Brand Name: Samsung
Model: EC-TL350ZBPBUS
Optical Sensor Resolution: 10 MP
Optical Sensor Technology: High Speed CMOS
Optical zoom: 5 x
This review is from: Samsung TL350 10.0 MP 5x Optical Zoom Digital Camera (Black)The camera arrived in a compact box containing the camera, the battery, a wall charger with USB cable, a CD-ROM containing RAW conversion software among other items, Quick Start Manual, warranty, and wrist strap. Apparently to save cost, the 131 page user's manual is located on the CD-ROM rather than provided in hard copy format. It took 2 hours and 20 minutes to fully charge the battery before the camera could be used. The charging cable is quite short about 20", so an extension cord will probably be needed to reach from the power outlet to the camera. The cable provides a relatively large red lighted arrow on the camera side when the camera is charging that turns green when the camera is fully charged. Although the cable has a standard USB profile at one end, the other end has a profile I hadn't seen before. The "mini dashboard", i.e, the two analog dials on top of the camera, one for battery charge and the other for memory usage, do not work in the charging mode. Thus, you can't see charge progress on the battery dial and need to rely on the charging light's 'not charged'/'fully charged' indicator. Operation of the TL350 is not obvious. For example, a red circled button on the camera back can be pressed to begin and end a movie, This was done to allow the shutter button to be used for still photos while recording a movie. An outstanding feature, but this implementation is not intuitively apparent. Some options are unavailable in certain modes when other modes were previously selected, which options are available or unavailable in what mode is not immediately obvious. For example the 'Image Adjust' mode for changing contrast, sharpness, or saturation appears as unavailable if any 'Photo Style" or 'Smart Filter' choice was previously made.I found a problem when I first tried to transfer images from the camera to my Windows 7 computer. The camera was not recognized. While other maker's digital cameras worked without problem via my external powered USB extender the Samsung did not. Fortunately, when I connected it directly to my computer it worked without problem. It seems Samsung's USB connection is a bit more temperamental than some others. Once operational, files transferred relatively quickly, on my system averaging about 4.5MB/second when transferring larger groups of photographs.Two, possibly helpful, points: 1)It's not necessary, and perhaps undesirable, to install the current version of the iStudio SW mentioned in Samsung's manual. Its image editing software that's not necessary for file transfer, and it may occasionally cause computer 'hangups'. 2)To conserve battery life when the camera is off and you want to view your stored photos press the playback button to accesses the playback mode only, without lens extension or start sound, and press this button again to turn the camera off when you're done. The TL350's specifications give its maximum aperture as f/2.4, at the wide end. The EXIF data with my photos shows its minimally better at 2.38. At 24mm, the f/2.4 lens is relatively sharp in the center although a bit soft at the corners, and shows some barrel distortion. In aperture priority mode the telephoto has a modest aperture range of f/5.8 to f/7.5, and the wide-angle f/2.4 to f/7.2. On my camera, the lens seems sharpest near f/2.4 at the wide and mid ranges, and around f/7 only near the 120mm setting.One nice feature is the textured right front grip which makes the camera easier to hold without dropping. Unusually, for a modestly priced camera, the TL350 provides raw, manual, aperture priority, shutter priority, and interval exposures modes, and the ability to zoom when taking movies. Its default settings produces more natural colors, less sharpened images, and less aggressive noise reduction than some of its competitors. Noise is reasonably well controlled at ISO settings of 400 and below. At lower ISO values images are quite good. ISO 80 and 100 images held up reasonably well under enlargement, although some artifacts became visible at higher enlargements. Between ISO 400 and 800 noise is clearly visible. I found ISO 800 was the highest level at which I achieved acceptable, although slightly noisy images. At ISO 1600 noise showed a rough texture. At ISO 3,200 shadows contained 'blotchy' areas of color noise, so its best employed only for emergency use. JPG images at the highest quality setting have been between 2.9 to 4.6 MB, with the occasional smaller or larger file. This camera has a number of unique and useful features, and a few, arguably, 'gimmicky' ones. Of real value is the AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) display. According to the specifications this 3" screen has a 10,000:1 contrast ratio and 920,00 pixels, this display is really ...
Detail Products
Detail Reviews
Click here for more information
»»»Visit Store NOW...
Best price click here
