Samsung Galaxy Camera review

Most cameras use proprietary firmware, but Samsung’s latest snapper bucks the trend and runs Android 4.1 instead. This means that, not only can it take pictures to shame your average smartphone, but it can also run any Jelly Bean-compatible app downloaded from Google Play or Samsung’s own store.

Under the hood there’s a 16-megapixel, 1/2.3in backside-illuminated sensor served by a 21x zoom, equivalent to 23-483mm on a 35mm camera. The maximum aperture ranges from f/2.8 at wide angle to f/5.9 at full telephoto, and around the back there’s a huge 4.8in, 1,280 x 800 display – the same size and resolution as the Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S III’s screen.

There’s 3.87GB of integrated memory for apps, data, or storing photos, and if that’s too restrictive you can expand it using the microSD slot in the battery compartment. This sits alongside a near-identical slot for a micro-SIM and it’s easy to get them mixed up. Fortunately, extracting the microSD card when you’ve done just that isn’t too tricky, as long as you have a fine penknife.

Samsung is bundling the Galaxy Camera with a SIM tied to the Three network. It has a month of credit when first installed; it’s up to you whether you want to renew it once your time is up or switch it out for an alternative network.

That’s important, as it’s the built-in 3G and Wi-Fi that makes this camera really interesting. You can’t make phone calls with the Galaxy Camera, but you can use it to check your email and browse the web on the move. Of greater interest to the travelling photographer, though, is the option to upload your photos before you get home, share them directly on social networks and, crucially, back them up remotely.

It’s bundled with a two-year, 50GB Dropbox account. Pair the two and your camera will automatically upload every shot and video as it’s captured so when you get back to your PC they’ll already be waiting in the synchronised folder. Transfer speeds will depend on your connection quality, but in an area with poor 3G coverage full-resolution images appear in a Dropbox folder 41 seconds after being shot. That’s slow, but as it happens in the background, not unusably so.

It can’t quite hold its own when compared directly with a traditional camera of similar price, such as the Canon PowerShot S110, which sacrifices resolution and zoom in favour of a larger sensor, brighter lens and greater shooting flexibility. However, the results are unlikely to disappoint in day-to-day use.

Colours are accurate, and although there is some softness in the corners of the frame, images are generally sharp. Macro mode only gets you to within 10cm of your subject, but the depth of field is impressively narrow, and the creamy blur surrounding the subject is even and attractive. There’s evidence of chromatic aberration, though.

Shutter speeds in auto mode range from 1/8 to 1/2,000 of a second, and if you switch to manual you can push the maximum exposure as far as 16 seconds. Sensitivity ranges from ISO 100 to 3200, and even at the top of that scale the results – while exhibiting grain – are never sufficiently noisy to suffer from serious detail loss. If you need to refine the default sensitivity settings, exposure compensation stretches two stops in either direction, in steps of 1/3EV.

The Galaxy Camera is chunkier than the average compact snapper, and since the rear of the camera is entirely occupied by the big display there’s only room for a handful of physical controls. There are buttons for power, firing the shutter and zooming, but despite this we found using the Galaxy Camera surprisingly intuitive. Rather than attempting to recreate its existing camera interfaces using Android, Samsung has bet the farm on a radical reimagining that sets all of the controls on virtual tumblers, reminiscent of SLR lens rings.

Each provides live feedback, so spinning through aperture settings, sensitivity or exposure compensation adjusts the onscreen display in real time. That’s great news for beginners who need a little encouragement – and assistance – to step away from auto mode.

There’s a range of built-in apps, including a tailored edition of Instagram, and video-editing software to trim and splice the 1080p footage that the Galaxy Camera records. As with stills, the quality is high, and the image stabilisation is effective, even at full telephoto. Disappointingly, though, there’s no wind-cut feature, so if you’re filming on a breezy day expect to pick it up it on the soundtrack.

The danger with such an outlandish device was always that the camera would take a back seat to the shiny touchscreen and the Android UI. However, Samsung has pulled off the combination with impressively fine judgement. It’s very much a competent pocket snapper with the bonus of smartphone-style internet connectivity thrown in rather than the other way around, and on that basis it just about justifies the high price.

Samsung Galaxy Camera sample shots:

Click this link for the full resolution version of the above photo

Click this link for the full resolution version of the above photo

Click this link for the full resolution version of the above photo

Basic specifications
Camera megapixel rating	16.0mp
Camera screen size	4.8in
Camera optical zoom range	21x
Weight and dimensions
Weight	300g
Dimensions	129 x 19 x 71mm (WDH)
Battery
Battery type included	Lithium-ion
Charger included?	yes
Other specifications
Built-in flash?	yes
Aperture range	fUnknown - fUnknown
Camera minimum focus distance	0.10m
Minimum (fastest) shutter speed	1/2,000
Maximum (slowest) shutter speed	8s
Selectable white balance settings?	yes
Manual/user preset white balane?	yes
Progam auto mode?	yes
Shutter priority mode?	yes
Aperture priority mode?	yes
Fully auto mode?	yes
Memory-card type	microSD
Secondary LCD display?	no
Video/TV output?	no
Data connector type	micro-USB
Manual, software and accessories
Full printed manual?	yes