Samsung ST550 Digital Camera – Black ( 12MP, 5x Optical Zoom Lens) 3.5 inch Screen
With the world’s first front and back LCD Samsung’s ST550 provides the easiest way to take the perfect self portrait either by yourself or with friends or family every time! On the front of the camera is a 1.5″ LCD that shows you exactly what the picture will look like so you can be a part of the picture as well as the photographer. When you tap the front LCD it turns on and automatically goes into Self-Portrait mode. You can also turn on the front LCD with a simple selection through the intuitive interface. As soon as you smile the camera automatically takes the picture! But the dual LCDs do more. In Children mode the front LCD plays a fun animation to capture a child’s attention while taking their photo. Also to ensure you take a photo of your subject while they’re smiling the front LCD will display a “smiley face” when the shutter is pushed halfway to signal when they should smile. The front LCD displays other useful information such as Macro and Flash modes and provides a preview o… more >>
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(out of 9 reviews)
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Review by Robert Groom for Samsung ST550 Digital Camera – Black ( 12MP, 5x Optical Zoom Lens) 3.5 inch Screen
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The Samsung ST-550 is one of the more advanced models in their compact camera range, and they really have thrown everything at this model.
Probably the most unusual (and genuinely useful) feature is the front-facing mini-screen which serves a dual purpose when taking self-portraits. It provides you with an accurate countdown when using a timed exposure, and rather more usefully – allows you to take photos of yourself by seeing what the camera is seeing before you either press the shutter button, or configure it to automatically fire when it detects you smiling. This works well. Of the two, the latter is definitely the preferred method, unless of course you don’t want a shot of you smiling…
The second feature you’ll immediately notice that is somewhat unusual, is what Samsung refer to as ‘haptic’. This is essentially small vibrations that the camera emits during certain operations to give positive feedback that you’ve affected something. It feels a little like a mobile phone vibrate alert going off for a fraction of a second. This is actually surprisingly helpful, especially if you are navigating through the touch-screen menu. This by nature doesn’t give any positive feedback like a button would, and you may well decide to disable the bleeps and bloops in the menu system, as they can be disturbing in certain situations, so the haptic feedback fills the gap. Seems like a minor feature, but having used it, I really like it.
You can alter the quality and aspect ratio of the photos you take easily from a pop-up menu around the edge of the screen – this varies from 12MP right down to 1MP, giving you a way to make sure you only consume as much memory as you really need on the card. Helpfully, it tells you wnat each quality is suitable for in terms of maximum print otput size – e.g. 12MP is appropriate for A1 sized print, and 2MP is appropriate for A5 sized prints. Hold your finger over the options until you select the one you want and then release – simple!
Flash mode includes the usual red-eye reduction mode – which I find is usually best avoided – you’re best off fixing this in a photo editor later. Red-eye reduction delays shutter release too much and can make people change expression or blink at the wrong moment.
Autofocus has a standard mode, which has a fairly good depth of field, as well as the very useful macro mode for close-up. Nothing unusual here.
What’s very interesting is the multitude of auto exposure modes which are as follows:
1. Standard mode – exposure and focus is driven by your own decisions.
2. Face detection – the camera adjusts exposure and focus based on detecting faces in-frame.
3. Smile detection – the camera will automatically shoot when it detects you smile.
4. Blink detection – this detects when someone has blinked and automatically takes another shot.
Along with the excellent face detection modes, you can focus with a single point, a grid or touch-screen and select exactly what you want to focus on. This can be somewhat slow, but it’s very intuitive. You can also select ‘click & track’ where the object you select will be tracked as it moves.
The huge rear screen is a joy to use, and has a very good refresh rate, making video and photo taking a pleasant experience. It’s extremely high resolution.
