The hottest issue in cell phone market has been definitely “Haptic” for the past year. Consumers’ desire to enjoy multimedia files on cell phone ended up selecting big LCD screen, and it resulted in having many button functions included on LCD, creating a new touch user interface. But compared to the button user interface, this touch user interface has weakness in delivering signs of accepting users’ input, causing retrial or operation miss. But Haptic technology gives feedback to users about right intake of input. (Haptic originally means a technology that helps feel objects by tactual sense, but it usually means vibration feedback in Samsung digital appliances.) In fact, this Haptic tech is applicable to all instruments with touch pad, so it started from cell phones, moved on to MP3s, and now to digital cameras. In this review, we’ll find out about widely portable Haptic ST10.
ST10 of Samsung Digital Imaging works not only as digital camera but also as MP3 or PMP. It is very portable, so you may carry it daily or for quick trip without trouble. Especially, its size is 91 x 50 x 19MM, which fits right into a pocket, enabling to capture a moment anytime you want.
ST10 has a metal body with hairline finish and a lens cover that you can turn to open. Since it’s very different from former models of Samsung Digital Imaging, it may surprise you. Since it’s very unique, there can be controversial evaluation about its design. There’s a phrase about 900 mega pixel sensor printed on the body, and sticker that represents Haptic, PMP&MP3, and Smart face detection functions.
In order to take a shot, you have to turn the lens cover to open. It feels very stable when you turn the lens cover, feeling like rolling a mouse wheel. Its inner zoom lens supports 3x optical zoom and F3.5-F4.5, looks a little dark.
On the top, its model name ST10 is printed and there’s a speaker for movies and music, power and shutter button. Unlike other cameras, it doesn’t have mode dial, so it looks simpler.
On the side, 20PIN integrated connector though which you can connect earphone, A/V cable, and USB cable. It is useful that one connector plays various roles, but if it added 3.5 pie connector for regular earphones, it would have been more useful for MP3 and PMP. And there’s a strap loop next to the connector, and the strap was easy to use since touch pointer was combined.
At the bottom, there’s a hole for holding tripod, and a battery holder next to that.
If you open the battery holder, you can see SD card and battery. SD card guarantees up to SD 4GB and SDHC 8GB. Battery is SLB-0937(900mAh), which can last for 260 photos, 130-minute video recording, 330-minute MP3, and 190-minute PMP. So it is good enough to last one day.
Most of ST10’s functions can be set on the LCD. Since there’s no mode dial, software type mode dial appears when you select icon on upper left side, and you can pick a mode you want by touching. When you touch, there’s vibration feedback which lets you know that your input has been recognized. But one thing I feel bad is that on the moment you touch the screen, it leaves a little afterimage on LCD.
ST10 uses 3x optical inner zoom lens. Since it is an inner zoom, aperture value is somewhat high, but it works ok under regular circumstances.
The goal of ST10 developers was to make a camera that allows no failure in its shot anywhere, anytime. So they invented Smart mode. If you select Smart Mode in mode dial, Smart icon appears on the upper left part. And if you press half-shutter, the camera automatically selects a right mode out of 11 shooting modes according to the circumstance.
Most of cameras that have been released recently have face detection function. Since compact digital cameras are mainly used for portrait shots, it is one of the most useful functions. In ST10, it does not stop at just face detection, but it also saves faces in DB and helps to take optimized pictures for particular people.
First, the faces that appear in the pictures taken by face detection are saved as DB in play mode. Then after you set faces in Smart Album, you can check the people you want are saved in DB.
Once you turn on the function that detects saved faces, a detection sign appears beside those people’s faces on DB. And the focus and exposure are decided accordingly. With this function, you can take pictures optimized for those you like even in group shots.
At least once you might have experienced that you couldn’t get the right AF in a desired angle. So you might have to crop it later with Photoshop. But since ST10 has Smart touch AF function that helps you get the exact AF on the spot you want, you can focus on where you want in the intended angle.
Scene mode is also provided which differs from Smart mode in that you can select scene mode manually. In Scene mode, there’re different setup values for 13 situations; you can get a desired result when you take a picture after picking a shooting mode.
This is a Beauty shot mode, one of the Scene mode. Beauty shot removes face blemish from the image by blur effect. You can see that the image on the right, which was taken under Beauty shot mode, looks brighter than the left image which didn’t use Beauty shot.
Another fun function is Frame Guide. Many times, when you ask someone to take a picture for you, the result is not satisfying. But using Frame Guide, you can set the desired angle in advance and get the photo as you want.
ST10 has digital image stabilization function. It is a little disappointing that it doesn’t have optical image stabilization function like other Samsung Digital Imaging products. But it works pretty well for regular snap use.
ST10 offers 9 color styles. Each style is unique, so it would become a good choice for people who have been bored with normal photo. Especially, black-and-white seems very classic. You may also control RGB value in Custom mode as you want.
Recently, high capacity SD card made it possible to save 1,000 photos in one SD card without transferring them to PC. So as the photos get piled up on the camera, how would you organize them? In ST10, you can manage the photos conveniently not simply with saving time but under type, date, color, week, face, etc.
ST10 supports a video player function. Using Samsung Converter program, you may convert the video clips. Compared to commonly used converting program such as Gom encoder or Pot encoder, it takes longer. But it also supports a function that puts on subtitle to video clips, so it is good enough for simple use.
ST10 works as a multi digital player! It supports MP3 function. Of course, its functions cannot be as good as MP3 players, but it works well for simply listening to music and taking photos. Especially, what’s interesting is it provides outstanding sound quality, considering it is a digital camera, thanks to its SRS sound.
For more information, please click: http://www.samsungimaging.net/enabling-to-capture-a-moment-anytime-you-want-widely-portable-haptic-st10/
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