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Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

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11–20 of 46 posts

Re: Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

#11
post #6

It's a bit early to say that it leapfrogs . Any camera is as good as its lens is good. And Nikon makes it better.

Actually, I've heard that the best camera is the one that you have on you. A smartphone with optical zoom is a good thing, I think.

Re: Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

#12
post #5

16 megapixels packed into a 1/2.3" sensor? Ouch. That's the smallest sensor size on this image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sensor_sizes_overlaid_ins... I hope DPReview does a review on this camera -- I suspect it's going to produce extremely poor photos.

>> I suspect it's going to produce extremely poor photos. Relative to what? Compared to an SLR? Sony's RX100? The iPhone 4? Other 1/2.3" cameras? Keep in mind that a 1/2.3" sensor is still significantly larger than something like, say the 1/3.2" sensor in the iPhone 4. Scaled to real-world image sizes (i.e. Facebook, etc.) the downsampled images will probably be good enough for most snapshots.

What's the point of 16MP if you're only concerned about scaling to Facebook?

Re: Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

#14
post #10

I'm not convinced that a point-and-shoot camera can be considered "pro". Thumbs-up for manual exposure settings and the inclusion of Android, but a single f/2.8-5.9 lens is not going to be suitable in a lot of situations. I also don't see a flash (or flash mount) anywhere, which would make it annoying to take photos in a dark bar or restaurant. Alternatively, I think it would be neat to apply some of these features t…

There's a small pop-up style flash, but you are right, no mounting for an external flash.

Re: Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

#15
Having a full 3G modem in a camera, and a flexible operating system to control it is certainly nice. Having a camera that just uploads everything to Dropbox (or whatever), that's awesome!

However, I have some doubt. One thing is that I think all the regular "smartphone" features here are a distraction. No, I quite certainly do not want to check my e-mail on my camera. I'm all for having a flexible system there, so people can build new innovative image editing software to use right on the camera, and let me install this on the camera, but PLEASE keep in mind that a camera is still a special-purpose device.

The second doubt is, as others here have indicated, that this particular camera might just not be very good.

Re: Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

#16
post #10

I'm not convinced that a point-and-shoot camera can be considered "pro". Thumbs-up for manual exposure settings and the inclusion of Android, but a single f/2.8-5.9 lens is not going to be suitable in a lot of situations. I also don't see a flash (or flash mount) anywhere, which would make it annoying to take photos in a dark bar or restaurant. Alternatively, I think it would be neat to apply some of these features t…

exactly. "Samsung Galaxy Camera is a pro camera" I practically stopped reading there. This is not even remotely close to what in camera land is considered pro.

Re: Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

#17
post #12
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> I suspect it's going to produce extremely poor photos. Relative to what? Compared to an SLR? Sony's RX100? The iPhone 4? Other 1/2.3" cameras? Keep in mind that a 1/2.3" sensor is still significantly larger than something like, say the 1/3.2" sensor in the iPhone 4. Scaled to real-world image sizes (i.e. Facebook, etc.) the downsampled images will probably be good enough for most snapshots.

What's the point of 16MP if you're only concerned about scaling to Facebook?

Exactly. Megapixels only really matter if you're doing photo-editing or photo-printing. If it's being down-scaled - and it is, if you are uploading it to whatever social media site - then a 5MP iPhone 4 camera will serve you just as well.

Re: Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

#18

Why on earth would I want my camera to be running a full phone OS? It's one thing to build a camera into a phone for convenience, but when will having an OS and touchscreen in the back of my camera make something more convenient?

Communication programs would make synchronizing and sharing photos (particularly one-offs) much easier.

Touch-to-focus, touch-to-set-white-balance are pretty awesome and far more user-friendly than comparable functions/processes on today's point-n-shoots (when they're even available).

Applications would be able to extend what are fairly difficult-to-kludgy with todays point-n-shoots (HDR, stitched panoramas, night shots, etc)

etc.

Re: Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

#19
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the point of 16MP if you're only concerned about scaling to Facebook?

Exactly. Megapixels only really matter if you're doing photo-editing or photo-printing. If it's being down-scaled - and it is, if you are uploading it to whatever social media site - then a 5MP iPhone 4 camera will serve you just as well.

But if you're not ready to make the smartphone/data-plan plunge, or your smartphone has a crap camera...

Re: Samsung leapfrogs Nikon with Galaxy camera, 16mp 21x optical zoom and jellybean

#20

Why on earth would I want my camera to be running a full phone OS? It's one thing to build a camera into a phone for convenience, but when will having an OS and touchscreen in the back of my camera make something more convenient?

That's what I told a guy I went to school with when he has shown me Snakes on his Nokia phone. Who'd ever want to play a game on a phone?

And then, around two years later, I asked him who'd ever want a color display on their phone when he was showing off his T68. Who'd ever need a color display on a phone...

I also remember laughing about the ridiculous camera add-on for that T68. I mean: who'd ever want a camera in their phone?

In this present case, being able to instantly upload to Dropbox or picture sharing sites certainly has some appeal, but I guess we'll have to see how this develops over time.

I certainly stopped asking "why on earth..." when talking about gadgets though :-)

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