Samsung's SH100 Brings The Internet To Your Camera [Archive]

Angelina Purpura

06-27-2011, 06:00 PM

<img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1308459349.usr126385.jpg" /> <h6>Product Category: Digital Camera (Point-And-Shoot Variety)</h6><h6>Manufacturer: <a href="http://www.samsung.ca" target="_blank">Samsung</a></h6><h6>Where to Buy: <a href="http://astore.amazon.com/digitalhomethoughts-20/detail/B004L3R0Z0" target="_blank">Amazon.com</a> [USA, Affiliate] / <a href="http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/samsung-samsung-sh100-14-2mp-digital-camera-with-wifi-black-ec-sh100zbpbca/10164520.aspx?path=73b8a5fddee0b9ad4e0b3366c2df6f86en02" target="_blank">Best Buy.ca</a> [Canada]</h6><h6>Price: $199.99 CDN</h6><h6>System Requirements: Wi-Fi connection (Supports B, G, and N)</h6><h6>Specifications: <a href="http://www.samsung.com/ca/consumer/camera-camcorder/cameras/compact/EC-SH100ZBPBCA/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail&tab=specification" target="_blank">Provided by Samsung</a></h6>Pros:<ul><li>Simple and quick wireless media uploading;</li><li>Amazing photo quality;</li><li>Impressive battery life;</li><li>Amusing photo editing options.</li></ul>Cons:<ul><li>Complicated menus slow down useability;</li><li>Video quality leaves a little to be desired;</li><li>Limited destination options for uploading photos.</li></ul>Summary: It was more than four years ago that I first heard mention of Wi-Fi enabled cameras.   It was theoretical technology at the time, and I was intrigued.  Imagine being able to upload your pictures right from your camera!  So when presented with the opportunity to try out one of these mythical beasts my excitement was boundless.  And it absolutely lives up the expectations I had.  Unfortunately, those expectations were from a time before the iPhone, before smartphones in general.  Camera phones existed, sure, but they were of no notable quality.  These days however we have phones capable of taking HD video and sending it out into the world instantly.  This camera can do that too, but only with a Wi-Fi connection. That can actually be surprisingly limiting at times.  For example, uploading pictures from a party is simple (What sports bar or apartment building doesn't have an unlocked connection these days?) vs trying to upload them while out in public (Can't find a Starbucks? I guess it'll have to wait).  I found myself thinking that it would be better if it was 3G enabled, to really let you upload anytime, from anywhere.  And then I considered that, really, we already have our smartphones for that. And they can make phone calls, too.  This camera comes pre-installed with a number of picture editing programs that are incredibly fun to play with, but I have also already seen countless apps that offer the same functions.  That's not to say I haven't very much enjoyed my time with it - its picture quality is fantastic and the touch screen is very nice.  But I know that, while the cameras in smart phones are not quite there yet, it's only a matter of time before their quality improves enough that I worry the SH100 will have to fight hard to keep its place in the market.  But in the meantime this camera is one of the most fun to play with I've ever used.  From a point-and-shoot, it's hard to ask for more.A note before I get started: <a href="http://www.digitalhomethoughts.com/news/show/108792/the-canon-powershot-sd1300-is-the-ambitious-beginner-s-camera.html" target="_blank">as I have previously stated</a> I am not a professional photographer.  I take <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/daedrius/" target="_blank">a lot of pictures</a>, but with no degree of training. If you're looking for a detailed technical review of the camera then I'm afraid that this is not it.  This is a review of the camera's useability and functionality for the average recreational photographer.<MORE /><h1>The Camera</h1><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1307729618.usr126385.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" />Figure 1: The beast itself.  Camera and stylus for the touch screen.I won't bore you with the unboxing details, other than that I had a few fun moments trying to figure out how/where to attach the stylus to the camera.  The stylus is your typical plastic nib, giving you pinpoint accuracy when using the touch screen menus. A word of warning; buy a screen protector and apply it before you even turn on the camera.  The stylus nib is small and the demo model had scratches on the screen before I even got my hands on it.  I've resorted to using my fingers instead - I'd rather have fingerprints on the screen than permanent marks.The camera is a good weight and has a nice streamlined body.  Including the power and shutter-zoom, there are only four physical buttons. The designers really want you to rely on the touch screen.  The screen is crystal clear, has pretty good responsiveness, and the option to re-calibrate when necessary.  But we still have the Review and Home (menu) buttons.  Review lets you switch in and out of viewfinder and album review modes. It also allows you to review your album without having to first extend the lens (a nice power- and time-saver).  The Home button is your gateway to camera features.  