Here is a review about Samsung IT100 digital camera.
Samsung’s strategy was to release lots of new products on the first term. 2009 is the year that they have changed from Samsung Kenox to Samsung Digital Imaging, and they haven’t stopped introducing new products. Along with increasing number of the new products, they also had added new lineups such as ST, PL, IT, and ES to existing VLUU lineup like NV. In order to satisfy various consumers’ needs, they diversified the lineup so there could be more options for design, functions, and price.
The first model of IT series is IT100, which is a square-shaped metallic compact camera. It has luxurious metallic gloss and solidity. So far, Samsung digital camera series has showed reinterpretation of classical style or peculiar grip design to emphasize the brand’s identity. However, IT100 looks simple and modern just like typical design of mobile devices. It seems to pursue Samsung’s global standard which can be welcomed anywhere.
IT100 concentrating on fundamentals
IT100 uses solid metal, looking luxurious. It has all of Samsung’s functions. What is the most noticeable is 28mm-140mm in 35mm film equivalent 5x lens. Its zoom lens is not just another telephoto zoom but covers 28mm wide angle in 140mm zoom. It has 12,200,000-pixel sensor and is equipped with 1.09mm (1/2.33 inch) CCD. Its 12,000,000-pixel resolution and 5x zoom lens in wide angle will be satisfying to compact camera users who want good fundamental features. That is where Samsung digital camera starts.
Dual protection for camera shakes
IT100’s 28mm-140mm 5x zoom lens has optical image stabilization technique that detects trembling and moves the lens unit to different direction. Since the lens moves to the different direction, stable light goes into the sensor. Along with Optical Stabilization (O.I.S), Digital Image Stabilization (D.I.S) function is also available. DIS function has become independent shooting mode. If you take a shot in DIS mode, both OIS and DIS work, so it’s even more efficiently. Dual Image Stabilization function increases the efficiency of shooting in 140mm telephoto zoom. As it’s darker or in zoom, camera shakes easily happens, and Dual Images Stabilization can be a good solution for this.
HD video shooting
It’s not just about basic features. IT100 also works well as a video recorder. You can record 1280×720, 30fps video with it. It uses SD (SDHC) memory, which is inexpensive and easily transferable, and MPEG codec with high compressibility. So you can record HD video conveniently. So here, it seems to have all it takes to become a basic home video camera, but IT100’s potential doesn’t stop here.
Intelligent IT100
It has Smart Auto function that automatically detects the situation and set proper Scene more for that. Scene mode function is included in almost all compact cameras, but the difference of IT100 Smart Auto is that it can automatically judges the situation. The user only needs to press the shutter, and then the camera takes a shot in the optimal condition. There’s also Perfect Portrait System which combined various solution for portrait shot. Basically, it has face detection, Smile shot that captures smiley face, Blink detection that takes one more shot when it detects blinking, and Beauty shot that automatically retouches face and brightness of skin tone. Also, there’s Self Guide function that guides you by sound so you can take self shot in stable angle without looking at the LCD; it is IT100’s unique quality. IT100 has intelligence that can detect scenes and people and produces best picture possible.
Many people told me that they think IT100 has the best design among Samsung cameras so far. IT100 has the standard design that can appeal to anyone. It has metallic gloss and hair-curl detail inside. Metal lens barrel and body slope is also smoothly finished. Overall, it seems Samsung, who is a leading maker of premium mobile devices, applied its refined finish here. It has global standard design that everyone would agree. However, if you see it differently, it might have lost the uniqueness of Samsung cameras.
Out of three blue marks (blue ring, blue dot, and blue lamp) of Samsung cameras, the lens’s blue ring is not selected, but it has the shutter’s blue dot and power lamp. When you turn on the power, blue lamp comes on around the power button. Its blue-toned light looks good in dark. Other than power button and shutter, there’re two mikes and one large speaker on the top for recording stereo sound. It’s cool that you can record stereo sound for your HD video. Normally, two-toned color is selected for this style, but IT100 uses dark grey body color on the top to emphasize all-metal design.
