As of Feb. 1st, Samsung Digital Imaging has been reborn by separating from Samsung Techwin , and I ve got an opportunity to review their new compact digital camera PL10 . In 4 weeks, I m going to use the PL10 and find out the product.
This is the first posting of my review and I m going to look at the appearance as a preview.
Last March, Samsung digital imaging has shown 13 kinds of digital cameras at the announcement of new products. It s the first lineup since the camera department has been independent from Samsung.
The products released this time consist of high-end digital cameras and popularized model with practical design and functions. WB and IT series with high zoom, ST series with stylish design, and PL series having functions have been released.
(Slim size compact digital camera PL10)
Among them, the PL10 is an inner zoom lens type compact digital camera not a protruding lens type. The inner zoom camera has strength in shot time after pushing a power button.
The inner zoom lens is imperative to make a camera slim. For a protruding lens type, the lens can be freely designed, but the lens makes the camera thicker. However, the lens size is bigger than the lens of inner zoom lens type, so it s more bright.
The inner zoom lens type can take a simple quick picture any time, because the lens doesn t protrude. On the other hand, it s weak to shake due to the slimness, so the IS (Image Stabilization) is necessary, and hard to secure light. Therefore, how they solve the weakness will decide the destiny of the product.
Once, Inner zoom lens type cameras were more expensive than protruding type cameras, because there was a lot of technology to cover the weak points of small lens. However, now the technology becomes normal, so there s no difference in price.
Let s take a look at the package and appearance of the PL10.
The box is similar to a cell phone box. Looking at the picture of the box, it seems like a cell phone or PMP, because the lens is not focused much.
Normally, features of the product are put on the box. This has 5 functions such as 9M pixels, optical 3x zoom, 2.7 inch LCD, MP3P and PMP, and smart face recognition. That customers can recognize the functions with a glimpse of an eye is the design point of the package.
The MP3P function of the PL10 reminds me of the Samsung Kenox #1 MP3. The #1 which was released on 2005 adopted the inner zoom lens like the PL10, and was able to play MP3 files. Dong-Gun Jang was the model of TV commercial, so it was impressive. As a same series model, there was #11 PMP which could play videos.
The PL10 has not released officially, yet. There s no Korean manual in this PL10 package. Instead, in the CD, there s a Korean manual as a PDF file. The power adaptor is provided for Korean. Like other VLUU products, a battery charger is not provided.
It consists of body, 900mAh battery, 4.2V output USB charge adaptor, USB cable, A/V cable, earphones (1 set of earphone cover), hand strap, manual, and program CD. It could have been better if there had been an LCD protection film. And the strap is a little too long. When putting the camera in the case, the strap dangles down.
The battery is SLB-0936 compatible with other Samsung VLUU compact digital cameras like i8, L730, L830, and NV4. It s 3.7V 900mAh Li-Ion battery. Full charge takes only 3 hours. It s good to charge occasionally. Complete discharge can reduce the life of the battery.
Samsung digital imaging is selling the battery at 20,000 won from their homepage. One more battery is useful for outside shots. But the charger is not on sale. In open market, the products by third party are on sale.
The battery time on the manual is 140 min for 900M pixels pictures (280 shots), 130 min for video recording, 330 min for MP3, 250 min for PMP, and 210 min for text viewer.
The output of the adaptor is a USB type. While normal USB is 5V, the provided charge uses 4.2V 400mA. It can be charged by the PC s USB port 5V 500mA. Instead, if it s connected with other USB devices at the same time, it may not be charged.
The USB cable is compatible with the cell phone 20 pin port. I mean for data transfer it s different (20 pin transfer cable for cell phones can be used for camera data transfer), but charge by the USB is compatible with cell phones. With the 20 pin charge of cell phone, it s possible to charge. This can be a great point, because you don t need to carry many charge cable. The LCD is red when charging, and green when the charge is done.
It s the A/V cable. One side is 20 pin port, and the other side is for video and audio. The yellow is video, and white is audio. Because the PL10 supports mono sound, it has only one audio port. It s used to connect to a TV or a composite port for display.
The bundle earphones are compatible with standard cell phone 20 pin, so earphones for cell phones can be used, and vice versa. But because of the cell phone standard, 3.5mm standard can t be used. This is inevitable for a slim digital camera.