There are four menu pages with 28 individual options, and each option has its own customizable menu settings.  There is an awful lot going on in this camera. But I don't want to keep you waiting for the main feature.  We're all here for the Wi-Fi, so without further ado...<h1>Upload Pictures On The Go</h1><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1307723708.usr126385.jpg" />Figure 2: Promotional images from Samsung. The Internet is yours!Imagine, you could take a picture of a glorious sunset, and then send it to your album while you're still watching it happen.  Or you witness a hilarious moment at a party that needs to be shared on Facebook right now, you can do it.  That is what this camera promises, and it delivers. Sure, your iPhone may be able to do the same thing, but with 14 mega pixels?  Make no mistake, this is a camera first. But the creative minds at Samsung really went all-out, trying to utilize every potential aspect of the SH100's 'net connectivity.  You have a surprisingly wide range of options when it comes to sharing and storing your photographs.<ul><li>Email is exactly that - emailing the image to the address of your choice, with the ability to use your own address as the Sender info, to avoid the image being sent to the recipient's junk mail folder.</li><li>Auto Backup is brilliant use of Wi-Fi. Install the Auto Backup software on your computer and after setting up your folders your camera is now enabled to auto-dump its contents onto your home hard drive.  Set it up, walk away, and sort them later.</li><li>AllShare lets you use your TV as your display - reviewing your pictures and movies in HD.  You need a Wi-Fi enabled TV though.</li><li>Camera to Camera is a feature that I don't think a lot of people will be able to use for a while (you need to know at least one other person with an SH100), but it's still very clever.  It's frustrating trying to take large group photos when every single person in said photo wants it taken on their camera too.  Camera to Camera lets you take one picture, and then send it to everyone else's cameras.  Problem solved, time saved!</li></ul>There is a further subset of transfer options called Web, but I've decided to separate it from the others because I need to make a digression.  Naturally upon unboxing the SH100, the first thing I did was take some pictures and try to upload them to Flickr.  Only to find my dreams crashing down around me: this camera is not enabled to send to Flickr. Nor Twitpic for that matter.  My upload options are Facebook, Youtube (with a further caveat, dealt with in the Video section of the review), Picasa, Photobucket, and then Samsung's own storage option, Samsung Imaging.  And I am faced with a conundrum because, you see, I am a Flickr girl,  I've been a paying member for years. I won't go into why I chose Flickr over its competitors (I don't work for them, and am already giving them my own money, they don't need me to send them yours), but just note that it is, at least for me, an issue.  It turns out that I have a Picasa album through my Google account, but this did not immediately prove to be a solution as I had no idea what the password might be.  So, for my first upload attempt, I was forced to send a random, untitled/tagged picture to my Facebook account. <img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1307723269.usr126385.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" />Figure 3: My lunch that day. It looks so good in this picture that I want to eat it again.Sending to Photobucket/Picasa is just fine as the pictures are sent to new albums and you can always tag them later. And technically the same is true for photos sent to Facebook, but it is a little strange for others to see, for example, smoked salmon appear randomly in their news feed.  Well, unless they know me well, then they should expect it.  My gripes aside though, the camera does exactly what it said it would. Transfers my pictures, full size, to those sites.  I can only hope, though, that future versions or at least firmware updates will allow for the addition of Flickr and Twitpic etc. as upload destinations.  In the meantime the transfers are easy and pretty fast considering I take all of my pictures at the largest possible size.  The only hurdle is the effort it takes to type in your user ID and passwords for each website the first time you want to send something there. The camera does retain the information though which is, I feel, a mixed blessing. On the one hand you save a lot of time by not having to re-enter constantly, but I am uneasy when I think of the potential repercussions of losing the camera, or having it stolen. I don't know if it's possible to extract that login info from the camera but, even if it's not, I'm cynical enough to assume that unscrupulous people would still want to mess with the camera's owner. If I lost the SH100 I'd have to warn all of my friends to expect to see random images crop up that are worse than surprise smoked salmon.Ultimately, as I said, I feel that they did a good job of covering all the bases of web-connectivity.  I'd be hard pressed to come up with more, or better ideas.  I wish I could go back in time and tell Past Me that I'd one day get to see that web-camera idea realized.