Samsung SDP-860 review

Matthew Reames Read more March 8, 2012

£540

Price when reviewed

The SDP-860 seems designed with hard-working teachers in mind; the unit can be set up and connected to a projector in minutes. The camera arm rotates in two axes, as does the camera head, making a wide range of camera angles and positions possible. This makes the unit useful for imaging most things students can think of, whether it’s an exercise book or the wall of the building next door. The sturdy base also helps keep the camera steady – a very useful feature in a busy classroom.

The auto-focus responds quickly with no need for manual correction. A3-sized documents can be viewed in their entirety and the effective zoom feature allows smaller objects to be seen in great detail. The close-up examination of various types of foreign currency provided an excellent opportunity to test this feature. The resulting still images look crisp and there’s no noticeable lag with any motion on the screen.

Samsung SDP-860

The SDP-860 is highly responsive to changes in light. For example, when the object being imaged was changed from something dark to something light, the unit responded immediately, and there was almost no period where the image looked over-exposed or washed-out on the screen.

Almost all of the unit’s functions are available when connected to a projector or monitor, and on-screen menus allow for easy access to the features. Cleverly, you can record both still and video images to an SD card without ever connecting to a PC, while a built-in microphone allows you to create a spoken soundtrack without any additional equipment. However, if you do hook the unit up to a PC, Samsung’s software allows control of the unit from the computer and adds the ability to record time-lapse videos. When recording video on a computer, there is a bit of lag, but there’s no trace of it when the video is played back.

The full-featured stand-alone capability also makes the SDP-860 an ideal unit for moving from one location to another. Better still, it’s simple to use and requires almost no training – one teacher who admits a lack of confidence in ICT was eagerly using it with her class straight away.

The Samsung SDP-860 combines very good image quality with ease of use straight out of the box. It is an excellent choice for almost all situations, particularly for users who don’t want to waste time with trial and error. With this visualiser, teachers can spend their time teaching, not fiddling and adjusting, and that’s what it’s all about.