There’s no frame on the LCD backside; it just coated the whole LCD, so it looks wider. IT100’s has 230,000-pixel 6.9cm (3.0 inch) LCD. Its resolution and size is normal. But it has Intelligent LCD tech that automatically controls the brightness of the LCD depending on surrounding light. In light area, it becomes brighter, and in dark area, it becomes weaker. So it looks more clear and lively. Especially, I like that it looks clear outdoor. It’s not a touch screen, and you operate it with buttons and a dial. Advanced users would give high credit for independent shooting mode dial. When you press Fn button, basic functions related to shooting appear on the screen.
IT100 has satisfying features as a camera that takes photos: 28mm x5 optical zoom, 12,000,000 pixels, HD video, plus DIS, Smart Auto, and Perfect Portrait System. These are the functions that elevate the possibility of getting good pictures conveniently. It is expected that its design that can appeal to anyone will be accepted positively. Its solid body with stainless steel material and durability is also IT100’s strength. Most of all, the basic goal of cameras is taking good pictures. Then we need to figure out the actual features like image quality and functions. In the following section, let’s take a close look at this.
We cannot judge the actual performance of the camera depending only on its specification. In order for one image to be generated, it should go through the lens, sensor, and image processor. The capacity of sensor is similar in the same pixels, but the capacity of lens and image processor differs among makers. In this section, let’s find out IT100’s capacity and its features while shooting.
IT100’s optical 5x lens starts from 28mm wide angle, so it’s good for landscape shot. It’s appropriate to take in spectacle view in wide angle. Also, its 140mm telephoto zoom is stronger than regular optical 3x zoom. Thanks to its good telephoto zoom, it can close up the far-away subject. It takes about 1.3 sec to turn on the power and get ready for shooting, which is pretty fast. The time for zoom to move from widest angle to maximum zoom is 1.7 sec. From widest angle to close-up, you can take a shot quickly after turning on power.
IT100’s close-up can be done as close as 5cm, which is fairly ok. When you take a close-up shot, if you put landscape in 28mm wide angle, it can look cool. It’s not a boring picture with only the close-up subject, but with gradually fading surrounding.
Because of its wide angle, it’s hard to make the peripheral area clear. Especially for the small lens used for compact cameras, some decrease of image quality in peripheral area is understandable. IT100 shows stable resolution in widest 24mm angle. The central area looks superior as a compact camera. Middle area is still expressed stably. However, in the border area, decrease in image quality occurs. You’d better not to place the subject in the border in 28mm wide angle.
There was some difference of quality between central and peripheral area in widest angle. But in 140mm telephoto zoom, they both look stable. As 28mm 5x optical zoom, it is really well made. As the angel gets wider, and the zoom goes higher, it’s hard to make good image quality due to physical limitations. The lens of IT100 has good capacity to express attractive image angle.
Normally, when you evaluate the objective lens capacity, you check it in normal light. But in actual shooting situation, it is backlight or strong light many times. IT100’s optical 5x zoom lens shows basically good expression, but it looked a little bleary in backlight or slanted light because of difficult reflection. Considering it is a small lens in compact camera, it is pretty good. You need to be wise to take good angle depending on situation.
When you take a picture with IT100, it is recorded in 4,000x 3,000 and 12,000,000 pixels. It has 1.09cm (1/2.33 inch) 12,200,000-pixel sensor, which is high level. In the result of resolution chart analysis, it is divided by nine lines until 2000th sample vertically, but the nine lines became bleary in 1650th sample horizontally. The resolution difference between vertical and horizontal line was pretty big. Since the zoom of lens gets higher, its resolution is lower than ST50 with the same sensor and 3x optical zoom.
All the menu in IT100 appear when you press menu button. In the menu, shooting functions, sound, screen, and basic setting items are arranged. In the shooting function setting, functions related to photographing are concentrated. And seven most frequently used functions like exposure control are easily accessible with Fn button. Its interface with mode dial and Fn button help concentrate on shooting.
