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Do you remember what peoples attitude to photo cameras was before? When there were no digital cameras? A person with photo camera was almost an artist for people and at that with a technical grounding. Photo techniques took respect and knowledge of the process. Little by little photo techniques became more and more popular and then digital photo cameras appeared. Photographing really campaigned among the masses. After some time photo camera became common device as a mobile phone. Now it is as small as a mobile phone, just like Samsung NV30 which we are going to discuss today.

Design and ergonomics
The size of this camera is a little bigger than credit card (not in width of course), almost like Samsung G810 smartphone.

The back panel with 2,5 inch LCD display is down to the limit laconic. Plus to display framed with a vertical and lateral row of keys there is a tiny Play key and zoom lens wheel.



To my mind this camera is too compact (I guess it is so due to the design idea) and I would prefer to have a bigger rod there – there is enough of free space to make a bigger wheel. There is a convenient rest for the fingers on the front panel and camera fits your hand quite good.




The body angles are rounded – there are no sharp edges and jutting out parts. The lens lamp position is quite good – you cannot close it with your finger at holding in your hands, well only if you do that on purpose. Although there enough of examples when compact cameras are designed in such a way that you are closing something anyway. Well, if you take a look to this camera from above you will see quite an unusual scene – there are wheels of modes selection placed symmetrically in the left and right parts of the body angles.




One is responsible for the photographing modes and another (the left one) – for choice of special effects. For example, there are “soft”, “saturated”, “warm”, “retro” and etc – the whole quantity is 8 including standard mode, but these color setting work only in fully automatic mode. Here is an example – you choose macro photographing mode by rotating the right wheel to the Program mode, at that all the modes of color improvements and correction are turned off automatically and you can hope only for postprocessing.
The quality of the camera body pleasantly surprises as well as the fact that all control bodies on the upper end are made of metal; in fact almost the whole camera body is made of metal too.




The power key is carefully sunk into the body and there is a small border around the shutter key. That is why you can use control keys of the camera without looking, at that choosing this or that parameter there are floating prompts on display.
As for dearly loved touch keys around display which are so much promoted by Samsung – to my mind this is just another gismo because it is not convenient to use these keys.





In order to use a necessary parameter you have to stop, take camera in two hands and only then to “twist and turn” adjustments. To my subjective outlook a simple joystick and several correctly placed keys will cope with this task. Plus to that they take not much place than the whole square of all keys around Samsung NV30 display. And one thing more. Due to the fact that plastic keys are painted by evaporation method they can be rubbed away. On the pictures you can see the result of two hour being of camera in the pocket of my jeans at that the owner was riding a bicycle.



Frankly speaking I felt a bit offended and rum – it was just a pocket and there were no any keys there. Probably this mishap was just because we had a test sample.

Technical characteristics
You can see the way the menu looks like yourself (there are different settings seen). It is almost the same as L73 model has got and… rather comfortable. You already know the control system. And again this is analogue L73 control.







In spite of its compact sizes the camera is equipped with 8 megapixel matrix. To my mind a sensor of more than 5-6 megapixels for compact camera is mostly marketing, to attract immature minds of customers because in spite of declared giant resolution the physical parameters of matrix are not big to say the least, so it means that the size of each pixel is microscopic. Samsung NV30 boasts a ½,5 inch matrix. Maximum perceptibility of device reaches remarkable index – 3200 ISO units in compact camera!




But this wonderful number is not really fair – at such perceptibility the camera resolution is only 3,2 megapixels instead authorized 8 megapixels. Among interesting features of this camera we can note a double system of stabilization providing sharp non-smudged pictures without “movements”. Moreover, the power of inbuilt camera processors reached the level which allows Samsung engineers using a system of intellectual suppression of red eyes effect in this novelty.



The system is really working and you have to try hard to reach the effect of red eyes.
You can see the test pictures below and the archive of full-size pictures (22 Mb total) can be downloaded here.









Automatic mode of camera is adequate in the majority of cases. The flash is working quite intelligently – the portraits are not overlighted even at minimal distance. 3 fold zoom with focal distance of 37-111 mm has got enviable performance speed and low noise, at that the camera is almost instantly switched on. Among drawback we can name the proprietary jack for USB cable.



But this jack it the only one on the camera body and it is also used for recharge. And its plus is that it is safely closed with a rubber cover.

Resume
In spite of some disputable decisions, for example touch control keys, I liked the camera: its functional and ergonomics as well as the pictures quality and exposure automatics. The camera does not practically make mistakes in balance of white and it does not overlight the frame. To my mind this Samsung is good as the only photo camera (NV30 is rather universal) and as the second camera too.

For: stylish design and well-thought ergonomics, high quality of electronics, high capacity battery and good quality of pictures.

Against: hard to master touch control system, non-standard USB jack.