Samsung TL34HD

LCD Screen
Because pretty much everything goes through the LCD screen, it is important that it works well. Fortunately, it seems to do so; the 3-inch screen is very clear and bright. With 460,000 pixels, it is not the sharpest we have seen, but it is very acceptable, with enough sharpness to accurately judge if a photo is in focus. The screen is a touch screen, and we found that it had decent accuracy. We were able to hit buttons on the screen and move sliders without any major issues.

The flash is a little close to the lens for comfort

The lens offers a nice zoom range for a small, skinny camera..

Connections
This is a slight limitation of this camera; although it has the usual USB and A/V outputs for connecting to a PC or a standard-definition TV, these require a proprietary cable that comes with the camera. If you lose this, you have to buy a new one from Samsung. There is also no HDMI output as standard; to connect this camera to an HDTV and get the full benefit, you'll need to buy the optional dock which includes a HDMI port.

 

Some caution is required when inserting the symmetrical battery
into the camera to make sure it's right-side up.

Blink Detection - This feature quickly analyzes the photo after it is taken, and if a blink is detected, it takes three more photos in rapid succession, the idea being that there should be at least one shot where the subject is not blinking. It will not, however, do anything about your four-year-old nephew who insists on picking his nose in every family photo.

Beauty Shot - If your subject is less than perfect looking, this feature can try and hide their aesthetic challenges by processing the skin tone to hide blemishes. Two options are available; skin brightness and facial imperfections, and there are three levels of processing for each. Our brief experiments with this mode didn't show much difference with the feature on or off, but that may be because we all have perfect, clear and soft skin, with no imperfections (a job requirement). We also have clear, bright eyes and good teeth and gaze confidently into the future, so we will reserve judgment on this feature until we can find someone without our dashing good looks to try it on. Sometimes beauty is a curse.