Samsung TL240

Design & Appearance

If modern and streamlined is your aesthetic of choice, then the TL240 could have powerful appeal. It's certainly a clean design, uncluttered by all those bothersome physical buttons we're used to seeing. There is a bit of visual flair around the lens, with its mirrored ring that reflects a blue band when the lens is extended.  

Size & Handling

The TL240 measures 4.06 x 2.3 x 0.76 inches (103 x 58 x 19mm). It feels solidly constructed and comfortable in your hands, though you have to be a bit careful of wandering fingers tapping the LCD display: there isn't a whole lot of margin on the back of the left side of the camera back. Fortunately, that's the hand that ordinarily merely holds the camera steady, so once you have a hold on the body, it's not likely it will move much.

There's one small concession to the cause of a firm grip, with two raised ridges on the right side of the back. Their positioning, though, as shown in the photo below, isn't terribly useful.

The body is big enough to grip securely, but there isn't much assistance provided.

The photo below shows off what we originally thought was a flaw, and learning is actually a feature. When you stand the TL240 on its bottom, it rests at a 7 degree angle instead of straight up and down. We're told that this is designed to make self-portrait photography easier, and interesting idea.

A flaw? No, a feature!

Menu

The TL240 features a dual menu system, with a quick-access system to adjust key settings quickly and a full menu system for less frequently changed items.

The quick menu includes icons along the left side of the screen that, when touched, bring up selections for flash mode, autofocus, self-timer and screen display. A panel pops up along the bottom edge of the screen when that section of the LCD is touched, which presents all the settings you'd ordinarily change while shooting, including exposure compensation, ISO settings, focus mode and so on. Finally, when you touch the right side of the screen,  another panel overlay appears. This includes a virtual button to call up the camera's main menu system at the bottom of the panel, and an icon that triggers what Samsung calls the Smart Gesture interface. When this is activated, tilting the top of the camera forward switches to program mode, tilting it back switches to smart auto mode, and tipping it to the left enters movie mode.

The quick menu system, shown with the optional grid line display enabled.

The main menu system is nicely designed and easy to navigate, touching up and down arrows to browse available options, a touch to bring up sub-menus, and a further touch to select the option you prefer. Using the wide screen to full advantage, the display is very legible and the areas you have to touch are large enough to virtually eliminate miistaken presses.

The legible, easy to use main menu.

Ease of Use

This is probably more a matter of personal taste than absolute right or wrong. For a touch-screen camera, the TL240 provides a straightforward interface with a sensitive panel that responds instantly to the touch. Where this becomes tricky is a screen with multiple icons that you'd like to browse through. Touching the icon brings up a text label defining its function, but removing your finger selects that option. To see what the other on-screen options mean you have to slide your finger across before lifting it. And if you don't want to select any of the options displayed, you have to slide your finger off to a patch of neutral screen territory before lifting your finger. Yes, you can get used to it, but it takes some getting used to.

Some of us have a personal preference for buttons, in part because we can find and press a physical button faster and more reliably than hunting for a picture of a control on a screen and aiming for it accurately. Of course, that iPhone thing seems pretty popular with its touch-screen controls, and banishing the buttons does let you fit a big screen on a small camera.