Do I Need A Sim Card For My Samsung Galaxy Camera
There were no heckles, boos or crickets for Samsung's reps back at IFA. But it's off-white to say that the atmosphere following its unveiling of the Galaxy Photographic camera was as muted as it was polite. It didn't help that about journalists in that meeting room were there primarily to see the Galaxy Notation Two, which was undoubtedly the testify'southward headline human activity. Information technology was also worrisome that Nikon had recently released a half-hearted Android camera of its ain -- the Coolpix S800c running on lowly Gingerbread. And finally, some folks in the room -- ourselves included -- may accept been put off past Samsung's talk of "convergence," in reference to the fact that the Galaxy Camera has a micro-SIM slot for HSPA+ cellular information. After all, the whole notion of converged hardware has lost the sheen it once had. Hybridized, perhaps. Modular, maybe. Only delight, not a camera-phablet.
Here's the matter, though: the Galaxy Camera is not a converged device. It'due south a camera, plain and simple. Information technology just happens to be one that's hooked up (in a multitude of ways) to the glorious world of Android. More than specifically, we're looking at full-throttle Jelly Bean sitting astride the same optically stabilized 21x zoom lens and nigh half-inch 16-megapixel sensor that take already been deployed in Samsung's WB850F WiFi camera. These are components which far exceed anything you lot'd discover in fifty-fifty the most epitome-witting smartphone. If y'all desire to put a characterization on it, it'south probably more meaningful to depict all this every bit software convergence. The aforementioned OS and cloud-connected apps that accept and then radically transformed phones, tablets and TVs are now too being deployed in a photographic camera -- and there's no reason why they shouldn't be just as invigorating in this new role. At the very least, don't dismiss this device as a curiosity until yous've read our take on it.
Gallery: FLIR I iPhone 熱能攝影機主站動手玩 | eighteen Photos
Gallery: FLIR One iPhone 熱能攝影機主站動手玩 | 18 Photos
Pros
- Jelly Bean brings a lot of fun to photography
- Broad range of connectivity options
- Good stabilization
Cons
- Surprisingly big and heavy
- The four.eight-inch screen drains the battery
- You tin find better epitome quality for the same price
Hardware
Just so we're clear: the Galaxy Camera has more than heft than a regular compact, and it feels zippo like a phone. The 35mm maximum thickness (with the lens closed) means it'll but about fit into a breast pocket or baggy shorts, but the 305g weight may hogtie yous to invest in a instance, chugalug clip or strap. At the very least, yous'll want to attach the bundled wrist strap, because even with a Gorilla Glass screen in that location'due south no mode this camera will withstand a autumn -- and its surfaces are scarily shine indeed.
In fact, the lack of protruding dials and buttons is i of the biggest differences betwixt this and its non-Android cousin, the WB850F. As you lot'll see subsequently, nearly photographic camera controls are handled via the huge 4.eight-inch touchscreen display, such that the physical realm but includes a power / standby push button, pop-up flash button and combined zoom knob and shutter release.
Yous'll desire to attach the bundled wrist strap, because even with a Gorilla Glass screen at that place's no manner this camera volition withstand a fall.
Of course, there's besides a bunch of ports and other inputs. These include a mic at the top of the photographic camera and a speaker on the left side below the wink button, which together let you to utilise the camera similar a VOIP telephone. On the right side nosotros accept a 3.5mm audio jack and a handy micro-USB port for charging the device from the mains or a travel charger. Finally, on the underside of the photographic camera you also get a tripod mount and battery compartment flap, which opens slightly too easily if the device is left to tumble about in your bag. Open that flap and you lot'll observe the SIM slot -- which is, if you have a data plan, provides a uniquely straight way of sharing your photos when you're out of the achieve of WiFi.