There’s a standard tripod mount on the base as you’d expect, and the battery and memory card slot is here too. I have to say that I’m no fan of micro-SD cards. They are tiny, easy to lose and a real pain to get in and out of the memory card slot in this camera. Fortunately the price of memory is such that these days you can probably just buy an 8GB or 16GB card and leave it in the camera permanently. No card is included in the case, but there is a small amount of memory in the camera itself for a couple of test shots, so this is no disaster. The miserly cards normally included with other cameras are a complete waste of time anyway and usually get relegated very quickly to the waste bin.
So much for the feature set – how about picture quality?
In good lighting conditions outdoors shots are very good. They are sharp and detailed, and exposure control is good. Colour is nicely rendered, and contrast is well controlled. All in all, not much to coplain about.
However, in subdued light indoors, as you’d expect from a camera with a tiny image sensor, there is plenty of noise and grain. I’d not recommend shooting at over ISO 400, and ISO 800 is usable in a pinch, but forget anything above that. This should come as no surprise though – if you want high ISO performance, you need an SLR.
Shots with flash are perfectly acceptable, but flash on these kind of cameras is straight-on, and always leaves harsh shadows, so you’re not going to get anything particularly attractive this way, but it’s certainly better than nothing. Great for snapshots on a night out.
The large screen at the back makes playback and zooming in and out to review images childs play. Also, deleting images individually and in groups is extremely simple, given the ability to display lots of thumbnails on a single page which can be clicked on to select, then deleted in one go – fantastic!
Not to be missed is the ability to shoot 720 resolution HD movie footage, which seems to be growing in popularity. They could have shoe-horned 1080 resolution in here, but I’m glad they resisted the temptation and stuck with 720. This is a far more practical resolution for noise free footage, and keeps file sizes within usable parameters. Most TV footage is 720 resolution anyway.
As a demonstration of the perfect compact camera user interface, this certainly comes pretty close. It has a number of unique innovations which genuinely enhance usability, and some of which I can see being adopted even in SLRs of the future. It’s a pleasure to use, and I was up and running and confidently changing settings quickly within a few minutes. This is a good thing, because the supplied multi-language booklet has very little in the way of instructions in it. You need to refer to the CD-ROM for that. Am I the only one who finds this a pain? It would actually be nice to have the manual built into the camera – and with a screen this large and detailed and memory being so cheap – why not?
Image quality is perfectly acceptable, but this is not where it shines in comparison with other competitors, and can be equalled and dare I say bettered by some slightly more lowly cameras with fewer megapixels. It’s always dangerous for a camera manufacturer to play the megapixels game, and I personally think 12MP in a sensor this small is more a case of marketing over necessity. They would do well to restrict compact cameras to a more practical pixel count of perhaps 6MP which would help control noise rather better, while still allowing above-average prints to be made with excellent detail. Canon have learned this lesson with their G10 to G11 transition, reducing resolution from 14.7MP in the G10 to 10MP in the G11 in an attempt to control noise, and the Canon G11 has a larger sensor then the ST550.
That said, Samsung aren’t doing anything any different from the other manufacturers of compact cameras, and I’ve even seen mobile phones sporting 12MP, which is blatently ridiculous, but that’s marketing for you – where the biggest number always wins – and the people buying these types of devices don’t understand why more MP can be a problem.
All in, this is an ideal camera for someone who wants a slick, easy to navigate interface, and wants to take self portraits frequently, perhaps while they’re travelling solo. It would be perfect for that. The ability to shoot HD video is a great addition. Image quality is fine outdoors in good light, but beware that indoors without flash it’s not quite as nice, though good enough for snapshots.
All in all, a cutting-edge product that demonstrates that Samsung are a step ahead of the competition in terms of creating innovative and usable features, and they deserve to make headway into this very competitive sector of the camera market as a result.