Cell phone standard is a strong point, but I think it was much better if they provided a gender for 3.5mm, because I could have connected a speaker. But because this supports a cell phone type, if using a 3.5mm gender type earphone, speaker can be used. The sound quality of the bundle earphones is not bad. The design of the earphones is similar to the iPod bundle earphones. You can put the cover on them, If you want.
Let s take a look at the body. I ve got a red one. (The official color is Arty red.) Sometimes, it s called wine red. Generally, a red color is considered for a woman. I can see the LaFleur flower pattern. LaFleur means a flower in French. It can be seen a lot from Samsung MP3P Yepp.
It comes with 5 colors such as black, purple, titan silver, candy pink, and arty red.
From the front, on the left, there s a projection for middle finger for better grip. I could see this is designed for being held by women s hand. That doesn t mean this camera is for a woman. This can be small to those who have big hands. With a small change on just a steel body, it has better grip.
On the right top, there s an inner zoom lens. It s off and the lens is closed. Next, AF, self timer lamp, and flash are located. Normal F3.5~4.5 and 6.3-18.9mm focus length are displayed. Optical 3x zoom is also here.
For your reference, an inner zoom lens has a high F value (Low brightness), because the lens size is small. It means you will use flash more frequently. (High number is low brightness.)
Because there s no view finder hole, the back is neat. Generally, slim digital cameras don t provide a view finder hole. Therefore, you have to take a picture using the LCD screen spending a lot of power.
On the right side of the 230K 2.7 inch TFT LCD, control buttons are located. Status lamp, Zoom in/out, shot mode, menu button, direct play, and function buttons are located. There s one more glass plate on the LCD, but I don t know it s an intensified glass. If it is, protection film is not needed.
Looking at the top, you can see how slim this camera is. The design is made for inner zoom lens digital camera. On the center, a power button is located. When turning it on, the green light becomes on. It s quite bright in a dark place. The right button is a shutter button, and there s a microphone for recording between them. One microphone input means the recording is mono type.
On the left, there s a speaker for MP3 or video playing and a name of the product PL10
On the bottom, a tripod hole and battery/memory slots are located. It s not different from other slim digital camera design. For the button opening/closing the slots, it has 3 small projections for easy closing and opening. Product serial number is also here.
It s the left side. At the very upper size, universal port for charge, data transfer, and earphone connection is located. The cover is open by slightly pulling it up with your nail. Strap hole is located below.
Battery and memory are put in. It is hard to adjust the blue battery holder for big hands.
Turning it on, language and time setting comes up. The initial setting is English. Of course, it supports Korean. The GUI of the PL10 is not bad.
I ve looked at the package and appearance. Let s take a look at the specification of the PL10
Size : 97.4mm x 62.4mm x 21mm (Except protruding part)
Weight : 120.7g (Except battery and memory card)
Image sensor : 1/2.5"(App. 1.02 cm)CCD
Pixel : 900M pixels
Lens : f=6.3mm ~ 18.9mm
F value : F3.5 ~ F4.5
Zoom : Optical 3x, Digital 5x
Screen : 2.7" 230K pixels TFT LCD
Shutter speed : 1 ~ 1/2,000 sec
ISO : auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200
IS : DIS (Digital Image Stabiliztion)
Video : MPEG-4, 800x592 (20 fps), 640x480, 320x240 (30 fps), Video editing function, Max. 3x zoom
Voice recording : Up to 10 hours, 10 sec for voice memo
Memory : Internal memory 196MB, External Memory : SD, SDHC(up to 8GB), MMC Plus
Storing type : Still image JPEG(DCF), EXIF 2.21, DPOF 1.1, PictBridge 1.0 Video AVI(MPEG-4), Voice WAV
Music player : SRS EQ, 48 ~ 320 kbps MP3
Video player : Xvid MPEG-4
Text viewer : ANSI, Unicode, UTF-8
The PL10 is an inner zoom lens type slim digital camera. It has 9M pixels with IS function. And multimedia functions such as MP3 with SRS Eq and videos with MPEG-4 are also supported.
This product has also various shot functions. The camera takes all by itself using a Smart function without complicated setting, and I m going to explain that with more review.
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