The Samsung L700 Digital Camera Review

The Samsung L700 is very clean and simple, with an exclusive place for the lens, AF assist lamp / self-timer, flash, and microphone. Flipping it over will reveal the rear panel occupied by the large and luminous LCD display. To control the L700’s amazing features, two buttons can be found that are simply adjacent to the display.

The buttons are fairly small but are still easy to reach and use with the tip of your fingers. The other control buttons are on top of the Samsung L700 digital camera. Its shutter button can easily be accessed. The power button of this digital camera is slightly recessed to avoid accidental activation and deactivation.

A six-hole speaker can also be found on top of this digital camera along with the shutter and power buttons. While the bottom seems featureless, there lies the tripod socket, memory card compartment, and battery compartment. The navigation / control buttons are just beside the LCD.

The L700 is designed to be a pocket-friendly camera with its dimensions of 3.8 x 2.2 x 0.8 inches (97 x 57 x 21 mm) along with its weight of 5.2 oz (147 g).

This digital camera comes bundled with a 2.5-inch color LCD display that has good frame rates. With this, the digital camera can easily capture moving images (subjects). Although the LCD is bright enough and colorful, it is still not advisable to be used under direct sunlight. The LCD can display two levels of information - full or basic. Full mode displays the changes from the L700’s default setup, time and date, operating mode, zoom position, flash card status, battery life, image quality, and image dimensions.

Basic mode displays the remaining shots, variable changes since last changed, or information about the time the shutter was last half-pressed. Leaving the L700 inactive for 30 seconds enables its power-saving function that automatically turns off the LCD.

Its power-on time is 3.1 seconds. It is not as fast compared to other cameras on the same level. Using its normal auto-focus, the time from pressing the shutter button to the camera taking the picture is 0.727 sec (wide angle) and 0.727 sec (telephoto zoom). Though the auto-focus speed is not fast to win an award, it’s still faster than the eye can see.

To reduce the shutter lag, pre-focusing should be done. The user pre-focuses the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before finally pressing it all the way to take the shot. This can reduce the shutter lag time to 0.157 sec. As you may have noticed after handling similar digital cameras, pre-focusing can do a great job for faster shots.

The shot-to-shot time or time taken between shots by this digital camera is 2.27 seconds. This includes the saving process as best-quality jpeg file. Even though it has a power-saving function, the user can only take around 170 shots before the battery runs out.

Accessories

- Wrist strap
- Proprietary lithium-ion rechargeable battery and charger
- USB cable
- AV cable
- Software CD
- User manuals and warranty / registration information

Summary of L700 Basic Features

- 7.2 megapixel sensor
- 3x zoom, 35-105mm equivalent
- color LCD (2.5 inch)
- ISO 50-1,600
- Shutter speed: 15 seconds to 1/2,000
- Maximum aperture: f/2.8
- SD and SDHC cards used
- Battery (Li-ion)
- Dimensions: 3.8 x 2.2 x 0.8 inches (97 x 57 x 21mm)
- Weight: 4.6 ounces (130g)

Special Features

- Lightweight aluminum construction
- ISO 1,600
- 640 x 480 movie mode that can capture 30 fps
- MPEG4 movie compression
- Movie Stabilizer function
- Pause during movie recording
- In-camera movie editing
- Special Scene modes, including Night Scene, Portrait, Children,
Landscape, Sunset, Dawn, Backlight, Fireworks, Close-up, Text,
and Snow
- PictBridge compatibility
- USB 2.0

Pros: The L700 has a fairly good quality of image for snapshots. Its only has minimal distortion and very good sharpness when it comes to the images captured by this digital camera. It has a very much compact and lightweight yet sturdy and good quality body. It’s very user friendly because it has a lot of easy to use modes.

Cons: This digital camera has chromatic aberration that extends far enough to reach the center of the image. Problematic lens flare is present with this digital camera. When in low light, using the auto-focus feature of this digital camera is not advisable. It is not equipped with optical viewfinder.

Overall: The Samsung L700 is a very nicely built camera. It’s attractive and compact. This digital camera can fit into pockets and bags. It is amazingly durable. It is designed to be a user-friendly digital camera despite some problems. Its images may do well against other quality digital cameras, but it’s still not top of the line when it comes to state-of-the-art digital cameras. Speed may not be its best quality, but it is faster than most digital cameras in the market.

Attached Images

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