I’m introducing the first camera from Samsung in the second half of 2010, the ST100. The ST100 which will take the beautiful moment has more beautiful design than the moment with great functions which have been introduced by Samsung.
It comes with 4 different colors such as violet, gold, hot pink, and black. Except the black one, all colors are very special enough to get an attention of people. The rounded appearance and coated surface by shinny material are really awesome.
It has the inner zoom type optical 5x zoom Schneider lens with 35-175mm of focal length, so it has better length than other inner zoom lenses, and by adopting the 1/2.3” CCD, it supports 14.2M pixels still images and 720p HQ movie recording.
To be honest, before introducing this to you, I didn’t know this existed. When finding out this, we were in shock and made the headline as ‘Hidden Dual Viewer’, even though it was a little old-fashioned.
The front LCD which Samsung officially uses ‘2 View Dual LCDs’ is hidden in the surface and shown up. It keeps the design and colors, but is distinguished from the previous front LCD cameras. The ST100 has the quite big 1.8” front LCD in 100x60x200mm and 135g of body, so it’s convenient for self shots and other additional functions. I was worried that the shinny material of the surface might interrupt the backlight of the front LCD, but it was not a problem like the picture.
The design of the top of the ST100 is noticeable with the 7 degree slanted design which makes self shots more convenient. Especially, the rounded button design, light, and play button supporting one touch play are hidden practice in the design.
It took the self shot by using the front LCD. This camera also supports smile shot function which automatically takes a shot when it detects a smile.
If this great function was difficult to use, no one would use it. However, it’s not in the ST100. Users can just push F.LCD button on the top and select one of the 7 menus. It has 5 useful functions such as Self shot, Children mode showing funny animation to get an attention of children, Couple mode for 2 people, Jump shot, and Smile icon showing smile icon in half shutter to tell you when to smile.
It supports 11.52M pixels and has the 3.5” wide Full HD touch LCD. Most of the touch menus are inactivated to prevent inconvenience. The key icon on the lower side of the screen is only activated, and this is to unlock the hold function, so pushing the button, some menus become available to use.
Let’s me introduce self shot images by using Self Shot option. We have already received the permission to upload these pictures.
Looking at this picture, eyes are looking at the inner zoom lens. It becomes an awkward picture, because this person is not used to self shots.
These 2 pictures were taken by people who know how to set the composition. It looks much better than the previous picture in the eye and angle.
In order to take a great self shot or couple shot, one hand needs to be relaxed. Holding the shutter part, not inner zoom lens, it automatically takes a good picture. This was from a lot of test and holding the inner zoom lens part, the part of a palm between thumb and index filter used to hide the lens. Therefore, users need to remember that the ST100 automatically recognizes the face and the light weight of the camera.
The ST100 has all the functions which have been applied to Samsung cameras and starting model of the second half of 2010. Therefore, by using the 11.52M pixels 3.5” wide full touch LCD, it makes more convenient with additional functions in the operation menu.
Let’s take a look at the composition of the main menu. Some customers thought the main menu is a separate mode which gathers convenient functions, but actually Program mode which allows users to change all the specifications of the camera is the real main menu. The ST100 uses the touch function as much as possible, so it arranges mode icon on the left top, basic icons such as flash, focus and timer below, and on the right side, movement of menu icon and menu icon are arranged and on the lower side, pop up type sub menu is separately located, so it minimizes the necessity to find the menu icon to change the function.
The ST100 has Smart Auto 2.0 which automatically detects the 17 modes and helps take perfect shots. It supports 12 different scene modes and 9 kinds of photo sizes such as 4320x3240 14M pixels, 4320x2880 12M pixels, and 4320x2432 10M pixels. Especially, the 10M allows users to watch images on HDTV and HD LCD monitor as a full screen. It supports ISO 80 to 3200 and ±2 level of exposure compensation with the increments of 1/3.
Among the above pictures, the first 2 pictures were taken without EV and other 2 pictures were taken with -1.30 and -1.70 EV. Actually, it’s really difficult to describe skies well as a compact digital camera, but the ST100 was very good at this. For your information, this type of sky shots have been included in the basic test item, because the sky is the most frequently taken for outdoor shots.
(Sketch Style)
(Without Defog style and with Defog)
The ST100 has Smart Filter function, and in this part 2 kinds of styles have been added. Therefore, Smart Filter is also divided into Smart Lens effect such as Miniature, Vignetting, Fish eye 1/2 and Style such as Sketch and Defog.
For customers living in HD and YouTube generation, the movie recording is more important. Good mobility is also good to have. The ST100 supports 720p HQ HD movie and 320 size movie recording for web sites. It also supports Smart Movie recording by automatically detecting the situations, and for normal movie recording, Smart Filter can be applied. Through the 2 styles of Smart Lens effects, users will have more fun to watch funny movies even in the web sites.
Samsung cameras have advanced portrait functions in the camera by reducing hand blur and making faces more vivid, and this is because portrait shot is the most frequently used. Including Face Detection, the technology to see the change of faces and various options regarding the technology now reached the peak, I think. Social Network is a new paradigm to know others, and it’s also very good reason to use the ST100 after registering faces as My Star. Samsung allows users to find pictures and enjoy them more quickly.
In play mode, including Smart Album, various retouching functions are supported. The important thing in this retouching part is that the original remains and retouched images are stored separately. Therefore, it’s very convenient for users to have both.
Besides, there’s a play mode maximizing the touch function, so pushing your finger to the direction you want, the images taken look like a frame which images come and are rotated.
The ST100 is the first Samsung camera to have the various technologies which Samsung cameras have developed. Especially, the beautiful body line harmonized with the inner zoom and hidden front LCD surprising everyone make up the weakness of the previous front LCD camera. (As a matter of face, in the previous front LCD camera, the front LCD wasn’t fully hidden.)
It also supports Gesture UI, effects, upgraded Smart Filter and Smart Auto 2.0 for users to remember the beautiful moment more beautifully as a Samsung’s beautiful camera.
