Samsung L77 Digital Camera Review

Samsung L77

Digital Camera Review

The Samsung L73 is a compact 7.2-megapixel camera that takes a number of cues from Samsung’s NV range. It doesn’t have a profusion of buttons and control dials. Instead, it uses the new Smart Touch interface, a cross between a touchpad and a directional control. This new control system, that was first seen on the NV7 late last year, replaces the touch screen with an array of touch-sensitive buttons below and to the left of the screen. The labels appear on the screen. The user presses the buttons and drags their finger over  to navigate the menus. We looked at a pre-production model at the CES show in Las Vegas. Here are our first impressions of this new camera.
Advertisement
Recently Viewed Products
$310
$700
$339
$130
Top Point & Shoot Cameras
Max Price: $1020
$0 $255 $510 $765 $1020
Filters
All
Canon
Casio
Fuji
Kodak
Nikon
Olympus
Panasonic
Pentax
Sony
All
Compact
High-End
Pocket
Ultra-Zoom
1.Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1
Ultra-Zoom
$400
2.Canon SX1 IS
Ultra-Zoom
$527
3.Panasonic DMC-ZS3
Compact
$318
4.Samsung HZ15W
Ultra-Zoom
$280
5.Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T900
Pocket
$325
L77 Prices
Latest Camera Reviews
DSLR Point & Shoot
Panasonic
DMC-GF1
Samsung
TL225
Pentax
K10D
Canon
PowerShot S90
Olympus
E-P1
Canon
G11
Canon
EOS 5D
Panasonic
DMC-ZS3
Nikon
D3000
Canon
PowerShot A650 IS
External Reviews
CNET - Cameras
Samsung L77
Steve's Digicams
Samsung L77
DigitalCameraReview.com
Samsung L77 Review


Viewfinder
Like many current compact cameras, no viewfinder is present on the L73. Composition is done through the LCD screen.

LCD screen
The 2.5-inch LCD screen isn’t the largest we have seen, but with 230k pixels, it is a strong display. It’s impressively clear and sharp, allowing for plenty of detail in both live views and previews. On-screen menus also look clear and sharp. This is important with the Smart Touch menu system since none of the buttons are labeled. The only way to know what the buttons do is through the on-screen labels.

Flash
The flash is rather small and located close to the lens. We weren’t able to test the performance of the flash, but Samsung quotes a range of 3.5m (approx 11.4 feet) at the wide zoom setting, and 2.5m (approx 8.2 feet) at the telephoto end. That’s a respectable range, but we’ll have to wait for more testing before we can verify the truth of their claims. The usual selection of flash modes are supported: Auto, Auto & Red-eye reduction, Fill-in flash, Slow sync and Flash off. A Red-eye Fix mode is also included that uses post-processing to remove the red-eye from images.

Lens
The Lens is a Samsung NV lens with a focal length of 5.8mm to 17.4mm. That works out to a 35mm camera equivalent of 35mm to 105mm; this is a common range for a compact camera. It isn’t particularly wide at the open end, but it’s adequate for most group shots. The zoom control is a little unusual. While most zoom controls go left and right to zoom in and out, the L73 has small paddle control that goes up and down. In macro mode, the zoom lens can focus down to 5cm from the front of the lens.

Advertisement