Wider with 24mm ultra wide angle, closer with optical 10x zoom

Following is a user review about Samsung WB500 digital camera.

Recently, DSLR has been very popular. I think it’s because there are a lot of products having reasonable price due to the improvement of digital technology. The strong point of DSLR is that it has a bigger sensor and replaceable lens to select the FOV depending on the situation. However, due to the size and weight, it’s a little difficult to carry in normal situation. Therefore, a small size compact digital camera can be much convenient. But compact digital cameras have fixed FOV, so once you purchase it, you have to use as it is. However at this time, Samsung has released the WB500 which supports 24mm ultra wide angle and optical 10x zoom, and it provides users who want various FOV with the big merit. However, when you take pictures with 10x zoom, the camera is vulnerable to shake, so the WB500 supports optical + digital IS function to get clearer images. Other than that, the WB500 has various functions such as HD (720p, H.264) video recording, beauty shot, and smart album. And from now, let’s take a close look at what picture can be taken with those functions.

Because the body of the WB500 is made of metal, I felt it’s strong. On the front, there’s a big Schneider lens. Since the WB500 has 24mm ultra wide lens and 10x optical zoom lens, the barrel is protruding a little much. On the side of the lens, there’s flash, AF/Self timer lamp, and remote control sensor. When I used a digital camera first, I thought the light from AF is used to measure distance by gauging a reflection time, but in fact, it gives a difference of light and darkness to detect contrast. And there’s a rubber material on the grip, so it gives more stable grip.

The Schneider lens on the WB500 supports 24mm ultra wide angle and 10x optical zoom. As a matter fact, one thing we want the most is the 1mm wide angle. When it comes to tele angle, we can step back, but for snap pictures, it’s not that easy. Therefore, the 24mm ultra wide angle of the WB500 is a great merit for taking pictures, I suppose. And the WB500 has adopted the variable iris. It has F3.3~5.3, and it’s a little big darker, but not that bad as a compact camera. One thing I was dissatisfied with is that the barrel of the lens protrudes a bit too much, because the FOV changes in the wide range. However, when it’s off, it’s totally put back, so it wasn’t that inconvenient.

On the back, for right handed, the LCD is on the left, while command buttons are located on the right. The LCD is 2.7 inch QVGA(320×240) 230K color LCD, and it’s not that good, but enough to use. And on the right side, various buttons are located, and a special thing is that there’s a button called a command lever.

The command lever is a button designed to move to right or left, and for each situation, users can define the function. Next to it, on the explanation menu, it’s convenient to set exposure, ISO, and white balance function. On the side of the WB500, there’s a strap ring and connector for recharge/sync/AV out.

On the top of the WB500, as a design point, it’s made of glossy metal. However, it’s vulnerable to a scratch, so you have to be cautious to use it. On the left, there’s a speaker, but it looks like a button, so it may confuse users. I think it’s better if it was designed more intuitively. Next to the speaker, 10x optical zoom and WB500 are printed. When it comes to a power button, a blue LED which is a main color of the Samsung Camera series is on, so it makes it cool. The zoom lever and the shutter are unified, and the zoom lever feels shorter, but protrudes upward, so there was no problem to use. At the very right, there’s a mode dial which can use 8 modes.

The composition of the WB500 is a body, battery, AV cable, USB cable, adaptor, strap, and instruction manual. Because it has 30MB internal memory, you can use it right away. However, in order to take more pictures, you have to purchase an SD card. It costs 40,000 won for 16GB SDHC, so I recommend you purchase a memory.

It’s an envelope including instruction manual, warranty, and premium gratitude certificate. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of complex and various functions in digital cameras, so you have to read the instruction manual. If you’d like to know more, you can download the PDF type official manual on the Samsung digital imaging homepage.

The adaptor for recharge can be connected to USB cable, so it’s very convenient. Especially, input voltage is 100-240V, so it can be used in almost all the countries. Regular output is DC 4.2V, 400mA, and it appears it can be used for other appliances using similar output.

It’s a USB cable for recharge and data sync at the same time. Since it can do two things at once, it’s convenient, and there’s a LED on the connector, so you can see the recharge status.

The AV cable is also provided for the WB500. Connecting it to a recharge connector, you can select NTSC or PAL.

The WB500 provides 8 kinds of shot modes. Each mode is displayed on the screen by rotating the dial, and it’s useful when you cannot see the dial. Most of all, an auto mode on the Picture 1 is the most frequently used mode. It sets most of the setting values automatically, so it’s very simple to take pictures. And the Picture 2 is a program mode, and users can set white balance and ISO. M mode is a Manual mode, so users have to set all settings. It means users take pictures on their own style, but there are a lot of things to be handled. The Picture 4 is Dual IS, and with the combination of optical and digital IS, it helps get clearer images.

The Picture 5 is a beauty shot. This mode makes objects more vivid. A night scene mode on the Picture 6 is used when it’s exposed for more than 1 sec. However, for this long exposure, pictures are weak to shake, so you’d better use a tripod. The Picture 7 is a scene mode. Because there are a lot of settings stored, you can use them depending on the situation. Last one is a video recording mode. Videos from QVGA to 720p can be recorded.

Pushing the center OK/MENU button of the 5 function button, you can enter the menu. On the recording menu on Picture 1, you can set the function of the command lever, ACB, or OIS which are needed to take pictures. In fact, this information is displayed on the LCD when taking pictures, so I hope you check it every time. On Picture 2, you can set the function of sound. It’s mostly about beep sound, and personally I turn off other beep sounds except the AF.

