Digital Camera News

January 06, 2008

Samsung Adds NV24 HD to its Flagship Line

Jan. 6, 2008 – Samsung today announced the new flagship of its NV-series, the NV24 HD, touting it as "the world’s smallest 24mm ultra-wide angle, 10-

Take a look at the Samsung digital cameras

megapixel digital camera." The stainless steel, 10-megapixel NV24 HD features Dual Image Stabilization, an HD Movie mode, and a secondary mode dial that accesses seven Color modes. The NV24 HD will retail for $349 when it is released in March.

The "HD" in NV24 HD stands for high definition, indicating the camera’s ability to record high-definition movies and play them back on HDTVs using the Samsung HDMI CEC cradle, which is sold separately. If viewing videos on a Samsung HDTV, users can use their TV remote to control the camera’s menu when it is attached to the TV. The camera’s Movie mode records 720p high-definition video at a maximum of 30 frames per second, and uses and industry-standard H.264 compression. Optical zoom and image stabilization are enabled in Movie mode, and the Successive Recording mode allows users to pause and restart movie recording without saving each clip as a separate file.

In addition to the standard mode dial on top of the cameras, there is a Photo Style Selector dial, which gives users access to seven color options (Soft, Vivid, Forest, Retro, Cool, Calm, and Classic) without entering a menu. Additionally, the NV24 HD has 14 Scene modes: Night, Portrait, Children, Landscape, Close-Up, Text, Sunset, Dawn, Backlight, Fireworks, Beach and Snow, Café, Food, and Self Portrait. Face Detection, which automatically focuses and exposes up to nine faces, is also employed in the Self Portrait mode.

For image review, the camera features Samsung’s Multi-Slide Show mode, which allows users to choose between five transitions and add preloaded or MP3 music to slide shows. For beginners, the NV24 HD includes a Function Description mode, which provides brief descriptions for every function on the camera.

The 10-megapixel NV24 HD has a slightly lower resolution than the earlier 12-megapixel NV20, announced in July 2007, but slightly lengthens the optical zoom range from 3x to 3.9x. The NV24 HD has a 24mm Schneider lens, wider than the majority of point-and-shoots on the market. The camera features Dual Image Stabilization, which combines Optical Image Stabilization and Digital Image Stabilization to prevent blur caused by camera shake.

Samsung’s Smart Touch User Interface, a hallmark on the NV series, is also implemented on the NV24 HD, allowing users to access menus and settings by sliding their fingers across the buttons below and to the right of the LCD. We awarded the Smart Touch User Interface Best Innovation in our 2006 Select Awards. The 2.5-inch LCD automatically brightens or darkens depending on the light.

The camera has a maximum ISO 3200 for shooting in low-light settings. The camera features a new DRIM Engine image processor, which, according to Samsung, improves image quality and increases speed. At 3.8 x 2.4 x 0.7 inches, the NV24 HD is the thinnest of the N-series cameras.