The ultra-slim Samsung L100 is an 8-megapixel camera in a 10-megapixel world. Are its photos worth the feature envy?
Review summary of the Samsung L100:
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 For the price, the Samsung L100 is a great, bare bones compact with a decent sensor and a surprisingly good lens. What it lacks in features it makes up in solid image quality, and its manual mode makes it one of the cheapest manual point-and-shoots on the market. It lacks true image stabilization, and its dubious digital stabilization is a poor replacement, but the L100 is well beneath the price range of most stabilized cameras, anyway. For a no-frills compact that doesn't skimp on optics and image quality, the L100 could fit the bill. Release: March 2008. Price: $90.
Pros: Good lens performance. Good image quality. Cool LED light.
Cons: Digital image-stabilization is a no-go. Somewhat awkward button placement.
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Full Samsung L100 Review:
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Design - Good
Samsung is positioning the L100 as a "slim-styled" compact, and the camera doesn't disappoint on that front. The body is functional and competently designed, right down to a miniature wheel on top for scrolling through the camera's modes. We liked the oversized zoom control on back, which pushes forward to zoom in and back to zoom out, which is more intuitive than the typical left/right operation of most zoom controls. There's also a blue LED light around the power button; frivolous, maybe, but we found it pretty cool.
At 2.5-inches, the LCD viewfinder is a tad diminutive, but otherwise the Samsung L100 uses its available space well. The shutter release, power button and mode wheel have all been grouped into the top-center of the body, which does take some getting used to. We presume this was done to prevent users from accidentally pushing the shutter, but it's nonetheless an awkward placement for your fingers. And anyway, in the age of digital photography, does it really matter if someone takes an accidental picture?
Interface - Good
The LCD display is bright but a bit on the small side, and it tends to become unresponsive in low-light. In terms of its interface, the Samsung L100 follows the tried-and-true path for point-and-shoots, with a menu button to access the system settings and a function button to access shooting parameters. Available settings are dependent on the selected mode, but in full-manual the L100 allows adjustments to everything from shutter and f-stop to white balance and ISO. We would have liked exposure adjustments to be available via a shortcut button – we'd argue they're more immediately important than timed-shutter settings – but admittedly that's a matter of preference. Finally, Samsung has also included an additional shortcut, labeled E for 'effects' and 'editing,' that gives quick access to color and image adjustment settings.
Features - Good
The Samsung L100 is not a feature-packed camera, and it lacks optical image-stabilization. Instead, Samsung has included the dreaded digital image-stabilization. Before you run screaming for the hills, Samsung has made some improvements to the DIS idea, so while we wouldn't recommend the camera for this feature, we've certainly seen worse. At the very least, it isn't a rudimentary crop. As far as we can deduce from our own tests and Samsung's own vague description, it seems to take two images from one exposure, run edge detection on one and retain the color information from the other, and then splice everything back together into one photo. It all sounds a bit cockamamy and, as we found out, doesn't prove to be all that useful.
Far better are the camera's stable of standard point-and-shoot features, including face detection, red-eye correction and even an automatic bracketing function that automatically takes three pictures at three different exposure settings. The L100 also has a capable manual mode, though the aperture is not continuous (only f/2.8 and f/7.0 are selectable) and the shutter only ranges from 8 to 1/1500 seconds. More selections on either end would have been nice. The camera does have excellent auto shooting, complemented by an intelligent contrast-detection that selects the ideal settings for contrasty situations, such as a portrait set against harsh sunlight. In our testing, this did result in better exposures where most other point-and-shoots would have given dark, underexposed foregrounds.
Image quality - Very good
The Samsung L100 might not take outstanding pictures, but especially for its street price, its image quality is nothing to shake a stick at. The camera is a little on the over-sharp side, which leads to rings around hard edges, but otherwise colors are deep and accurate with above-average detail. The camera does particularly well with landscapes and other broad subjects but slightly less so with close-ups, which tend to exacerbate its tendency to oversharpen. The digital image-stabilization is largely a botch, but the L100 sells for less than many cameras with no stabilization at all, so this hardly detracts from the camera's value.
Noise management is surprisingly excellent, with tightly grouped blocking all the way to ISO-800. ISO-1600 finally sees some distracting blotches and white-balance errors, but it remains quite usable, especially compared to some of the more horrid 1600 speeds we've seen. There doesn't seem to be anything particularly special about the L100's innards; it's just a well made sensor with a good pixel-to-size ratio.
Scene test
This scene test shows well rendered colors, especially for such a drab day, and it has excellent perceptive sharpness (remember, more megapixels ≠ sharper). The blooming in the trees causes a slight softening effect, but this is to be expected with such a strong backlight. Also, the Samsung L100 did a superb job of basing its exposure settings off of the foreground; many point-and-shoots would have exposed for the sky, thus leading to an underexposed photo.
Edge test [wide angle]
Edge test [telescopic]
Both of these edge tests give quality results. There is some ringing visible at 100% zoom, but at less magnification the L100's sharpening filter did a good job at defining edges. Sky detail is excellent, and the camera's lens performed admirably, with nary a fringe or aberration in sight.
Context
Macro test
The macro feature also performed well, extracting an appreciable amount of detail from the surface of this stone wall. Sharpness is not quite as impressive, presumably because the L100's sharpener can't handle the random delineations of this surface as well as it can straight lines, but detail is nonetheless high. For a sub-$100 camera, the lens again gave a standout performance. Most other compacts would have focus issues in the corner, but the Samsung L100 did a great job of maintaining its focus throughout the image.
Digital image-stabilization test
Now we get to Samsung's new-fangled version of digital image-stabilization. Simply put, you shouldn't buy the L100 with this feature in mind. If you need image-stabilization then check out the Canon Powershot A590 IS, and if you don't need image-stabilization then the L100 is cheap enough to justify not caring about the feature at all. DIS seems to derive most of its shake-reduction simply from forcing the ISO to 200, and at first glance the image seems OK, but peer closer and it falls apart. The whole photo is plagued with digital errors – not ISO noise, but flat-out incorrect pixels. There's a yellow line to the left of the faucet and an errant red dot over the right valve, and the top of the entire photo is lined with garbage pixels. Again, this isn't a deal killer; it's just a last-resort at best.
Price and availability
The Samsung L100 will start selling for $90 () in March 2008.
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