
146. Looove afternoon light and perspective compression. Viva la long lens.
148. What I said for #146, only more so!
153. I'd been having trouble with real close-ups. Another DOH! moment; I use
the tulip symbol on other cameras for
Macro, why not on this new one? The camera has an auto Macro mode, but only in
Auto control mode.
154. You are going to see more bright red and yellow flowers, shot in direct
sun, using a camera with tiny, DR
challenged sensor, with nary a blown pixel. If you are having trouble doing
that with a DSLR, don't blame it on the
camera - you are in charge.
168. Shadow-self portrait.
169. Mmmmmm Long lens.
171. Proof that the images can be pulled up a lot, but I need a shot of this
guy in better light.
175. His partner across the reflecting pool has more interesting light.
176. Feh. Blew the focus a bit. The AMOLED LED as very wide viewable angles,
but with for holding up over my head, an
articulated screen is still much better. I'd a nailed it with the G11.
179. Right out of the camera, no blown highlights, but the petals look pretty
uniformly white. Fortunately, the camera
doesn't compress the highlights so much that post can't restore the subtle
tones to visibility.
190. Man that's a lot of DOF for f3.2.
191. The picnic table in 96 is in a beautiful spot, but I like this one better.
The oak is amazing.
199. OK, so I have a thing for patterns.
200. Man, I took a lot of shot? This works for me for #200.
202. Framed!
203. Haven't I seen you hanging around here before?
Lengthy Moose
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