Samsung S730 and S630 First Impressions Review

Manual Control Options
Unusual for a budget point-and-shoot model, the S630 and S730 have a manual mode on the mode dial. Putting the mode dial to M allows the user to set the shutter speed and aperture directly. However, we weren’t able to test this on the pre-production model since  the manual mode didn’t work. 

Focus
Auto Focus
The auto focus is a contrast detection system that can focus down to a minimum distance of 5cm in macro mode and 80cm in normal mode. In our limited tests, we found the auto focus to be relatively quick, although it did have some problems focusing in on dark subjects in the low lighting of the meeting room at CES where we tested the pre-production unit. 

Manual Focus
No manual focus mode is available on the S630 or S730.

ISO
The ISO range of the S730 goes from 80 to 1000, while the S630 only goes up to a maximum of 800. That’s a pretty wide range for a budget camera, though. 

White Balance
Both cameras provide several options for white balancing; there is an auto mode and 5 presets, plus an evaluative setting that picks the white balance from a captured image. 

Exposure
As well as the full manual mode, the S630 and S730 offer two stops of exposure compensation either over or under, with 1/3 of a stop steps on the way. 

Metering
Only two metering modes are offered: multi metering mode which checks several spots in the image and picks the exposure based on them and Spot mode which uses the center of the image to decide how to expose the image. That’s not a wide selection (there is no center weighted, for instance), but it’s adequate for most of the users this camera is designed for.

Shutter Speed
A combination mechanical and electronic shutter gives the shutter speed a range of 1 second to 1/1500th of a second, that is more than adequate for most users. Putting the camera into the manual mode ups the slowest shutter speed to eight seconds, although we would anticipate that noise would become an issue with the longer exposures. 

Aperture
The Samsung SMC lens has an aperture range of f2.8 to f7.1 at the widest zoom setting, and f4.9 to f12.4 at the telephoto end. That’s an acceptable range, but it is a little small. This isn’t a camera that’s going to have a big depth of field or the ability to blur the background by opening the aperture up.