24mm ultra wide angle lens high end digital camera, Samsung WB1000
The last product of Samsung digital imaging in the first half of 2009
After Samsung techwin has changed the name to Samsung digital imaging, they have been so aggressive in the market. From low price products with simple functions to high end camera, Samsung digital imaging has released 10 products, and finishing the first half of the 2009 with the WB1000. Let’s take a look at the high end digital camera WB1000 having 24mm wide angle.
SPEC.
Image sensor | 1/2.33" Effective pixels Approx. 12.2 mega-pixels CCD (Total pixels Approx. 12.4 mega-pixels) |
File format | Photo: JPEG, Video: MP4 (H.264), Audio: WAV |
Image size | 12M(4000 x 3000), 10M P(3984 x 2656), 9M W (3968 x 2232) 9M 1;1(2976 x 2976), 8M (3264 x 2448), 5M (2592 x 1944) 3M (2048 x 1536), 2M (1920 x 1080), 1M (1024 x 768) |
Videos | 1280 x 720, 1280 x 720, 640 x 480, 320 x 240 Frame Rate: 60 FPS, 30 FPS, 15 FPS Stereo recording with volume control and mute in zooming |
Lens | Schneider-KREUZNACH lens f = 4.3 - 21.5 mm (35 mm film equivalent: 24 - 120 mm) |
F-stop range | F2.8 (W) - F5.8 (T) |
Display | 3.0" 518,400pixels AMOLED |
Focusing Range Normal | Normal 40cm ~ infinity (wide), 80cm ~ infinity (tele) |
Focusing Range Macro | Macro 5cm ~ 40cm (wide), 50cm ~ 80cm (tele) |
Focusing Type | TTL auto focus (Multi AF, Center AF, Selection AF, Manual Focus) |
Shutter speed | Auto: 1/8 - 1/2,000 sec. Program: 1 - 1/2,000 sec. Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual: 16 - 1/2,000 sec. Night: 8 - 1/2,000 sec. Firework: 4 sec. |
Storage | Internal 76MB, SD/SDHC card (up to 8GB guaranteed) |
ISO equivalent | Auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200 |
Power source | Lithium-ion battery (SLB-11A, 1,130mAh) |
Dimensions | 97 x 61 x 21 mm |
Weight | 160g (without battery and memory card) |
F value is a little low, but the size of the image sensor is too small as a high end digital camera. But 24mm wide angle is a good choice for travel or snap shots, and the slimness can be an advantage.
Appearance of the product
Looking at the WB1000, it’s like that.
The WB1000 supports SD/SDHC memory and includes 1130mAh SLB-11A. Up to 8GB SD/SDHC memory is possible, and the SLB-11A doesn’t go long, due to the AMOLED. If you have a plan to go travel with this camera, I recommend you take a spare battery.
The analog dashboard from Epson R-D1 looks well with the WB1000. I asked a question to people for the analog dashboard, and most of them said they like it. You can see the dashboard later.
USB port is like the picture. Personally, I’m using the i100 from Samsung, and that camera has selected the different USB. I hope there’s more consistency like the same USB port.
The package of the WB1000 includes these items. You can do these things as below.
Generally, this can be used like this.
But like this, you can connect this to a portable device or computer. This is convenient showing the extension of the USB cable.
Analog Dashboard
Schneider zoom lens in the WB1000
The lens of the WB1000 is Schneider-KREUZNACH lens 4.3-21.5mm (On 135 format 24-120mm) F2.8-5.8 optical 5x zoom lens. The Schneider lens was a famous optics company with Leica and Carl Zeiss, but not in the digital camera market. Like the Panasonic produces lens approved by the Leica and Sony produces lens approved by the Carl Zeiss, the Samsung also products the Schneider approved lens.
They don’t produce small DSLR lens yet, but after NX, they will be able to produce the Schneider lens for NX.
The lens has changeable iris. It was not easy to measure exact value, but here’s the approximate value.
On 135 format 24~28mm : F2.8
On 135 format 28~35mm : F3.7
On 135 format 35~42mm : F4
On 135 format 42~50mm : F4.2
On 135 format 50~60mm : F4.7
On 135 format 60~80mm : F5
On 135 format 80~120mm : F5.8
This is the change of iris value. For your reference, there could be some error on these values, because the controller isn’t that accurate.
24mm & 120mm
As you can see from the specification, the range is 24mm~120mm. Here is the difference of feeling as a picture.
It’s 5x zoom, but you can see it’s zooming more, and the 24mm has very wide angle. Of course, the zoom of this camera is not as high as the WB500 or WB550, but considering the better F value, you need to judge what you really want high zoom or bright iris.
Better Vividness than LCD, 3 inch AMOLED
Now, the best display is 920K 3 inch LCD. This has been adapted to Nikon D3 or other numerous cameras. However, the 3 inch AMOLED of the WB1000 shows much better vividness and visibility.
