Samsung L74 Wide

Reviewed August 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.

Although the L74 Wide is set to Auto ISO to photograph the still life, the camera maintains the sensitivity at its minimum, and captures the image at 80 ISO. The flash adds a sufficient amount of light to record a bright image, but the influence of the mixed ambient light (fluorescent and incandescent) gives the image a slightly yellow cast.

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.

For the telephoto shot, which has a smaller maximum aperture, the camera increases the sensitivity to 120 ISO. The increase causes a slight gain in noise, discernable in areas such as the lenses of the old Yashicaflex.

The overall sharpness is a touch higher than the wide angle shot, but at the default setting of the camera, it is still less than we have come to expect from a 7-megapixel camera.

The L74 Wide has a modest macro mode that covers from 5 to 80 cm (1.95 to 31.2 inches) at the wide end and 30 to 80 cm (11.7 to 31.2 inches) at the telephoto end.

At the wide end, the camera captures a field of view that measures approximately 6.9 cm (2.69 inches), the narrowest view the camera can capture with macro focus.

Close-up shots with a wide angle of 28 mm (equivalent) or less, such as the one shown here, tend to cause some perspective distortion, in this case emphasizing the length of the dog's nose. Worth noting, however, there is very little barrel distortion.

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 L74 Wide captures a well-exposed wide angle shot of the building. But here again, when the image is inspected at 100 %, the overall sharpness is a bit soft.

Although captured at 80 ISO, some colour noise can be detected in the blue-green areas of the building.

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.

The telephoto shot, on the other hand, shows no trace of distortion or of any chromatic aberration. Moreover, the metering yields an image that is very well balanced between light and dark areas in the frame, as detail can be seen in both.

A bit of colour noise can be detected, and with the camera set to its default for sharpness, the image has a slightly soft focus.

NIGHT PHOTO

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

The Night scene mode of the L74 Wide allows exposures as long as 16 seconds and the selection of either aperture. Regrettably, it offers no control over the white balance, nor does it offer any control over the sensitivity, which the camera limits to 80 ISO.

Still, even at 80 ISO, the maximum exposure time of 16 seconds is sufficient to capture an interesting shot of a rather dark subject such as the one shown here.

Noise processing is applied to the image immediately post-capture, doubling the time required to capture the image, and the resulting image shows very little noise. Moreover, the photo retains a very good level of detail, as can be seen in the section taken from the full size image that is shown below.