Indoor incandescent light, Custom white balance
Automatically set white balance by looking for white
When you press Fn button, seven function icons appear on the left. Since exposure control is on the top, it is easily accessible. White balance supports Auto and five preset functions and has custom white balance. If there’s incandescent or fluorescent light where it’s hard to express the original colors, you can express accurate colors by placing white or grey paper in front and measuring white balance.
From ISO 80 to ISO 3200
IT100 supports a wide range of sensitivity from ISO 80 to ISO 3200. In ISO 3200, there’s no limitation of resolution. It looks pretty clear in ISO 80, ISO 100, and ISO 200. From ISO 400, noise starts to appear, but as a compact camera the particles are minute and colors are not notable. In ISO 800 and ISO 1600, noise increases. The particles are still not that rough, and it’s not like compulsively fitting into grey color. In ISO 3200, noise gets bigger. Overall, it’s one step ahead from other competing cameras, and shows great noise restraint. IT100 seems to be improved from Samsung’s prior models.
I took pictures at night using high sensitivity from ISO 400 to ISO 3200. It’s dark as 1/10 sec in ISO 400. Color difference is rarely noticed in ISO 400, ISO 800, and ISO 1600. Normally, when you use ISO 800 or ISO 1600, color change appears, but IT100 is not like that. When you use ISO 1600, it gets a little blur, but it’s not much different from ISO 400. ISO 800 or ISO 1600 are pretty good to be actively utilized. I’d like to conclude that IT100’s high sensitivity noise restraint and expression are excellent.
When you decide on exposure, you can use three modes: multi-split which divides the screen, measure light in each part, and collect these, spot that only measures the narrow part in the center, or central that measures the overall central area. If you use spot to measure light indoor, you can take a picture with strong light impression.
five shots per sec high-speed successive shots
One shot per sec, successive five shots per sec
In regular successive shot mode, you can take one shot per sec in the best resolution until the memory is full. (testing with SDHC, Class6) The continuity of successive shots in high speed was good, but since the LCD becomes black in successive mode, it’ll not be that useful. In high speed successive mode, it can take five shots per sec in 640×480 for six seconds. You can check the LCD there. Its capacity is normal as a compact camera.
It supports two types of AF domain functions: central AF that focuses on the center and multi-split AF that searches on the entire screen. IT100’s AF speed is quite fast. But sometimes it shows AF failure. Using multi-split AF rather than the central one can reduce the possibility of AF failure. Auto close-up function in Auto mode can automatically set AF according to the distance from close-up to far-away without changing modes. It will be convenient to use Auto close-up, but AF time gets a little longer.
When you press rightward button with timer printed in the 4-directional buttons, you can see five types of self-timer. 10-second self-timer, 2-second self-timer, double self-timer which takes one shot and another soon, motion self-timer that takes a shot when the movement of the subject stops, and remote control mode. They’re Samsung’s unique functions that help not to fail in self-timer shots. But, remote control is sold separately.
For a variety of color tones, eight preset photo styles are provided. Frequently used modes are vivid, cool, and calm mode. As the last item, there’s a custom RGB that users can set RGB channel degree.
ACB is a function that decreases the difference between bright area and dark area. When there’s a strong daylight, the shadow gets darker, so things that hid in the shadow increases. In this case, if you turn on ACB function, the shaded area is expressed in proper brightness. IT100’s ACB function is smooth enough to express naturally. Under strong sunlight, you may always keep it turned on and take pictures. If you compare the shaded part in the sample, you’ll easily understand the functions.
IT100 emphasizes on the basic functions of photographing. And it has 28mm-140mm zoom lens. It is 5x optical zoom, and I could see its outstanding expression even in 28mm wide angle. As a compact camera with 28mm lens, I think it’s very stable. But, when there’s a strong light in slanted angle, sometimes the image becomes softer overall. High sensitivity shots are also improved than before. I really like that there’s not much color difference even in ISO 1600, so actually usable. Occasional AF failure is something that Samsung Digital Imaging needs to work on. Operating time, zooming speed, and AF speed is fast enough to enjoy convenient shooting.
In the prior section, we’ve looked at the lens feature, image quality, and various basic functions of IT100. In this section, we’ll talk about its unique specialty compared to other cameras. We can count Dual Image Stabilization of optical and digital type, Perfect Portrait, and Smart Auto.
