By M.R. Gavin
Samsung continues to live up to its promise of innovation and uniqueness. Its Samsung SH100 sets new standards in the digital camera industry as it is the first one to be WiFi-enabled. Through this advancement, users can easily share photos directly on their favorite social networking sites, just as soon as they’re taken.
The SH100 can be connected to your smartphone with the use of WiFi to enable geo-tagging, control the camera remotely or preview the scene. This way, you can pose with the group while looking at the shot on your phone in real time. When you’re ready to shoot, you can also activate the shutter from the phone.
I tried connecting through the wireless Internet, took shots of kids swimming and uploaded these on Facebook. It failed the first time but when I tried it again it went through. Checking the photo later on my notebook, I found photo quality was simply amazing.
I am always afraid of losing my files, so uploading photos right away is one thing but automatically backing up your shots is another. The SH100’s built-in WiFi can back-up photos to your PC just by pressing several buttons. I tried uploading photos on my Facebook, it took about 20-30 seconds to upload and is in a separate folder with all the photos from the SH100. Photos are not instantly shrunk for fast uploading; it stays on the same quality. Zooming in on the photos 10 times wouldn’t hurt quality.
There are tons of effects, settings and programs to choose from. There is even a smart auto, program auto, smart movie, scene, vignetting, beauty shot, movie, magic frame, movie filter, night, palette effect, close up, simple shot and object highlight features. There is also a voice recorder, photo editor, magazine layout, slide show and 3D album. Whichever way you want to use your camera, the Samsung SH100 can do it for you.
WiFi enabled devices can eat up your battery life, but I found that you can put it in energy-saving mode or adjust the brightness, which will help save on battery juice.
The exterior of this camera is just like any other Samsung Cameras. It has a metal finish and is big and thin enough to fit into a pocket. The 3.0-inch LCD full-touchscreen is just enough to navigate through all the photos and features of the camera. There’s also a stylus included in the bundle if ever your hands are too big for the buttons. To avoid pushing the wrong buttons, you can also adjust the sensitivity with the touch calibration.
Specifications:
- Dimensions (WxHxD): 3.66 x 2.12 x 0.74 inches
- Weight: 110.2g
- Resolution: 14 megapixels
- LCD Type: 3” LCD Touch Screen
- Optical Zoom: 5x Optical Zoom
- Storage: MicroSD, MicroSDHC
What’s Hot:
• WiFi enabled
• Easy sharing of photos and videos
• Social network-friendly
• Range of effects on offer
• Programmed photo editor
What’s Not:
• Unresponsive touchscreen
Bottomline:
If you like uploading photos on your social networking site, you can never go wrong with the Samsung SH100.
Buy Meter: 8.7
[This review originally appeared in the July 2011 issue of Gadgets Magazine]