It’s not easy to distinguish the visibility form this video (3 inch LCD of the D3 is better than I expected), but people who have seen the screen tell the AMOLED of the WB1000 is better.
I’m not a professional about display, so I can’t tell the difference between LCD and AMPLED, but I could see the color of AMOLED is better.
Smart Control Dial
One more advantage of the WB1000 is the smart control dial. The wheel dial representing the middle and high level camera interface has some inconvenience, but thanks to the wheel dial, some weakness is concealed a lot.
Samsung also hasn’t got a good grade on the interface, but through the smart control dial, they show the better interface than Canon. Not only through rotating the wheel, but also 8-way multi selector, the convenience becomes better. Besides, the OK button in the center of the multi selector is connected to the smart control dial very well.
I could see the Samsung has considered the interface much. However, other interfaces are still not intuitive, so I’m not satisfied with it. The video clip shows that this is controlling various functions through the Smart Control Dial.
D3's LCD
WB1000's AMOLED
Menu selection
Picture review
Exposure setting
Noise test
I executed the noise test of the WB1000 this time. I saw the noise level from the image of right eyes and neck.
This can’t be compared to the D5000 which is a popularized DSLR camera at all, but considering the 1/2.33 inch small image sensor, it’s good on ISO 400, okay for web on ISO 800, and a lot of noise from ISO 1600.
The color change from ISO 1600 is not because of the noise, but it was taken under fluorescent light with relatively high shutter speed. I didn’t append the image of ISO 3200, because the ISO 3200 reduces image size automatically, so it’s impossible to compare.
Photo Style
Various makers support various color setting mode such as Kodak’s Custom look, Fuji’s Film Simulation, Canon’s Picture Style, and Nikon’s Picture Control, and Samsung named it Photo Style. Personally, I like classic the most, and used largely vivid and normal for scenery. You can see the difference of color from the image above.
Video function of the WB1000
The WB1000 supports up to 720p. But on 720p, up to 30 fps is supported. When it comes to 320x240, it supports up to 60fps. These 2 links below show 720p HD video and 320x240 60fps video.
As you know, while zooming, voice recording stops. Instead, while recording zooming is possible. I don’t know if the quality is good or not, but it’s good. The first image of the video can be captured, but I don’t recommend this, because the quality is not that good.
As a fun function, the successive shot is possible. After pausing, you can resume recording. As a result, it is recorded as one file.
1) Video recording mode selection
2) After setting the focus with half shutter, and shot starts with the full shutter.
3) Hoping to pause to record, push the OK button
4) Resume by pushing the OK button
5) Hoping to stop recording, finishing with the full shutter
You can record it like this. You can see the result from the third link. The Photo style can also be applied to videos. Other 3 video samples show the result of Negative, Classic, and Vivid.
Other functions WB1000 has
Recent contrast AF cameras support a face recognition function. When setting a focus, face is recognized preferentially, and this includes a self shot function, smile shot, and blink detection function.
When it comes to the self shot, the camera makes beep sound to show the camera is ready when the camera is ready to take a self shot. Therefore, the photographer can take a shot after getting the feedback. When it comes to the smile shot, you don’t need to push the shutter when the person smiles. I assume the camera detects the shape of mouth or the position of eyes. The blink detection function takes one more shot when people blink while taking a shot. The photographer doesn’t need to check it and the camera automatically does it to help the photographer get a good picture.
1280HD
320 60fps
Selective Record
Photo Style - Negative
Photo Style - Classic
Photo Style - Vivid
Sample picture
This part is not a sample picture by theme, but the pictures will be separated by wide angle or not. Outdoor pictures were mostly taken with vivid, and indoor pictures were with Normal. Certainly, it’s resized not compensated and with P mode.
The 24mm angle gives cool feeling. It’s quite wide. Because the ratio is 4:3, scenery wasn’t that cool, but I couldn’t see the distortion much around. I think they have considered much to fix the surrounding distortion.
FOV not 24mm
Like the picture with 24mm, they were taken with no compensation and resized on P mode.
Due to the relatively small image sensor, the depth is quite good. To take the pictures of this level by the D3, it sets to minimum iris, but the WB1000 can secure good depth with F5.6~7.1. For me who take portrait or sport pictures with expensive DSLR, these pictures with this depth were quite new.
Conclusion
Good function, but unsatisfactory small image sensor
The strong points were all written in the first part. Especially, the smart dial control shows Samsung could make a good interface. I don’t know it’s because of the AMOLED, but the battery time is not very long. It’s not enough for travel. So optical view finder should have been added. After seeing a picture with a view finder and checking it at home, then the battery consumption will be much less.
And the small image sensor is insufficient for noise reduction. Besides, it was even harder because of 12M pixels. To expect the expression and noise reduction of the GX-20, the image sensor is too small. It should have been 1/1.7” as a high end digital camera, I think.
I’m a mania of Samsung. I used the i1000 before and my brother used the i8 before.
As the last product in the first half of 2009, I hope the WB1000 will be good in the market even at the high price.
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