Samsung TL100 Digital Camera Review

Samsung TL100

First Impressions Review

At CES 2009 we managed to get our hands on a pre-production unit of the new Samsung pocket-sized point-and-shoot, the TL100. Expected to ship in the first half of 2009, this tiny camera measures only 0.67 inches deep, but packs a 12-megapixel sensor and 3x zoom in its slender frame. While the model we tried out certainly wasn't final, we've whip ped together a few observations in the following First Impressions review.
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While the Samsung TL100 probably won't win any awards for revolutionizing design, they've managed to create a tiny camera which is sleek enough for any situation. In general, the construction felt a little on the shoddy side, but this may be due to the fact that we were using a pre-production model.  We'll know better once we get our hands on the final model.

Front
There's nothing particularly exciting about the camera's front. There's the lens, auto focus assist lamp, and flash placed in a prime location to get blocked by your fingers.

 


That flash is just asking for trouble.

Back
All off the controls on the back of the camera are olocated on a slightly recessed strip to the right of the LCD. The buttons were very small, and required nimble fingers to operate properly. The four-way pad alters display information when pressing up, macro mode when pressed downward, flash mode on the left and self-timer on the right. The sliding switch near the top moves between still photography and video.


Controls are a bit on the small side.

Sides
The left side is completely bare, while the right houses a loop for the wrist strap, and a rather flimsy port cover.

Not much exciting on the sides.

Top
In addition to the power and shutter controls, there's another button on the top of the camera. It has the word "manual" written next to it, but glows with the text "smart" while the camera is powered up. This button is used to switch between Manual mode (read Program) and Smart (which is an intelligent scene mode).


The top, and the top lit up

Bottom
As you would expect, the bottom has a tripod port, and a cover for the battery and memory card slot.


In this case, the tripod mount is covered with a sticker

 

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