Certain, that SIM slot is interesting -- simply it's just i of many ways to get images in and out of the device. Whereas regular cameras generally shoot on total-size SD cards, the Galaxy Camera can shoot to its own 4GB of internal storage or to a microSD card that can readily be transplanted to a smartphone or tablet with its own information plan. More conveniently, since the Galaxy Camera also has WiFi, you could simply tether it to your smartphone or MiFi -- which is really how we preferred to apply the device. If you happen to own a phone that does WiFi Direct, so you can also beam photos and video directly from the camera at very high data rates. All of these connectivity options boil down to the same question: why would you lot spend extra for a SIM with a data plan that merely works for this photographic camera?
No doubt some professionals and power users will decide to invest in a dedicated SIM, if they're likely to need to file photos over the internet daily and to tight deadlines. Over fourth dimension, remote control apps for the photographic camera may too exist adult that will benefit from a directly cellular data connectedness -- and frankly it's impossible to anticipate all the ways in which this hyper-continued photographic camera could be put to use. Just nevertheless, for regular utilize the SIM slot feels like an unnecessary expense. One of the biggest joys of this photographic camera for the states was actually using it to browse, edit and share photos while at habitation or in a hotel, in which example the camera was simply connected to the local WiFi network. If a version of the Galaxy Photographic camera without a modem would have been cheaper, then that's a missed opportunity to make the device more than mainstream.
Brandish
One characteristic that will cause niggling debate is the large, bright and extremely rich Hd Super Clear LCD. It'due south just when yous get-go taking photos through a window of this size -- possibly on a Galaxy South III or a Galaxy Annotation II -- that you realize how much a large screen helps with framing and composition. Moreover, the 1,280 x 720 console does a proficient task of fending off straight sunlight, which means you lot won't especially miss the presence of an electronic viewfinder -- even though the Galaxy Camera feels nigh large plenty to have contained i. One unusual omission is machine-brightness, which means you lot'll occasionally find yourself called-for the bombardment with a stack of lumens that yous don't necessarily need.
Every bit you lot'll run into when we delve into the camera's software interface, this huge display is essential for taking artistic control of the camera, since pretty much every aspect of an exposure is dictated by tapping the screen. It's also a requisite of making full employ of Android -- not only the ability to play dorsum and edit your photos easily, but besides having a decently sized onscreen keyboard with which to type in captions, letters and and so on. In other words, this heavy, power-hungry component isn't merely justified past the photography, but also by what you lot're going to be doing with your photographs later on yous've taken them.
All told, the panel on the Milky way Camera isn't the best we've seen for all-round utilize, because it'south entirely geared towards brightness and outdoor viewing. When displaying text, either the pixel or sub-pixel density makes the characters slightly hazy at their edges. Compared to the HTC One X's LCD panel, for example, the irregular placing of the dots actually makes this look strangely similar a PenTile brandish. Withal, this component is intended for viewing images rather than words and it does an excellent task.
Epitome quality
What practice we stack the Galaxy Photographic camera upwardly against? Although it's priced correct at the summit end of what a compact camera should price, much of that outlay is going on the display, quad-core processor and connectivity options. If nosotros were to remove these costly elements, nosotros'd finish upwardly with the WB850F, which has the same 21x zoom lens and 1/2.33-inch sensor, and which currently sells on Amazon for merely $260. This simple fact tells u.s. much of what nosotros need to know: the Galaxy Camera'southward prototype quality is going to jar with its $500 price tag.%Gallery-170768%
Gallery: AMD Projection Discovery 主站動手玩 | vii Photos
Gallery: AMD Project Discovery 主站動手玩 | seven Photos
When we wait at the samples, that's exactly what we observe. The auto mode often failed to sufficiently correct white balance, leaving us with excessively common cold outdoor images and pinky-orange indoor ones. Noise afflicted pretty much every shot to some degree, fifty-fifty at ISO 100, and it became a serious upshot beyond ISO 800 due to the overcrowding of those 16 million pixels on the sub-half-inch CMOS fleck. Considering that you can get an APS-C Nikon D5100 with a kit lens and the same resolution for $580 these days, or a pedigree fixed-lens compact like the Fujifilm X10 for $550, or a Sony NEX-5N mirrorless ILC for $480, information technology'southward impossible for the Galaxy Photographic camera'due south relatively cheap photographic components to put upwards a fight.
