Samsung Haptic Digital Camera Review!

PROLOGUE

What does Haptic mean? If we look for it in dictionary, it means tactile. But nowadays Haptic itself stands for every kind of touch-type digital appliances. The expectation and trust towards Haptic products are getting higher and higher, and those digital instruments have been very successful. And Samsung Digital Imaging has introduced ST10 under name of Haptic. With its touch-type LCD and stylish design, ST10 is good enough to meet consumers’ expectations. Now let’s start finding out ST10’s every inch of attractions.

Do you know what ST stands for in ST10? If you don’t know, please look at the appearance of ST10 and take a guess. Doesn’t a word that starts with ST come to your mind? Yes. ST is short for Stylish. Its stylish design can be ST10’s biggest attraction. ST10 has multifactorial design: shiny round lens cover that is simple but unique, 3.0 inch hVGA touch screen LCD, and mininized buttons. If I have to choose two most unique design features of ST10, they would be its slim size and colorful visual. From now, let’s briefly look at ST10’s design in those two aspects, slimness and color.

ST10 is 91x60x19mm in its size and 124.2g in its weight. It is a compact digital camera which is little smaller than common cigarette cases. It fits right in a pocket, so it is easy to carry and users can take it out quickly anywhere and anytime. So it appeals to many youngsters who consider portability very important.

ST10’s another design feature is gorgeous and diverse colors. Normally, digital cameras are in plain colors like black, grey, or white. But ST10 has four colors: RED, BLACK, SILVER, and GOLD. It emphasizes style more than regular digital cameras, so its splendid color is very impressive. Personally, I think RED looks the best, not because I’m using it now but because it goes well with ST10’s style. Of course you can choose according to the personal taste, and every color has its own appeal.

Another name for ST10 is Haptic camera. As I mentioned earlier, Haptic has brought expectations and trust thanks to those successful products with this name. ST10 has Haptic, which means touch-type, hVGA LCD on the backside. Haptic touch screen LCD is awesome since you can operate it with one finger. Compared to its compact size, 3.0inch LCD screen is pretty big. This shows ST10’s developed technology.

As long as it uses touch screen touch sensitivity must be an important issue. After two weeks of experience, I’ve come to the conclusion that its sensitivity is fairly ok. The reason why is digital cameras usually don’t require any successive, complex, or detailed operations like most multimedia instruments or cell phones. Once again, I cannot say that its touch sensitivity is outstanding, but it is just good for operating ST10’s functions. If you use a touch pen which is included in the package, you can enjoy clearer touch. And as you get used to it more, you will get to use the touch screen with your hand freely.

ST10has various functions other than camera function. More accurately, I’d like to describe ST10 as a multi-player with enhanced photographing functions rather than a digital camera. Not only taking photos, ST10 has superior multimedia features. It has PMP function for playing video clips and MP3 for playing music. Both of them show more than enough performance as sub-functions. In fact, lots of portable instruments are equipped with various functions these days, and the level of each function is getting higher and higher. But it is true that some sub-functions of digital cameras are not trustworthy yet. However, with ST10, you can enjoy movies in clear quality on 3.0 inch hVGA and music in great sound quality. Of course it’s not exactly like PMP machines which has all kinds of interface, and you may feel some inconvenience in encoding or lack of additional functions. But it is good enough for you to enjoy during time commuting time or free time.

SMART FACE? You may not immediately know what kind of function this is. SMART FACE is a face detection function that is frequently used not only in digital cameras but also in web cam in notebook these days. SMART FACE function in ST10 is optimized for portrait shots which automatically set conditions for the best portrait shots in given environment. Since ST10 is targeting young people who mainly take portrait shots, this function seems to be made to satisfy their desire to take high quality portrait shots. Once you place your subject in the frame, the camera detects the subject’s face and adjusts focus, brightness, and color automatically to the best condition. Other than that, STO also has various functions related to the portrait shots, so let’s take a look at it!

There is a function that detects smiley face and captures, a natural smiling moment. When you take group shots, it focuses more on people you smile so that they can look more natural.

There’s a function that fixes red eyes which frequently appear when using flash inside. You can edit it later, but the camera itself can prevent the phenomenon so that you can get clear pictures more conveniently.

To prevent a picture with blinking of eyes, there’s a function that detects blinking and takes tow successive shots. If you want to get a flawless picture in an important moment, it will be very useful.

Personally, one of the best functions of ST10 is something that women would love. It’s a function that detects a subject’s face and edits it into a clear and flawless face. It brightens face so that everyone can be satisfied with the result.

There’s also a function that is useful for self-shots. It detects a face automatically lets you know when it is in right place and right angle by beeping sound. This also automatically sets exposure or focus so you can take best self-shots.

So far, we have talked about ST10. I’m not sure how well I descried the charms of ST10. Personally, I’ve used lots of cameras for a long time and learned through trial and error in many cases. Some cameras focused only on its main features, and some emphasized additional features too much and failed. ST10, the most recent one for me, seems to have overcome errors form trial. It targets young people and certainly meets their expectations. It’s not just a simple machine but is stylish enough to become part of your fashion. It has various functions for portrait shots and easy self-shots that can appeal to young people, and also many multimedia functions. It differs depending on people’s tastes, but I think it’ll definitely appeal to those ST10 targets. Lack of more professional features like high optical zoom or HD movie recording is a little bit disappointing, but it is filled with lots of other functions, so ST10 will become a big present for users.