Optical Image Stabilization for 5x optical zoom lens
As you use telephoto zoom lens more, there’s more trembling. In a high zoom lens, there must be an image stabilization function. Some cameras try to decrease camera shakes with high sensitivity function, and some with optical image stabilization function. IT100 has optical image stabilization function that detects trembling and fixes light by moving to the opposite direction. Generally, OIS is applicable to slow shutter speed of two or three steps. If it can take stable pictures until 1/125 sec, it can stabilize images until 1/30 sec using Image Stabilization function without difficulty.
If you used DIS mode in Shooting mode dial, high sensitivity shot without trembling is set. In DIS mode, it is automatically set as ISO 200 or ISO 400 in bright indoor and high-sensitive ISO 800 in dark area. Unlike regular high sensitivity mode, strong restraint is applied while saving images.
IT100’s DIS function can help take stable image with little noise in high sensitivity shot. As we’ve seen earlier, IT100’s high sensitivity noise restraint is really good. Here, strong noise restraint of DIS is added, so the image can be taken clearly with less noise. It may seem it is not much different from other cameras, but it has become faster than the combination of high and low sensitivity shot before, and image quality has become better.
Dual Image Stabilization
In DIS mode, if you use OIS, Dual Image Stabilization System is completed. Thanks to this dual IS, trembling indoors, a common weakness of a compact camera, can be solved well. It enables efficient shooting by reducing trembling in dark indoors and increasing image quality. There is a competing camera that has both high sensitivity and optical image stabilization, but IT100 has strong noise restraint DIS function. The image quality has been improved. You can check the effect of OIS + DIS Dual IS yourself thorough the samples.
In Smart Auto mode, the camera automatically detects the situation and applies programmed suitable Scene mode. Unlike regular Scene mode, it is more convenient because the user doesn’t have to control, and it is set automatically. There are various Scene modes of 11 types.
Uniqueness of Smart Auto
In Smart Auto, there’re 11 Scene modes: Close-up, Text close-up, Landscape, Snow, Tripod, Action, Night scene, Night portrait, backlight, Backlight portrait, and Portrait. Out of these, if you press half-shutter, Close-up mode is set almost 100%. In the bright outdoors, it applies Landscape mode well. When a person shows, it automatically detects faces, so the success rate of Scene mode related to portraits is high. However, Snow or Action is rarely applied. From now, Scene detection algorism needs to be more delicately tuned. And if you compare regular shooting with Smart Auto’s Close-up shot and Landscape shot, you can see that aperture, shutter speed, and focus are automatically changed. But the overall color tone is same. I think it would be better if there exists difference of colors or contrast in Smart Auto function, emphasizing the uniqueness.
80% of pictures taken by compact cameras are portraits. IT100 has various functions for the 80% of portrait shots. Under the name of perfect portrait system, it has basic face detection, Smile shot, Self guide, Blink detection, and Beauty shot that edits skin tone and face. Beauty shot is included in Scene mode, and rest of the functions can be chosen in regular shooting mode by Fn button.
Face detection, heightened success rate
What matters in face detection is its success rate. If you compare it with Samsung’s first face detection function, IT100’s detection rate seems to be improved more than 50%. When the face looks small or is slightly slanted, it still recognizes it pretty well. But it’s not the level compared to other models in same level. It doesn’t have ST10’s Smart Face detection which distinguishes frequently appearing faces and prioritizes.
Through face detection, you can use Smile shot function that detects faces and automatically takes pictures of a smiley face. It takes a shot at the moment of wide smile. It would be better if there’re degrees in smile. It is great because you can leave smiling moments without pressing shutter. If you always turn on the Smile shot for portraits, you won’t miss any pleasant, smiling moment.
Blink detection that is useful in group shot
When you take a shot of a couple of people, you can take a picture again when one of them blinks. But if it is a group shot, it is hard to see who blinked, and even harder to take one more shot all together. But IT100 can detect up to 12 faces, and if anyone of them blinked, it takes one more shot at the moment no one blinks. You must turn it on when you take a group shot.
