LOS ANGELES—If the Samsung Galaxy Camera were a professional basketball player, it would be the Lebron James of the point-and-shoot cameras league.
Before this escalates into a heated debate on the Miami Heat forward, let me clarify that this is not a discussion of whether or not Lebron James – or for that matter, the Galaxy Camera – is the greatest ever. This comparison of the two points to the versatility of both the camera and the athlete.
Packing a punch
At 6’ 9” and 250lbs., Lebron is a unique combination of athleticism, strength, and superior basketball IQ. Lebron can carry the ball and facilitate an offense like a point guard, drive to the basket like a freight train from hell, punish most of his defenders on the low post, and stroke those clutch baskets at the end game.
And oh, I forgot to mention that he can defend all five positions and stop fastbreak plays with vicious chase-down blocks.
“Doing a lot for your team” doesn’t even begin to describe Lebron as a basketball player.
On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy Camera equally packs a punch. At 70.8mm tall, 128.7mm wide, and 19.1mm thick, the Galaxy camera is quite hefty at 300 grams – heavier than most point-and-shoot cameras. Considering that it packs an awful lot of gear, putting on a few hundred grams on your digicam isn’t too much to ask for.
The Galaxy Camera runs on Android operating system (4.1 Jellybean), has a 16 megapixel CMOS sensor, and has a 21x zoom lens with a max aperture opening of 2.8 that’s great for low-light photography. For its display, it has a super clear TFT LCD putting up 16 million colors on 1280×720 pixel high definition display. This is actually impressive because at only 4.8in., its screen is already at par with the Galaxy Note II
It also has a bevy of connectivity interfaces, including 3G, Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi direct, bluetooth, 1.4 HDMI connectivity, and PC synchronization using Samsung’s KIES and KIES Air Support. It also has a microSIM slot, so you could hook it up with a data plan from your provider. Thanks to Verizon, we were able to try out a Galaxy Camera on lightning-speed 4G LTE.
You can connect it to your computer via a microUSB port on its side, listen to audio output on side-mounted speakers or via a 3.5mm headphone jack, and expand its memory (microSD) up to 64GB.
On paper, the Galaxy Camera does sound like a tasty piece of photography equipment. But what it really is – if it’s anything at all – is a camera that acts like an Andriod phone (without the call and texting modules) and connects to the Internet like a proper multimedia device.
At its very core, the camera is a point-and-shoot camera that lets you upload and edit photos on the fly. Snap a photo of, say, a traffic jam in a busy intersection. Within moments, you can instantly dispatch the photo via your social network app like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram – all thanks to the Android OS.
Versatile player
With this function in mind, the Samsung Galaxy Camera is probably the best handy camera for news reporters, bloggers, and journalists who are always on-the-go and also need to share their photos in a timely manner.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, when talking about the camera’s versatility.
Talking camera-wise, it is actually quite a nifty shooter that holds appeal both to beginner shutter-bugs and expert photographers. It has three main shooting modes: the Auto, Smart, and Expert Mode.
The Auto mode is basically the beginner level that’s perfect for those who have little to no knowledge on key photography principles like shutter speed and aperture. You can take photos using either the shutter button on top, or on the shutter “button” onscreen.
On Smart mode, you can select from a number of shooting modes that fit your need. There’s macro, beauty face, sunset, silhouette, night shooting, light trace, panorama, action freeze, and panorama, among other things.
Expert mode is where the fun starts. Turning on Expert mode will bring up five dials, which are made to look like an SLR’s kit lens. Much like most SLRs, you can control the shutter speed (1/2000 maximum) aperture (f2.8 maximum), ISO (3200 maximum), and exposure value.
In all its 16megapixel HD glory, the camera does take decent photos. Blurred photos will only come up when the shooting mode does not fit the situation, or when there is very little light. But on the whole, the Galaxy Camera takes photos with extreme crisp and vibrant colors. With a tripod slot at the bottom, you can take it to your nighttime shooting of city lights or skylines.
The only setback is that you’re stuck with the built in flash, as it does not have a shoehorn where you can mount a dedicated flash. So if you plan on using it for studio or portrait photography, you’d better set up your own lights if you’re not satisfied with the harsh flash lighting of the Galaxy Camera.
But that’s not all. Built to look and feel like an Android phone, you can download useful apps from the Google App Store. You can check your email and browse the Internet. Heck, you can even find your way around a new city with Google Maps or Yelp apps. Bored with taking photos? Take a break and play Angry Birds on your camera.
The verdict
At the end of the day, this camera is one device that you can’t live without, when going on a vacation. At the click of a shutter, you can almost instantly make your friends jealous by uploading that perfect sunset photo from Boracay you just took a while ago.
And with its sleek design and aesthetics, it’s also one handsome camera that you wouldn’t mind taking with to South Beach.*
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Midweek June 5, 2013 MDWK pg.4)