On the other hand, yous could say that'southward an uneven competition. After all, aside from Samsung's habitual overpricing of its cameras, the coin that goes on the not-photographic aspects of the Galaxy Camera is hardly beingness wasted -- it'south merely being invested in a different set up of talents. If we shift the comparison to smartphones like the Galaxy S 3, it's obvious that the Galaxy Camera is in a different league than any traditional mobile device.
Combined with the long lens, the larger sensor opens up a earth of unlike shot opportunities and also allows some shallow depth of field. Information technology has better dynamic range and tends to capture and preserve more data per shot, even afterwards yous right for the difference in resolution -- for case the 16-megapixel image of the tomatoes to a higher place weighed 4.2MB on the Milky way Camera and only 1.7MB on the eight-megapixel Galaxy S Iii. Although the video data charge per unit is broadly the same across both devices, at just over ii MB/s, the optical stabilization in the Galaxy Photographic camera ways that data is used to capture detail rather than the cluttered movement of camera wobble, and the resultant video is really very good. The stabilization too helps with stills -- we were able to pull off 1/10s low-light shots with well-nigh no visible shake. The only slight issue with video recording is that audio volume dips noticeably when you engage the zoom, which is something you'll hear in the video beneath.
Ultimately, we accept to conclude that image quality is good enough for the intended audience -- people who are more interested in getting upwards close to a subject and capturing a moment, then tweaking and sharing the resulting image, rather than creating something particularly polished. Many of the images from this photographic camera will even be deliberately subjected to low-fi filters and furnishings before they're shared on Instagram and other platforms, so raw quality just isn't going to exist what counts.
Performance and battery life
At that place may well be some users who want to utilize the Milky way Camera as their main Android device -- perhaps aslope a small-screened smartphone that isn't great for typing and other not-telephone tasks. In that scenario, bombardment life will exist of import in exactly the aforementioned way as it is on a smartphone or tablet, so nosotros ran our usual looped-video rundown test. Due to a network issue at the time, we disabled cellular data but left WiFi and GPS switched on.
Bear in mind that you'll need to divvy up that battery chapters between Android usage and actual photography. We were able to drain the battery in merely four hours after snapping 115 photos and 3 minutes of HD video, alongside some heavy editing and sharing over WiFi tethering and WiFi straight. Reducing the amount of browsing and general screen use made a huge departure, especially when we powered off the screen between each shot. This approach gave us 146 shots and 6 minutes of HD video and we however had 40 percent of the bombardment left. Depending on how you're likely to employ the Galaxy Camera, you can count on either charging it every solar day like a ability-hungry smartphone, or carrying a USB ability pack or spare battery. Fortunately, the bombardment is identical to that in the original Galaxy S II, so buying $10 spares should exist a cinch.
The upside of all of this wattage is that you're getting an extremely fast and fluid widescreen Jelly Edible bean feel. We had ane crash, and a couple of strange ho-hum-downs, only for the most office every aspect of the camera ran as apace as the GS Iii. The processor likewise allows you lot to launch the camera app and take a shot within two seconds of tapping the push. Information technology can also pull off a confirmed four frames-per-2d at full-res with stock-still focus and a maximum burst of 20 shots.
