Samsung WB5000

HD Video, Raw, wide-angle … a bridge that leaves nothing out!

The new Samsung camera borrows the best compact, while approaching the flexibility of SLR.

Samsung needed a bridge to provide housing in the same wide-angle, zoom x24, HD video, fast lens, RAW mode and face detection improved. Many promises, but what is the price?

While bridges are less publicized than the compact-eternal-first sales, the reflex-prized by photographers, fans, and even more recently that micro four thirds this hybrid format that combines compact size and interchangeable lenses. Yet they retain an asset that makes them unique: balancing optical performance and ease of use.

It’s simple, WB5000 Samsung pick in almost all categories. The compact, it retains the style of wide-angle (and offers a nice 26mm for landscape shots). SLR, it incorporates the methods of shooting semi-automatic and manual, and especially the raw file, the digital negative that can process the images at will after the catch. And failing to offer interchangeable lenses, it offers a very nice focal range, thanks to its 24x zoom. There is no economy of HD video with 720p movies (compressed in H.264).

Complete, the WB5000 is just on the paper. It also shows the result of the latest trend in digital photography, better management of low lights. Canon has reduced the number of pixels on its G11 to avoid digital noise, Sony sells the WX1 CMOS sensor reversed to embrace more light, and Samsung, in the times, offers an objective which opens to 2.8 (instead of 3.5 traditionally).
Specifically, it will be possible to obtain sharp contrasts significantly between the first and most important background, and especially easier to shoot in difficult conditions, without necessarily going through the worst enemy of the photographer’s flash. To avoid noise, Samsung has decided to rein in the choice of sensibility: he must go down to 5 MP to go up to ISO 3200 at 3 MP and to enter 6400.
It may appear on a bridge binding sold as a 12.4 megapixel, but in a consumer line, difficult to reconcile ultra high sensitivity and depth details!

In addition to his management of light, it will assess its usability. Its TFT screen 3-inch LCD is positioned in the standard resolution with a fairly standard, though a bit low, 230 000 pixels. However, the screen is not adjustable, like the Nikon P90 example, Which offers a zoom equivalent, and it lacks an HDMI-always practical to take advantage of its HD video directly to a compatible display.

Neither compact or SLR, but smart enough to pick good ideas from all the racks, the WB5000 has undeniable potential. Launched in October 2009 at prices a tad higher than 369 €, it could pose as one of the values of this year.