Samsung L73 First Impressions 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.