| Milky way Photographic camera | Galaxy Southward III | Galaxy Note Two | Nexus 7 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quadrant Advanced | 5,830 | 5,852 | vi,819 | 3,501 | |
| Vellamo 2 HTML5 | 1,674 | 1,565 | i,831 | one,650 | |
| AnTuTu | 12,006 | 11,960 | xiii,539 | 8,954 | |
| SunSpider 0.9.1 (ms) | ane,209 | one,170 (1,460) | 1,023 | 1,785 | |
| GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt HD C24Z16 Offscreen (fps) | xv | 15 | 17 | -- | |
| CF-Bench | 12,910 | 13,110 | fifteen,267 | 11,807 | |
| Battery life | vi:twoscore | 9:02 | ten:45 | 9:49 | |
| Lower SunSpider scores are better. Scores in brackets were recorded before a recent update. | |||||
Software
Let'south go dorsum to that original question: why bother having Android on a photographic camera? When it'southward implemented properly, every bit Samsung has achieved here, the answer to that question is something you lot feel as soon equally y'all switch on the device. Instead of some clunky traditional photographic camera interface, you'll be welcomed past your own, deliciously customizable environs. Favorite shots tin exist deployed as wallpaper; slideshow widgets can cycle through your contempo photos and those of your friends; your about commonly used paradigm editing and sharing apps tin be positioned where you demand them; the default keyboard tin even be switched to one of your selection, making it easier to tag, rename and caption photos you lot intend to put online.
Yous feel more creative and more connected to photography.
The overall effect is to make you feel more creative and more connected to photography, to the point where Samsung's marketing about a "new visual communication era" actually has a band of truth to it. It's hard to explain, just at that place'south but something fundamentally different and exciting about looking at people's Instagram shots on a device that is so powerfully equipped for taking pictures of your own, with no other hardware or file transfers getting in the fashion.
On a side note, information technology would accept been nice to utilise the zoom within the Instagram app, especially since Samsung said the app was being tweaked to permit that, but at that place's no sign of such a feature. Twiddling the zoom now but changes device book, as it does anywhere except within Samsung'southward ain camera app.
That's correct -- there'south no "camera style" as such. To take a shot you lot simply launch the camera app, whose icon is permanently positioned on the lower-left corner of each home screen. Alternatively, you tin can press the shutter release to go the same outcome. Either style, it takes less than 2 seconds for the lens protector to flip open, the barrel to popular out and for the photographic camera to exist able to focus and pull off a shot. The shooting interface itself is simple and uncluttered, but heavily geared towards auto and scene-based photography.
The main controls are located on the left side of the screen, which displays the current mode, a dial for choosing a different manner, as well as onscreen triggers for movie recording and shutter release (which behaves identically to the concrete shutter release but is sometimes more than convenient). Auto mode is pretty skillful, just we found that information technology oft misjudged colour balance and tended towards overexposure. Whatever discontent with Motorcar's results volition lead y'all to the second piece of cake-to-use mode, known every bit Smart. This brings together no fewer than 15 separate shooting styles -- not just scene-based profiles (e.yard., Macro, Silhouette, Landscape), but too capture modes (Continuous Shot, Best Shot, HDR / Rich Tone), stitching options (Panorama, All-time face) and effects (like Dazzler face, which claims to smooth out imperfections). This might sound bewildering, merely it quickly makes sense to organize things this fashion, and more than importantly each Smart style is pretty effective at getting the result you're looking for.
Finally, if you're nonetheless not satisfied with what Smart mode tin practise, then you lot'll need to resort to the to the lowest degree intuitive of the 3 modes: Expert, which obliterates the screen with a range of onscreen dials covering P / S / A / M mode, ISO, exposure compensation, discontinuity and shutter speed. Depending on which priority mode you lot choice, ane or more of these dials will be greyed out and inaccessible, because it'due south under the camera's control. In full Transmission, the exposure compensation dial volition be inaccessible and used to display the caste to which, by the camera's reckoning, you are over- or under-exposing. Overall, it's a logical system that stays faithful to how proper cameras work, and information technology's essential for creative control, but compared to concrete dials it'due south still very catchy to striking good manual settings quickly or in response to irresolute conditions -- not least considering the preview of the shot is obscured past all the dials and, well, there's just so much tapping.