Review by Agent Smith for Samsung ST550 Digital Camera – Black ( 12MP, 5x Optical Zoom Lens) 3.5 inch Screen
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Rather than go on and on about it’s features and specifications i’ll try and keep this simple. The camera is light and looks good. The rear LCD is easy to read and the touch screen is quick and easy to use. The front LCD is useful for self portraits but really a bit of a gimmick as regards the clown animation for taking pictures of children or the count down for timer mode. The menu’s are reasonably set out and the Smart setting should be okay for most people who want a point and shoot camera whilst the the manual modes allow the more proficient among us to experiment a little.
Captured images are crisp and the colours nicely balanced. The flash recharges quickly and shot to shot times are fast enough for all but the most demanding among us.
The optical image stabiliser is perfect for eliminating blurry photos especially when no flash is used, a digital stabiliser can also be added.
The downsides are you’ll need a case and additional memory card but that’s common practice so not important.
Additional batteries are available for £10 which is pleasantly cheap.
My ONLY wish was a better zoom. 4.6x is not massive when the Panasonic Lumix has a 12x at the same price as this Samsung, however the ST550 is a little smaller, has additional features, looks better and is all touch screen.
Deserves 5 stars and I don’t give out many!
Review by Darren Watkins for Samsung ST550 Digital Camera – Black ( 12MP, 5x Optical Zoom Lens) 3.5 inch Screen
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This camera is really small, thin and easy to use, if not a bit on the heavy side (165.7g without battery or memory card). Other things in the box include: quick start manual, CD for PC, a little strap for the camera, A/V cable, rechargeable battery and the charger, oh and a guarantee card.
The touch screen features on the front and back are incredibly sensitive, so unlike other touch screen items, there is no trying to put your finger through it to get it working.
Before I get started I have two issues. Let’s start with the battery cover. One would expect it to snap closed when you have placed the battery (and memory) but it doesn’t. You have to physically push the button release back (unless mine is faulty). And the next, the memory. The camera does have a small in built memory (of 55mb) which is a bonus, but it only takes micro SD cards, not sure why that is because normal SD cards would have been preferable, or if you could have used both would have been even better.
Finding my way around the camera was really easy (even without reading the instructions which are only 11 pages long – well I am a man after all, I never read the instructions!). Thankfully the zoom on this camera is easy to use, it is a straight forward push/pull button (one of only four buttons on the camera).
I won’t go into the spec as the description tells you all. I do have to mention the front LCD screen. It is really clear and crisp, and the colours are really bright, although with it being winter not sure how it would work in the sun, I know LCD screens usually have issues with sun light which means in the UK you can use it probably 50 weeks out of 52!!
I haven’t used the video camera on it yet, I will have to buy a memory card before I do that (the guide states only up to 4gb card is guaranteed). But as I already have a Samsung TV it will make it easy to link the camera up to the TV.
I’ll just have to see how it behaves at Christmas time when there are lots of different occasions to use it. But as a camera I can really recommend it (as long as you don’t mind buying a micro SD card).
Review by Mrs. S. Welsh for Samsung ST550 Digital Camera – Black ( 12MP, 5x Optical Zoom Lens) 3.5 inch Screen
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Bought this as a christmas present for my husband to replace a 5MP camera.
Comes with all the usual stuff – wrist strap, cable to connect to PC, etc. One thing that you will need with this camera is a separate SD card as there is little or no internal memory. The compatible card is an SDHC card.
The 12MP gives great quality pictures. The small screen on the front seemed quite gimmicky but it’s great for taking pictures of all of us without someone having to miss out each time!
So far, seems easy to use.
Review by M. COX for Samsung ST550 Digital Camera – Black ( 12MP, 5x Optical Zoom Lens) 3.5 inch Screen
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Having just received this camera I have not yet got to grips with all its features and being an ageing dinosaur probably never will!! The reason for this review is to say that although the blurb says no micro SD card is included mine came with a 4GB micro card plus adaptor. So save yourselves £20 and don’t order a card until you see what you get. Oh and the front screen is great and its ability to take a photo when the subject smiles is amazing but weird!!