Samsung L700

Reviewed July 2007

Test Photos

STILL LIFE PHOTO

This subject is photographed in a room that has a mix of fluorescent and incandescent light, but which is not brightly lit. The camera's flash is used to add fill light. The backdrop is 1.95 m (6.5 ft) from the camera.

The built-in flash of the Samsung L700 adds enough light at a sensitivity of 50 ISO so that the image is acceptably bright, allowing the camera, even when set to Auto ISO, to maintain the lowest sensitivity and keep noise to a minimum.

The metering obviously tries to balance the ambient artificial light with the light coming from the flash, imparting the image with a warmer colour tone.

ZOOM PHOTO

Now we zoom in on the on the centre of the image above to gauge the sharpness of the image at the zoom's maximum setting. The camera remains at the same distance as in the preceding photo.

At the telephoto end, the brightest aperture is f4.9, causing the camera to increase the sensitivity to 100 ISO to boost the effect of the flash and produce a brighter image. In turn, the brighter image yields colours that are more vibrant, and closer to what the eye perceives.

The increased sensitivity causes a bit of noise to appear in the shadow and dark areas, but it is minimal.

The Macro mode of the L700 allows the camera to focus on a subject that is 5 cm (2 inches) front the front element of the lens when the zoom is at the wide angle end and 40 cm (15.6 inches) at the telephoto end. At the shortest distance and the wide angel end, the camera captures a field of view of 5.3 cm (2.06 inches) horizontally.

When the subject is this close, the wide angle barrel distortion can become noticeable when there are straight image elements aligned on the edges of the frame.

BUILDING PHOTO

This image is our "outdoor" test. The architecture of the building, in particular its angled girders, immediately show the presence of jaggies. The shadowed entrance can also often reveal the quality of the exposure.

The wide angle shot reveals a slight barrel distortion, discernible when there are verticals aligned on the edges of the frame. However, there is no visible chromatic aberration

Overall, sharpness is on the soft side, noticeable when the image is seen at 100% on a monitor, but that seems to be more due to the relatively strong compression than the lens.

ZOOM PHOTO

Zooming in on the entrance of the building, the shadowed entrance takes on a greater importance for the metering and can cause an overexposure of sections that are directly lit.

At the maximum telephoto setting, the camera yields an exposure that shows detail in both high and low lights, with no over- or underexposed zones. Similarly, colours are true to those the camera recorded in the wide angle shot.

No distortion is noticeable, nor is there any chromatic aberration.

NIGHT PHOTO

Since this camera is capable of long exposures, a photo taken at night is included here.

While most modes are limited to a maximum exposure time of 1 second, the Samsung L700 allows an exposure time as long as 15 seconds when used in the Night mode. Regrettably, this mode does not provide any control over the white balance, and the results it yields vary according to the type of lighting in the subject.

In this case, the light sources in this subject are a mix of incandescent, fluorescent combined with sodium vapour street lighting, which result in an image that has a strong yellow cast.

As with the white balance, ISO sensitivity is also under the control of the camera. However, the camera maintains it at 50 ISO, preventing the intrusion of noise into the image.

The Samsung L700 uses a noise reduction system that captures a second frame without opening the shutter with the same exposure time as the actual image. The noise data recorded over the course of the second exposure is then used to eliminate it from the first prior to saving it. The result is a rather good image that while being a bit less sharp still retains a very reasonable level of detail.