The biggest strong point of the WB500 compared to other digital cameras is the 24mm ultra wide angle. Compared to normal 35mm, it can take much wider scene, so various FOV can be recorded conveniently. As you can see on the picture above, you can easily take a picture in the concert hall or plaza. Generally, it’s more frequent to step back to take a picture rather than step forward, so it’s a really useful function.

The funny thing of the WB500 is that it also has the optical 10x zoom with the 24mm ultra wide angle. For normal compact digital cameras, they used to focus on either wide angle or tele angle, but the WB500 has both of them and satisfies user’s demand. Actually, in those two pictures above, you can see the big difference between the wide and tele angle.

The optical 10x zoom function of the WB500 can be a great strong point, but it also might cause shake as much. For example, a fishing road is not shaken when it’s short, but when pulling it out longer, the end of it shakes much. Like this, a camera is also more sensitive, when the camera is going to tele angle. That’s why many camera makers have an IS function, and the WB500 has both optical and digital IS function, so you can get less shaken pictures. Two pictures above were taken with the 1/10S shutter speed, intentionally. You can see the big difference between the IS function on and off.

I set the mode dial on the Dual IS, and took a picture. For former picture, I set the M mode and fixed the setting, but when setting it on the Dual IS, the camera automatically sets the iris, shutter speed, and ISO, and we could get a picture without shake. And the next picture was taken with the ISO 400. Like this, there are various ways to get pictures without shake, so you’d better use them according to the situations.

The WB500 includes a portrait system optimized to human pictures. The portrait system consists of face recognition function setting exposure and focus, beauty shot getting a picture with cleaner skin, and blink detection which prevents blinking. I took a poster on the street. Closely looking at the picture, you can see a rectangular box on the face.

I usually don’t take human pictures much, but sometimes I go to take a picture when my female friends ask. They don’t like the pictures, because I like realistic pictures. I think it’s because things on their faces are shown on those pictures. Therefore, I had to fix their face using the Photoshop, and it took a lot of time. At this time, if you use the beauty shot function, you can get clean pictures like the pictures at the right.

The video recording function of the WB500 is kind of strong. 720p(1280×720), 30fps, H264 format video can be recorded. Strong time is maximum 29 minutes, so it’s not insufficient for a normal situation. And up to 60fps is possible for QVGA video, and you can give white balance and various color effects. Especially, the classic effect was quite interesting.

Various sample video clips. They have been uploaded with several times of the encoding, so please understand there have been quality degrade. Especially, the black or white effect was very good.

The WB500 has Auto Contrast Balance function. This function adjusts exposure depending on the pictures. The picture on the left was taken with ACB off, so dark part is kind of dead a lot. Compared to this, on the picture on the right, dark part is alive much. You can keep this function on or off, and I recommend on.

Taking a picture of objects in the short distance is so interesting work. The WB500 can take it from 5cm, so it’s not that good compared to 1cm products, but it’s enough for normal use. It’s a picture of minute letters on a dollar bill.

Using a macro function, I cropped the picture at 100. You can see well the letter ‘United State of America’ on the fringe. However, when taking close up shots, you’d better use a tripod, because shake can reduce the resolution a lot.

Using the motion capture function on the recording mode, you can take 7 pictures for a second up to 30 pictures. Images are stored with VGA(640×480) size. You can put them together as an GIF image, or they can be useful when the continuous shot is needed.

The WB500 provides 7 kinds of photo styles, and it helps take pictures on various situations. The classic effect was the best for me.

It’s another color style, and 7 styles are provided. You can see the same picture with different feelings. Especially, with the reversion effect, you can get a picture with strong feeling.

When taking a picture, there’s moment to express the objects as its feature. When it comes to close up shot, you have to raise the sharpness, or for the strong color of scenery, you have to adjust the contrast or chroma. The WB500 can adjust each value as -2~+2.

The WB500 provides 6 kinds of white balances. Human eyes recognize white as white with any light source, but when it comes to digital cameras, it changes. At that time, the white balance can make a digital camera recognize white. The Auto is enough, unless it’s extreme light source.

ISO means a sensitivity of a sensor. The less number, the less sensitive. With less sensitivity, noise is reduced, but it’s hard to secure shutter speed. According to the sample pictures, you can see higher shutter speed with more noise when the ISO value is getting higher. On a sunny day, you can take a picture with ISO 80, but when the light is insufficient, you’d better adjust the ISO to secure the shutter speed.

Those sample pictures have never been modified with the Photoshop or any other image programs, but rotated with the ACDSEE and resized and framed with the Photowork.

We have been looking at the WB500 by Samsung digital imaging so far. The strongest point of the WB500 is to support the world first 24mm ultra wide angle and optical 10x zoom at the same time. It’s really rare to support wide and tele angle at the same time for a normal compact digital camera, so customers used to purchase a product according to their preference. But the WB500 supports both wide and tele angle, so it was a very charming camera for users taking pictures with various FOV. Especially, when taking pictures with tele angle, it might be so vulnerable to shake. Therefore, the Dual IS function was quite satisfactory. Other than that, the video recording function up to 720p and portrait system optimized to human pictures were also great. However, things I wasn’t fully satisfied with were that the lens protrudes a lot, because it supports various FOV, so it’s not that slim, and that the AF system sometimes misses the focus. But the merit supporting various FOV was so big that it was good enough to use. Therefore, I recommend this product to users who need wide range of FOV.

This review represents the sole opinion of their individual authors and HANYOUNGDAE and don’t express the opinion of Samsung Digital Imaging Co., Ltd., Samsungimaging.net or the opinion of any affiliates unless specifically marked as such.
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