Review Samsung Galaxy Camera

This first time you pick up the Samsung Galaxy Camera, you notice how heavy it is: at about 300 grams (10.6 oz) it's certainly not a light device. But on the flip side, the camera feels substantial in your hand. The padded grip on the right side offers enough room to hold the camera securely, and it gives you the sense that there's no need to fear it slipping out of your hands. We feel like the grip could have been bigger, but surely that's a matter of taste and won't be taken into account in our ratings. The touchscreen takes up the whole back panel and is surrounded by a small metal frame. On the bottom there's a standard tripod socket, making it possible to screw the camera into most common tripods. In regards to manufacturing quality, the Galaxy Camera has nothing to hide; though you should be careful with the cover, seeing as it's only made of thin plastic.

In terms of connectivity options, the Samsung Galaxy Camera offers firstly the obligatory mini-USB port. Videos can be transmitted directly through the micro-HDMI output. There's also a 3.5 mm jack for headphones. For those who need more memory space than the internal memory provides, this can be expanded with a micro-SD card. The accepted formats are SC, HC and XC. The maximum size of the SD card is 64 GB. A micro-SD card is probably a necessity, since the internal memory only holds 4 GB - which, of course, fills up very quickly.

Uncommonly for a camera, the Samsung Galaxy Camera offers the same communication options found in current smartphones or tablets. Along with Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, 3G and a GPS receiver are also on board. Bluetooth in version 4.0 of course also needed to be included. Which mobile technologies are on board each specific camera depends on which variant of the device you choose to buy. There's one version with only Wi-Fi and another with both WiFi and mobile communication technology (as we have here in our review.)

Software

Samsung uses Android version 4.1.1 in its Galaxy Camera. As in the Samsung Galaxy S3 (which has a lot in common with the Galaxy Camera), the Galaxy Camera employs the TouchWiz user interface. All in all, the interface feels clearly arranged and clean. Samsung delivers a variety of apps with the Galaxy Camera; for instance, alongside the usual Google apps, there's an app for Dropbox or Instagram directly on the camera. Happily, Samsung chose to go without so-called "bloatware," so you don't need to clean up the system on your first start-up.

Packaging

In the Galaxy Camera's packaging you find, of course, the camera itself, the appropriate battery, a small hand-strap, a USB charging cable including a 230 V plug and the usual printed documents regarding the warranty, which happens to be 12 months.

The touchscreen on the back side of the camera functions quickly and fluidly. As per usual with the Galaxy series smartphones, the touchscreen could hardly react better to input. Thanks to multitouch technology, simultaneous input from multiple fingers is recognized and implemented, as far as the use of this function is supported. There shouldn't be any problems in operating the tablet/smartphone functions, since many time-tested features were taken from the smartphone/tablet arena - an arena in which Samsung, as a big manufacturer, has quite a bit of experience.

When it comes to the camera functions, things look a little different. Apart from the operation elements for the zoom, the shutter release and the button that extends the flash, there aren't any other operational controls to manipulate settings on the camera body. Instead, you always have to go back to the screen of the camera to work through the menu on the touchscreen. That takes up precious time when you're talking about fleeting opportunities for shots.

Seeing as you often use a camera out in the fresh air and sunshine, it's important that you can still see the camera's display content in those kinds of situations, especially if the camera's settings are controlled via the touchscreen. The display does have a reflective surface, but the high brightness level compensates for that drawback. At a brightness level of over 300 cd/m², reading the display out in the sunshine shouldn't be a problem.

The angles of vision aren't quite ideal. The colors change easily if you look at the display from the side - but all in all, the picture content remains clear and generally recognizable, even at extreme angles of vision.

But first and foremost the Samsung Galaxy Camera should be a camera, as the name asserts. It's a little strange at first to have to wait a while for the camera to boot before it's fully operational. Upon start-up, you first find yourself in the photo app. The display on the back shows your current possible snapshot as well as all the operational controls for the photo. On the right side there's a menu for choosing the picture mode. Besides the classic modes like fully automatic, aperture priority, shutter priority, and the manual mode, there are also so-called "intelligent modes." Intelligent modes are specific picture modes suited to photographing particular kinds of scenes. There are programs for panoramas, night shots, fireworks, portraits and a variety of other circumstances.

