Jumping Up! Samsung PL150

Following is a review of Samsung PL150 dual LCD camera.

Do you remember the ST550(TL225) having an innovative front display in 2009? Now, there’s one more front display camera with stronger and more convenient Smart Auto 2.0 from Samsung. It’s the PL150.

The PL150 comes in 3 colors such as Blue, Purple, and Red. It has the front display, 7 degree self shot angle, Smart Auto2.0, Smart Filter, and Jumping shot.

PL150 has 99.2 X 59 X 19.9mm of size and 136.6g of weight. It has 27-135mm F3.5-5.9 Samsung lens and 1/2.33” (dir 7.79mm) CCD with 12.4M effective pixels. Through the 1.5” (3.8cm) 61000 pixels front LCD, it supports various functions. For a storage, Micro SD is used and up to 2GB of MicroSD and 8GB of MicroSDHC can be used.

The back isn’t that different from other Samsung cameras. 230K pixels 3.0” (App. 7.6cm) QVGA TFT LCD, mode dial, menu button, and direction key are located on the back. The direction key consists of 4 way buttons and Ok button in the center. It can select options such as DISP, Flash, Macro, and Timer. On the lower part, play and Fn buttons are located.

On the top of the PL10, F.LCD, Power button, zoom in, and shooting button are located. When it comes to F.LCD button, unlike the ST550 turning on the LCD by touching it, this button is used to set the front LCD to Self-Lovers-Children modes. From the functions of the Front Display, I’d like to introduce other menus and options.

A camera is used for self shot probably the most. That’s why the ST550 with the Front LCD was so popular, and in the PL150, it has been upgraded by adding Lover mode. The camera recognizes 2 faces and angle between these 2 faces and automatically takes a shot. Through this function, you can try to make a girl or boy friend, I think.

The PL150 recognizes up to 10 faces and set the focus and exposure. Through Face Recognition menu, it supports various Face Recognition options such as Smile Shot, Blink Detection, and Smart Face Recognition.

Smart Face Recognition is linked to Face list edit. Through Face List editing function consisting of My Star and Registered face List editing, users can register faces by using My Start taking up to 5 photos from different angles such as front, left, right, up, and down, and through Registered Face List editing, users can register up to 8 faces and change their priority. After editing the face list, through Smart Face Recognition recognizing up to 10 faces and registering up to 12 faces, the camera displays * to registered faces in My Star on the frame while recognizing faces and takes a shot with prioritizing those faces for focus and exposure.

Nothing is as difficult as taking children’s shot. They never pay attention to a camera and we don’t know where they go next. However, with Children mode, they can pay attention to the animation on the front display with sound effects, so we can take their smiling faces.

There are 2 options to use the Frond LCD, and one is Front Smlie Shot, and the other is Children mode Smile Shot. This is separate from Smile Shot in shooting mode, and this automatically takes a shot when people smile in Self, Lover, and Children mode.

The PL150 also supports Jump shot. Jump shot was difficult to take, so we had to try a lot of times to get a successful shot. But selecting it by pushing a timer located on the right side of direction key, then users can take it with following the instruction.

The above pictures were the front LCD when taking jump shots. When pushing the shutter, Self Timer lamp blinks, and it starts counting from count 3 of 5 sec and takes 3 consecutive shots, and pictures are stored.

In the direction key having Timer option for Jump Shot, Macro shot for normal AF and Macro selection and DISP button for various flash options, shooting option display, and information display are located.

The Front display is about the outer part for upgraded function, and it has also a lot of internal upgrade. And let me introduce them by showing the performance of the PL150 as a camera.

Rotating the mode dial, selected mode is displayed in the LCD. Like most other cameras, in Program (P) mode, users can use and adjust most of the functions, so I will set the camera to P mode.

The PL150 supports 8 kinds of image sizes from 1024x768 to 4000x3000 12M pixels with standard, find, and super fine quality. Moreover, EV from -2 to +2, ISO 3200, and 7 white balance modes can be selected. Auto and Program shutter mode from 1/8 to 1/2000 sec. And it has also 1/2000 sec of night scenery, 2 sec of firework shutter speed. It’s almost like a manual mode.

It also supports various options and tracking AF is very useful. This Tracking AF is to follow a subject to set a focus on the subject even if it moves.

There has been some change in Photo Style. Abbreviations like V or F has been changed to Korean letters and Sketch effect has been added.

Smart Filter is also one of the cool functions added in the PL10. It consists of Miniature, Vignetting, Fish-eye 1, and Fish-eye 2. It’s almost like Tilt&Shift lens, Fish-eye lens, and vignetting lens in the filter effects. Therefore, it allows users to take unique pictures.

Miniature

Vignetting

Fish-eye 1

Fish-eye 2

Photo Style - Sketch

As you may have already noticed, Style and Smart Filter can be selected during image playback, so users can compare original images with filtered images, and these images are separately stored.

With this Style and Filter, convenience of shooting has also been upgraded and it’s Smart Auto 2.0. For your information, Smart Auto has been upgraded from Smart Auto, Smart Auto 1.5, and finally Smart Auto 2.0 which I’m introducing now.

Smart Auto 2.0 in the PL150 is divided into 2 parts. First one is an image part. 5 automatic recognition area in the red box such as Blue Sky, Natural Green, Macro, Macro Portrait, Firework, and Tracking AF I already introduced are the main functions of Smart Auto 2.0 in the image part.

For movie recording, Smart Auto 2.0 has been applied. Through Smart Scene Recognition recognizing 6 different scene modes, it supports optimized movie shooting and through the HDMI port, 1080i quality output can be enjoyed.

For this convenient movie shooting, Normal Shooting mode or Smart Scene Recognition mode from menu has to be selected. Moreover, Style and Smart Filter included in Image shooting can also be applied and when it comes to Smart Filter, Miniature, Vignetting, and Fish-eye 1 can be used.

We’ve looked through new functions of the PL10. However, don’t forget the great functions Samsung cameras already have supported. Especially, Auto mode for beginners, Dual IS mode to reduce shake, Beauty Shot for handsome faces, Night using long time shutter, and Scene modes for 10 different situations are those functions that customers liked.

The NX10 was a new challenge to a new market, and the PL10 is one step forward in 2010. They were not satisfied with the success of the Front Display, and have developed more useful functions such as Lover and Jump shot. And Smart Filter and Style allows users more creativity. On top of that, upgraded Smart Auto for convenient shooting is the best advantage of the PL10 and the reason I’m expecting new Samsung cameras which will be released this year.

This review is originated from http://www.segadget.com/entry/554