<PAGE /><h1>Oh Yeah, It's A Camera!</h1><h1><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1308437291.usr126385.jpg" /></h1>Figure 4: The camera's interface.  It would have been easy for Samsung to go to the trouble of providing all of this connectivity and then sit back on its laurels, providing you with camera hard/software that does a Pretty Good job of taking photos. Instead they decided to blow our minds with Amazing photos, and More Options Than You Can Wrap Your Head Around!<ul><li>Smart Auto and Smart Movie are your idiot-proof modes - limited tweakable options to save the photo newbie some stress.  </li><li>Program is where you can manually change things like your shutter speed or white balance. Within Program there are a further 19 customizable settings.  </li><li>Scene lets the camera auto adjust things like light levels and tints in Sunset, Backlight, Dawn, etc conditions.  </li><li>Beauty Shot is for portraits.  It has slider bars to adjust the subject's face tone and even blur and smooth out blemishes. </li><li>Photo Editor is your minimalist Photoshop - adjust Contrast, Saturation, etc. without having to export the picture first. When coupled with web-transfer it enables you to publish only your favourite, perfected images. </li><li>Vignetting is the Photo Editor but pared down to your most essential settings - Level, Brightness, and Contrast. </li><li>Simple Shot is only Brightness and Colour.  </li><li>Night is a stand-alone feature with superior control over shutter speed and aperture size.  </li><li>Close Up is your Macro mode, and is, for some strange reason, buried in the third page of menu options.  </li><li>Object Highlight controls Blur and Tone of a close-up target object. </li><li>Voice Recorder.  This feature is the only one that seems to be a random addition to me.  It doesn't allow you to append audio memos to your photos, but rather lets you record stand-alone audio.  The length of a recording is dependent on your free memory space, and I've yet to settle on the reason for its inclusion.  The files don't even seem to be web-exportable.  Perhaps it's an option for the budding photo journalist to use for memos?</li><li>Remote Viewfinder. I had difficulty deciding where to put this feature, as it's web-based, but not about transferring images, as such.  By using apps, scripts, etc. for Android, you can use your smartphone as, indeed, a remote viewfinder. The image seen in the camera's display is relayed to your phone, and control of the shutter is transferred as well.  The example for use that they give is a pretty genius one: we all go to concerts and we all try to film the shows on our phones, over the heads and outstretched phones of those around us. But it's often impossible to hold the camera up to proper height and see if you're getting the shot (especially if you're as vertically challenged as I am). Cue the remote aspect and now you'll be the only person there with an unobstructed shot.</li></ul>Once you've taken all of your pictures and videos they've made reviewing them rather cute too. <ul><li>Slide Show is just that, a sequential review of all of your photos.  </li><li>3D Album is far more amusing.  It presents your pictures as tiles on a black background, and I don't know why it entertains me so much. </li><li>Magazine is an advanced slideshow, placing your photos on the pages of mock scrapbook albums and letting you literally flip the pages with the touch screen. Your options are Travel, Wedding and Party, and it has theme-specific MIDI files to play over each one during Play mode.  It's actually kind of relaxing to watch my photos pass by with soothing meditational melodies in the background. Though I wonder why they didn't name this option Scrapbook?  </li></ul><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1308451233.usr126385.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" />Figure 5: 3D Album mode. Simple, elegant, amuses me far too much.A word about the touch screen and the menus.  This camera, as you can see, is full to the brim with customizability.  Unfortunately I find that it comes at the expense of speed of use.  Keeping the camera set on Program mode will get you through your day-to-day surprise photo ops.  But if you want to do something quickly with a little more flair, then you're left having to swipe through four screens of menu options to find what you want.  I could not tell you how else they should set it up, I just know that slowing down a point-and-shoot seems counter-intuitive.<h1></h1><h1><PAGE /></h1><h1>Photo Editing Fun</h1>Samsung has really gone out of its way to make photo-editing within the camera very comprehensive.  The idea being that you shouldn't have to load your photos onto your computer, edit them, and then upload them to your album. Cut out the middle man.  You can do a lot with the SH100, and I hope you're ready for it, because I went crazy taking test photos while chilling at a local eatery.<img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1308455687.usr126385.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" />Figure 6: Le originale. Magic Frame doesn't have a lot of images, but they are pretty perfect for scrapbooking fans.<img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1308455750.usr126385.