Samsung's HZ10W arrives early with ultra-wide 24mm lens
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Jan 7th 2009 12:42AM
posted Jan 7th 2009 12:42AM
Ooops. Samsung's 10.2 megapixel HZ10W camera has leaked onto the Internets a bit early. The wide-angle lens goes extra-wide with its 24mm (not 28mm) Schneider with 10x optical zoom stabilized with both optical and digital anti-shake tech. It also captures 720p video at 30fps in H.264 format to SDHC cards if that's your thing. In addition to a presumably useful array of automatic face detection, Smile Shot (shoots a photo when the subject smiles) and Blink Detection (triggers 3x shots if a blink is detected), the camera also features manual control over shutter speed, focus, aperture, and ISO settings. Happy, pappy?[Via PhotographyBlog]
thats a pretty sweet camera...aperture and shutter speed control needs to be on more consumer level cameras....
no that one isnt it.
More important is the wide-angle lens. Ridiculous zoom is a useless marketing gimmick that plays off the total lack of common sense exhibited by today's consumers. What are point-and-shoot users doing more often: Trying to get an entire group of friends into the shot in a limited indoor space, or bird-watching with a tripod?
Isn't it nice to be able to do both with a single camera?
wow worlds first 24mm lens i thought there was a lumix with the worlds first 25mm.
viva la vista
Are you sure? http://www.dpreview.com/news/0807/08072102panasoniclx3.asp
well i was in a foreign electronics store... but anyways i LOVE my lumix (not the 25 mm)
iEye, check the link. The Lumix LX3 came out earlier last year and has a 24mm lens (with 2.0/f no less!) ;) so I'm not sure this Samsung camera is the first in the world like you're saying.
Sweet. A nice wide angle is a lot more useful than a bunch of extra noisy, diffraction limited pixels.
720p @30fps is sweet.
But what about the image quality?
Nothing beats Canon afaik.
Nothing beats Canon's 1080p 30fps!
lumix leica ftw!!!!!! nothing beats it
720p @ 30fps is sweet indeed. Picture quality is awesome. I own a Panasonic Lumix Leica DSC-FX35. My poor old Sony camcorder is getting rusty somewhere in the basement. Good riddance! :-)
Nothing beats Micro Four Thirds by Olympus - DSLR-sized sensor in a point-and-shoot-sized body with changeable optics! Retro style! But this comes pretty close to "want" category. Needs reviews.
Remember though that a bigger sensor also needs bigger lenses to achieve the same zoom range. The Olympus µ4:3 is only going to keep its ultra-compactness while fitted with a pancake-style prime lens.
That's not to say it isn't an intriguing concept. In fact I could very well see myself picking one up, along with that nifty 20mm f1.7 from Panasonic. But for people that don't want to interchange their lenses, a more conventional compact may be better suited for them.
I wish Samsung become a provider of quality cameras in future. But at the time being I will not spend my money on a Samsung, Kodak, Fuji etc. They are yet far from having a quality product. With almost the same money (perhaps 20% more) you can buy Canon or Olympus which gives you incomparable picture quality.
However people with no experience will buy their products (and perhaps even cannot identify the difference in picture quality)
Fuji has had made quality cameras. In fact the old F30/31 is well venerated.
Actually, Fuji is probably the only company that has made, and continues to make, P&S cameras with decent low-light performance.
HEY! I HAVE SEARCH THE INTERNET TO BUY A GOOD CAMERA. CAN YOU HELP? I WANT A POINT AND SHOOT WITH A FAST SHUTTER SPEED, THE FACE DETECTION, SMILE DETECTION, STABILIZER, AND GOOD QUALITY PHOTO....ALL FOR ABOUT $300 OR UNDER. DO YOU KNOW OF ONE? THANKS!
HEY! I HAVE TRIED TO FIND A GOOD CAMERA...BUT DONT KNOW TOO MUCH ABOUT WHICH ONE TO BUY. DO YOU KNOW OF A GOOD CAMERA WITH FAST FPS SPEED, STABILIZER, FACE DETECTION, SMILE DETECTION, AND STILL TAKE QUAlITY PICTURES? MY BUDGET IS ABOUT $300 OR UNDER. THANKS FOR ANY HELP I CAN GET.
Personally, I am a Canon p&s and dslr user. But I would argue that Samsung and Fuji are comparable or better choices at the consumer level. Samsung cameras are known to have great natural colors and contrast directly from the camera. and like Plothole said Fuji makes quality cameras as well, the consumer level cameras are known to be some of the best performers in low light.
that was supposed to be a reply to "Mac" above ^^^
i had a samsung NV5 in the past and is was the most complicated camera ever (hard to get a good shot).
almost all shot indoors were either too noisy or too light because of the flash.
it was pretty tho but definitely not a good camera.
i bought a compact fuji for my girlfriend, the z20fd, and it s it s brillant! faster to focus than the samsung with less visible noise.
colors are correct and fits in the pocket. brillant.
so i wont spend any more money on a samsung am affraid but i will on a fuji.
Thomas Ricker, what kind of lives are these? We're like children. We're not men.
Nice attempt by Samsung.
But still, the Lumix LX3 is still the king!.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/Q408enthusiastgroup/
Samsung cameras are crap. I won one and I still don't use it. The controls suck and the pictures are blah.
What's this ?
Voice your opinion without knowledge ?
This is a NEW camera, and I for one
wouldn't dream of commenting before any serious testing was done.
1) Picture quality goes above anything else, no matter how appealing the features may sound.
2) That said, the feature list on this Samsung HZ10W looks incredible.
Combining those two, makes for an urgent need to have this challenger show what it's made of !
I'm extremely curious of how it'll perform.
How does that Schneider-KREUZNACH lens perform IRL ?
What speed can you achieve in continous shooting mode ?
Does the color rendering satisfy ? Or the mid-focal-length detail capturing ?
Is the dynamic range sufficient ? Low light noise? Macro field-of-depth ?
Video quality with that Image Stabilisation, optical zooming and HD 720p features ?
Et.c., et.c.
There are hundreds and still hundreds of factors that make up that compromise that EVERY
single camera model represents.
Let's stay clear of preconceptions, regardless of what this manufacturer has achieved in the past.
It's interesting to see if the borders can be pushed even further, in such a compact camera !
"The BEST CAMERA - - is the one you carry with you" ..... ( wise words from a Pro ) , and this one is certainly small enough to carry along.
Cheers !
:)