Along the bottom edge of the picture, there's a menu with possible filters for the photo. Here too Samsung provides a breadth of possibilities, from a black-and-white filter and a sepia filter to a comic filter. The selection is satisfactorily extensive and varied.

The auto-focus makes a good impression and generally finds the focus very quickly at low zoom levels. The shutter-release delay is also very short. Neither of those values reaches anything like the levels of a DSLR, but the Galaxy Camera can easily keep up with the compact cameras on the markets. Compared to cell phone cameras, both the focus and the trigger speed are quite a bit quicker. At the maximum zoom level, though, the focus is no longer as easy. It's obvious how much the focus pumps back and forth before it finally finds the focus point. Additionally, due to the image stabilizer there's a clear delay in the display of the picture. Because the image stabilizer has a lot to do at high focal lengths, you notice how the image sometimes has a hard time keeping up with movement. You notice the effect more strongly especially when panning along the horizontal axis.

The voice control is a particularly interesting feature. When activated, this allows the user to control certain functions of the camera through keywords. For instance, a "smile" or "please smile" causes the camera to independently focus and take a shot. Through the same means you can start recording a video, change the zoom or look at the gallery.

In summary, when it comes to capturing images, Samsung put a lot of effort into making the Galaxy Camera's functions practical and intuitive through the touch interface. In our opinion, they did a good job. The only problems are that the camera gets into a bit of a sweat at higher zoom levels, and anyone who wants to work in the manual mode will have to fight through the menu for each setting change.

On the question of picture quality, the verdict depends entirely on what measurement you use to assess the quality of the Galaxy Camera's photos. If you compare the pictures with those of current smartphones, the Galaxy Camera is far superior. In comparison with compact cameras our review model does a respectable job, though here we're talking about comparable quality. Compared with a low-end DSLR (in this case a Canon 600D), the Galaxy Camera is the clear loser.

In our test photos, which admittedly weren't taken in the best of weather, there's a little sharpness missing in the images. We left the camera in automatic mode, since we are assuming that most buyers will generally be taking pictures in this mode. The values chosen by the camera were fully acceptable. 

ISO

The Samsung Galaxy Camera has an ISO range of 100-3200. In our exposure bracket, the photos with ISO values of 100 to 400 are entirely satisfactory. Even at closer look there isn't any noticeable noise. At an ISO of 800 noise slowly starts to creep in; in the darker areas it's already clearly visible. In addition, as the noise suppression becomes more active, you can see how the image loses detail. At an ISO of 1600 all of this is amplified. Finer details are softened and are no longer very recognizable, but if you don't zoom into the photo it's still usable. At an ISO of 3200 the image noise is obvious, and the image becomes even "softer". We must emphasize, though, that in our test images there is only a negligible amount of color noise.

More of a camera than a smartphone -- that much you can say about the Samsung Galaxy Camera in the end. With the Galaxy Camera, Samsung brought an interesting and versatile product to the market and simultaneously created a new product class.

As we have experienced with other Samsung devices, the camera case gleams with solid manufacturing quality and a good choice of material. The camera feels substantial, and the fusion of the touchscreen with the camera is well done.

Input through the touchscreen works very well both in tablet-mode and for photography and it glistens with its excellent responsiveness and high level of accuracy. The value of the touchscreen itself is also convincing, even if the colors are a little distorted at certain angles of vision.

The hardware's performance is also as satisfactory as it could be, though it always lags a little behind the Samsung Galaxy S3.

But now we come to the main focus, namely the actual camera function. Samsung did a good job with the controls via the touchscreen, and it's easy to use as long as you can make do with automatic programs. If you switch into the half-automatic or manual modes, though, changing settings becomes arduous.

The camera's photos aren't 100% convincing. Smartphone cameras clearly have no chance against the Galaxy Camera. We would put this product in the category of the compact camera, where the Galaxy Camera is comparable to much of the rest of the competition in terms of picture quality. Against entry-level DSLRs the Galaxy Camera has to admit defeat.

And here lies the camera's biggest problem: You can get a cheap DSLR with a lens for less money than the Galaxy Camera. Since it's "only" a camera with internet connection, it can't replace a smartphone and therefore ends up being another device you have to carry around. If you're going to have to carry another device along anyway, you could also choose a cheaper compact camera, or a DSLR with better picture quality. But if you can't wait to upload your photos to the internet and want to be able to do it while you're out and about, the Galaxy Camera would definitely be worth your while.