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /> <img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1308455782.usr126385.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1308455813.usr126385.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" />Figure 7: Music, Water, and...a Pirate Moon?There are many more, but I don't want to spoil the surprise of playing with them all yourself.Photo Filter adjusts the picture as you're taking it, so you can get the shot just right the first time.<img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1308456087.usr126385.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1308456111.usr126385.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" />Figure 8: Soft Focus and Old Film. I love the second one, it looks like I stumbled into a roti shop from the '40s.<img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1308456192.usr126385.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1308456388.usr126385.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" />Figure 9: Miniature, aka tilt-shift. On the right we have some tiny people waiting next to a broken-down bus.These features are an awful lot of fun to play with, and I love that you can take the photo in the appropriate mode, rather than snapping the shot, filtering it, and discovering that it looks off.<PAGE /><h1>Video</h1>A camera can't just be a camera these days - we all expect video functionality, and Samsung didn't skimp out on the SH100. Movie mode is your full video mode, with its own editing software that allows you to control white balance and other essential features. Through the Movie menu, or the Home menu screen you can also access the fun features.  Palette Effect provides simple video in soft colours, sepia, and B&W.Movie Filter has a lot of options, and here are a few for your very brief viewing pleasure:<object width="300" height="180" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/Fp9_aCsswjE&ap=&fmt=18" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Fp9_aCsswjE&ap=&fmt=18" /></object><object width="300" height="180" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/WoU-2wm1dvQ&ap=&fmt=18" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WoU-2wm1dvQ&ap=&fmt=18" /></object>The first is Fisheye.  Simple, but time honoured.  The second is Negative mode, but I prefer to think of it as Predator Heat Vision.<object width="300" height="180" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/-eUH2n7yWCY&ap=&fmt=18" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-eUH2n7yWCY&ap=&fmt=18" /></object><object width="300" height="180" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/xd_H65_zDrw&ap=&fmt=18" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xd_H65_zDrw&ap=&fmt=18" /></object>Next we have Sketch.  It indeed looks sketchy.  And finally we have Miniature, or tilt shift again.  The camera actually speeds up the footage, to give you that ant-hill effect. Regrettably it displays perfectly in-camera, and yet you can see that it didn't translate well to YouTube.Remember my caveat about uploading, way back at the beginning? The camera advertises itself as being YouTube Ready, but I feel that there is still some work to be done there.  To upload directly to YouTube you have to film on the absolute lowest setting, 320 pixels, and it has to be 30 seconds or less. As well, I tested the camera on its HD setting and found that, aside from the size, the video didn't appear to differ in quality.  Curious.<h1>Conclusion</h1>A high performance camera built to bridge a gap that is slowly disappearing. I have such mixed feelings about this camera, it's hard to process them all.  As just a camera it excels - superior picture quality, reliability, battery life is strong, etc.  As a point-and-shoot it can be a bit slow to manage, and so you lose some speed in capturing a fleeting moment.  However the pictures you do get will turn out just as you wanted every time.  And then there are all of your connectivity options.  Email, Facebook, directly to your PC...all great. But I do see the specter of smartphones with amazing cameras looming over the SH100.  In the meantime though this camera is fun, fun, fun.Angelina Purpura is a gadgets enthusiast, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/daedrius/" target="_blank">amateur photographer</a>, obsessive consumer of web media, and likes to pretend that she is a runner. She has a lot to say about movies and food, which you can read about on her Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/anzi" target="_blank">@Anzi</a>.<img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//ppct/auto/1240336793.usr1.gif" />Do you enjoy using new hardware, software and accessories, then sharing your experience with others? Then join us on the <a href="http://www.thoughtsmedia.com/reviewteam.php" target="_blank">Thoughts Media Review Team</a>! We're looking for individuals who find it fun to test new gear and give their honest opinions about the experience. It's a volunteer role with some great perks. Interested? <a href="http://www.thoughtsmedia.com/reviewteam.php" target="_blank">Then click here for more information.</a><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//ppct/auto/1240336793.usr1.gif" />