A: Heavy camera for professional use
B: Small and stylish portable camera for you to be able to take pictures anytime you want
What kind of camera do you need?If your answer is B. This review can help you.　
If you like to have some fun operating a camera, and want to take pictures easily with a stylish camera, Samsung compact digital camera, ST10 will be appealing to you.
Especially, since many users are sharing pictures with others by uploading them on their internet homepage or blog, compact camera users are increasing. And they usually want to carry a camera everywhere.
Now taking pictures have become a popular habit. Lots of users are female, and they want a small camera that fits into a petite purse. But so far, the compact cameras with high portability have been not so good in its functions.
However, thanks to development of digital technology, recently released digital cameras have improved a lot in its functions and features. Samsung’s VLUU series also have introduced a variety of cameras to meet users’ diverse demand.
In the preview of ST10, we’ve looked at its design and functions. So now I want to focus on its functions in detail and how well they work.My personal impression of it after I’ve taken a few shots was that I could definitely see the improvement from the compact digital cameras form several years ago.
ST10’s appearance looks similar to other compact digital cameras in that it’s quite small in size.
ST10 comes in several colors, and the one I got was metal silver/white two-toned product.
This color is good for both men and women compared to other colors. (not that it’s different in its specification)I’ll go over in detail below.
I saw silver, red, and black ST10, and personally I liked silver. Red and black are also attractive, but I like silver because you don’t get easily bored with the color. And it’s not simple silver but more of metal grey color, and the rotating cover on the front is made with chrome like mirror. The backside with LCD is white tone which matches well with small compact camera. It’s just my personal opinion, though. :)
What comes to your mind when you look at the chrome rotating cover on the front?
Beeping sound notifies you when the face locates on the center of the screen. (On/Off available)
Self guide is useful when you take self-shots. When the subject’s face is placed on the center of the screen, the beeping sound gets faster. From now on, there’ll be no failed pictures with half of your face or only one person’s face out of two.
The chrome rotating cover on the front can also work as a mirror. If you use it well, it can help take better self-shots. If you turn this rotating cover, the lens of ST10 comes out, and you can check your facial expressions or background on this mirror-like cover while looking at the lens. Its main target is young people, who enjoy taking self pictures daily or when traveling. In those cases, it’ll be the functional bonus for you.
Operation of ST10 is simple but unique. Power turns on when you turn the lens cover to open, and it turns off when you turn the lens cover back. Normally, it protects the lens, and when you turn on the camera, it works like a power button. It is efficient, but this ON/OFF type can be strange to some people.
Basically, when you open the lens cover, it takes about a second to get ready for shooting. Getting into the shooting mode is also pretty fast, so it has good responding time when you quickly want to capture a moment with your digital camera.
If opening and closing the lens cover is troublesome for you, you may use the power button on the top for ON/OFF while the lens cover is opened.
I’ve talked about the design and noticeable ON/OFF with rotating lens cover of ST10 first. But if we only know about this, it is still far from actually getting ready to use it. So from now on, we’ll take a look at the various functions and capability of ST10. If you know more, you can do better. More functions you know, the easier you can take pictures with your digital camera.
Explanation about each part of ST10 digital camera can be redundant since its basic interface is very simple. In my opinion, if you’re older than elementary school students, you can operate it without reading manual. You can see that there’s a ON/OFF button separate from lens cover. I mentioned this before, but since turning the lens cover every time can bother you, so be aware that you can also ON/OFF the camera with power button.
You can record size 800x600 video, so there’s a speaker on the front, and AF assist light ad self-timer lamp on the upper left side. You need to be careful not to block the lights with your finger when you soot in dark places. Multi-functional connecter is used for charging, and connecting USB or A/V. Since you can connect everything with one connector, you don’t need complex connectors. Battery and SD memory holder is combined at the bottom of ST10. You can stick in the SD memory by slight pushing, and when you remove it, push it one more time so it smoothly pops out. To put in the battery, you can turn the supporting clip to the side and put it in. And you can also take it out by slightly turning the clip. Personally, I like its neat design and interface but wish that battery holder was metal, not plastic.
Basic composition touch pen/ Hanging the camera by its hand strap
What is noticeable is the operation part on the back. It is extremely simple even as a compact digital camera, but it is because it contains touch (Haptic) function on the 3 inch LCD monitor. Only the basic buttons are placed outside, and other settings are operated through touching on the screen by a touch pen or finger. It has recently popular Haptic function which has been used in cell phones and PMPs. Also, minute vibration is offered to each touch. It gives you the feedback, so you don’t have to depend on the touch sound in noisy places.
Since you can touch it with a pen or finger, so if you want to take a quick photo, just touch it to select functions and setting.
ST10’s 3 inch hvGA LCD allows touch and drag. On the marked part, every menu for functional setting locates. For the additional functions other than quick function selection, hidden menu appears when you press Fn▲ at the bottom of LCD. This 3 inch wide LCD is well structured for the efficient use. It leaves some afterimage on LCD when touching. It doesn’t affect the image, but it’s a little disappointing.
Function menu comes up from the bottom, and other detailed setting can be done.
Let’s take a look at ST10’s various functions in the actual practice. It would be better if Haptic function on LCD is used every time.
If we look at ST10’s specification, it has as high as 9,000,000 pixels, and supports ISO 80-3200 and various shooting modes. Also, shooting distance can be as close as 1cm in super macro function. (1-5cm close-up available) The shutter speed can be 16 seconds for night scene shots. Even though it is popularized compact camera, it supports various functions. One of ST10’s goals is a photo shot with no failure. So it offers Digital Image Stabilization (DIS) function, and Smart Face, Face detection AF, and touch AF for good portrait shots. You can give focus on the people you want, and it can automatically change settings for the detected faces.Also, you can use touch AF function to easily focus on particular point when it’s hard to focus due to phase or brightness difference. It is related to the strength of touch LCD; the user can touch the desired point for focusing on LCD. Its weaknesses are less than 10,000,000 pixels, somewhat dark lens, and x3 optical zoom (plus x5 digital zoom). But considering ST10’s style and price, it cannot have everything. And since its plenty of strengths can compensate them, it can be said a good product. Let’s keep learning about ST10. It’ll be fun to assess efficiency of functions like Beauty shot that applies blur effect, Smile shot that shoots smiley faces, Blink detection that prevents shooting blinking moment, and Frame guide that helps get desired angle when you ask the third person to take a picture.