When it comes to looking back at your shots, the stock gallery app is no different to that on Samsung'southward latest smartphones and tablets, but information technology proves its worth on this device. When you're looking at a single image, at that place are but four chief image-related buttons forth the top right of the screen and they're all well idea out. The Share push brings up a listing of all the installed apps that tin exist used to share or exploit a photo -- for example, if you install Evernote on the camera then this push will give yous the selection of creating a note out of the photo you're looking at. The 2d button is a shortcut to the method of sharing you lot used final -- so if you lot mostly apply Facebook to share a film, then the 2nd button will likely exist the Facebook logo. The third button is a quick and painless Delete, while the 4th push brings upwards an extensive carte that covers pretty much everything else you'd desire to practice with a photograph: including basic ingather, rotate and rename functions, and opening the photo in ane of the two bundled editing apps to carry out more complicated refinements (in that location's Photo Wizard which is smart and like shooting fish in a barrel to employ, or Paper Artist which is for mostly gimmicky effects). Of grade, yous can employ any app you similar to tailor your images -- the entire Android ecosystem is at your disposal.
It's hard to go back to the closed-off, one-trick ways of a traditional shooter.
Information technology should be articulate by now that the software on this camera isn't just a bonus -- information technology's the Galaxy Camera'due south defining feature, and information technology'south so engrossing that it's difficult to go back to the airtight-off, one-trick means of a traditional shooter. Simply things hopefully won't stop there: now that Samsung has signaled its willingness to let tertiary-party developers design apps specifically for this camera module, nosotros can envisage a multitude of means in which it could be made better suited to a range of niche users -- from tech bloggers to realtors, location scouts and untold others who'll desire automated scripts for resizing, watermarking and filing photos; remote control apps; and who knows what else. Of class, that'll only happen if the popularity of this camera reaches a tipping betoken. And, equally we've seen past now, there are serious limitations to this device -- namely its price, image quality and battery life -- that may prevent that from happening.
Wrap-upwards
This is a tricky thing to evaluate. On the one hand, if we had $500 to spend on a photographic camera of this size, we'd be more than probable to spend information technology on a sophisticated mirrorless model that delivers amend image quality. Alternatively, if we needed a cheap compact, we might opt for the Samsung WB850F, which has WiFi connectivity and the same lens and sensor as the Milky way Camera, but costs half the toll. The fact that we're paying so much money to dupe expensive components already used in smartphones, and that we'd have to spend at least $10 per month extra to get a bones information plan and make use of that SIM slot, all weighs heavily against the Galaxy Camera as a applied buy.
If the device were smaller and lighter, perhaps with a 4.three-inch panel and a shorter zoom, and if it was priced only slightly higher than a regular not-Android compact (perhaps at $300 or $350), we could imagine it being more mainstream. But alas, that'southward non what we're looking at correct now.
On the other manus, information technology wouldn't be correct to just dismiss something that is so much fun to utilise. The combination of decent compact camera hardware and the latest version of Android is not only powerful; it's also seriously enjoyable, and information technology may result in the coincidental photographer spending far more time perfecting and sharing their pictures than they ever did earlier. Nosotros come across it like this: Unless you lot're a dedicated hobbyist or you're taking photographs for your chore, the creativity involved in editing and sharing a photograph tends to be a fragile thing. The slightest inconvenience in switching out an SD carte, or the boredom of waiting for a file to transfer, could be enough to brand someone quit the task at paw and exercise something more urgent. So, if you lot've got a wad of notes to spare and y'all're intent on preserving and sharing the type of photos and videos that even the all-time smartphone can't achieve, the Milky way Camera is bound to be rewarding.
(Notation: you tin find the total sample images of Thailand here.)
Zach Honig contributed to this review.
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Source: https://www.engadget.com/2012-11-14-samsung-galaxy-camera-review.html
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