Beauty shot for bright and clear faces
If you select Beauty shot mode in Scene mode, it automatically makes skin tone brighter and clearer. By pressing Fn button, you can control the skin tone brightness and face in three level. It is convenient because you don’t need to use Photoshop blur function. However, it you apply it too much, it can look unnatural like too much Photoshop done. So you need to set it in appropriate level. If you want clear face and bright skin tone, you may fix your dial mode to Beauty shot mode.
Manual is inside the camera. Manual is organized around functions, but Shooting guide explains camera functions according to situations. If you select mode, five situations are provided in sentences. When you control a function used to control brightness, sentences related to detailed situation are provided either in overall control or central control. If you select overall brightness control, it guides exposure control, and if you select central brightness control, it guides you to the central light measure. Lastly, when you press Fn button, practice screen of actual use comes up. It considers beginning users who are not used to the functions, and help then learn depending on situations.
An easy way to take a picture you want
So far, I’ve introduced IT100’s special functions to take pictures you like. It’s not through manual setting of desired focus and exposure, but the camera does it for you. Even the advanced users cannot set everything perfectly every time, so camera doing it for you is really convenient. And Samsung technology’s accuracy and effect is getting better and better every year. Compared to former models, face detection accuracy and expression capacity have been improved a lot. Smart Auto function that is added this year is also expected to be improved more accurately. Various functions that cover different situations are IT100’s strength, and Dual Image Stabilization is its distinctive feature that can distinguish IT100 from cheap popularized cameras.
Three points that explain video are resolution, frame per sec, and data per sec. Resolution means the size of the video, and HD resolution is over 1280×720 pixels video. 1920×1080 resolution is called Full HD. IT100 offers 1280×720 video recording, and it looks clear on HDTV. There’re two image quality options: 1280×720 HQ and 1280×720 regular.
From 60 frames to 30 frames
IT100’s HD video is consisted of 30 frames per sec. If there’re more frames, the movement looks more natural. If you consider the movie film is consisted of 24 frames, you’ll be able to understand the movement of IT100 video. It can be either 30-frame or 60-frame in 1280×720 and 640×480 resolution. 60-frame, which looks more natural, is added to 320X240 resolution.
Highly efficient digital camera video
Resolution is important in digital image, but data volume of image decides on image quality. When you compress JPEG, its volume is reduced but quality gets lowered; it’s the same. Since video is 30 photos in a sec, data capacity per sec (bps) is very important. Video function in digital camera is usually not for the high-quality original video. It’s normally used for convenient recording, so its bps is lower than camcorders. In this way, the volume is low and it’s more convenient to use.
IT100’s video
First of all, when you play it on HDTV, it fills the TV. On HDTV, it shows people’s faces clearer than DVD. But the movement is not that smooth. Compared to HD camcorders, it looks somewhat flat. However, since it is a convenient video function in a digital camera, its image quality is satisfying. It is HD quality, and since it has high compression rate, it can save two-hour HD video in 8G SD card. The fastest SDHC 8G memory card can be bought for about 20,000 won. OIS is useful in recording video.
Pause and successive recording
You can pause while recording video, and continue shooting in a while. It may not sound that special, but you will see if you use it yourself. What’s important is that you can link several scenes in one video clip. You don’t’ need complex video editing program like Premier to cut and paste video clips and put the scenes in one file. With this function, you can make homage for battleship Potemkin’s montage. If you press Fn button in video recording mode, you can change exposure, white balance, and color style including black-and-white. You can also use zoom while recording.
It has 28mm-140mm angle, ok image quality, and Dual IS which reduces failure. Its angle is wide, basic image quality is stable, and shooting functions are good. One thing disappointing is the image gets softer when strong light comes through the lens. Improved face detection function and completeness of Perfect Portrait System is outstanding. However, Smart Auto function that detects scene needs to be tuned in detail. Lastly, IT100’s worth becomes complete with efficient HD video recording. The first product of IT series, IT100 will represent IT label standard compact cameras that emphasize fundamentals of cameras.
This review represents the sole opinion of their individual authors and DIZIN 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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