Smart enough that every shot's great
Samsung's WB250F digital camera packs a slew of smart modes that guarantee success
Samsung WB250F is a smart digital camera that is fun to use with a Wi-Fi connection for easy sharing and with an 18x optical zoom. It features a 24mm equivalence wide-angle lens with f/3.2 aperture and 14.2 megapixel BSI CMOS image sensor.
With 18x optical zoom, it boasts tele-focal length to 432mm equivalence, allowing you to get up close to your subjects in a situation where it’s difficult to access the subjects physically.
It comes with a 3-inch touch-screen LCD and uses it in connection with the five-way navigational keys to provide a hybrid touch interface for easy control the camera’s settings.
With built-in Wi-Fi function, photos and video clips can be easily uploaded to your Facebook page, Picasa album, YouTube and SkyDrive service.
With some apps installed to your Android smart phone, you can easily copy photos or videos from the camera and use the phone as a remote viewfinder for the camera. Photos can also be emailed directly when the camera is connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot.
The camera is easy to use for newcomers. The Smart Auto mode produces a proper program scene mode suitable for any lighting conditions. Scene modes available for the camera to select automatically include Portrait, Night Portrait, Landscape, Backlight Portrait, Macro and Sunset.
More advanced users will prefer Programme Auto Exposure (P) mode or manual, shutter priority or aperture priority.
But the fun of this camera is the available Smart modes. These are Beauty Face, Action Freeze, Panorama, Waterfall, Silhouette, Sunset, Fireworks, Light Trace, Low Light Shot, Rich tone and Continuous Shot.
The ladies at The Nation loved the Beauty Face mode during the test. It lightens and smoothes the face, making the subject look younger, with a fairer skin tone.
Action Freeze lets you easily capture fast-action shots, such as sports events. Other brands call Rich Tone “HDR”. The camera takes multiple shots at various exposures to capture all the colours and details and merges the shots into one photo.
You need a tripod to use some modes, such as Light Trace and Waterfall. Waterfall lets you capture shots of a waterfall in white trails of water. Similarly, Light Trace lets you easily transforms the lights of vehicles moving on a highway at night into trails of lights.
The WB250F also comes with a nice cheating mode, called Best Face, which is very useful for group photos. The camera will capture five shots and you can select the best face of each subject for the final group photo to ensure that everyone is smiling and has their eyes open.
My test found that the camera captured good quality pix in most lighting conditions. Its 24mm wide-angle lens captured beautiful landscape photos, especially in Landscape shooting mode.
In 18x zoom mode, the camera grabbed sharp and clean photos regardless of how steady your hands are.
The WB250F performs well for a camera in this price range. It took only about 1.5 seconds to start up and be ready for the first shot. Its shot-to-shot time was about 1 second and I didn’t feel any shutter lag.
The WB250F can also record good quality video in MP4 format at the resolution of 1080p at 30 frames per second and 720p at 30 fps.
The WB250F is available in white, cobalt black, gun metal and red for Bt7,990.
Key specs
_ Image Sensor: 14.2 effective megapixel 1/2.3-inch BSI CMOS
_ Lens: 18x Optical Zoom Lens, 24 mm Wide Angle, F3.2(W) - 5.8(T)
_ Display: 3.0-inch touch TFT LCD screen
_ ISO: Auto, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200
_ Shutter speed: Smart Auto: 1/8 - 1/2000sec., Program: 1 - 1/2000sec., Manual: 16 - 1/2000sec.
_ Focus system: TTL Auto Focus (Center AF, Multi AF, Tracking AF, Face Detection AF, Touch AF), Manual Focus
_ Image: JPEG format 14M, 12M, 10M Wide, 10M, 8M, 5M, 3M, 2M Wide, 1M
_ Video; MP4 (Video: MPEG4, AVC/H.264, Audio: AAC)
1920x1080 (30fps), 1280x720 (30fps), 640x480 (30fps), 320x240 (30fps), 240 web
_ Video Output: AV
_ SMART Mode: Beauty Face, Continuous Shot, Landscape, Macro, Action Freeze, Rich Tone (HDR), Panorama, Waterfall, Silhouette, Sunset, Low Light Shot, Fireworks, Light Trace
_ Storage: SDSC (up to 2GB), SDHC (up to 32GB), SDXC (up to 64GB)
_ Battery: SLB-10A
_ Dimension (WxHxD):106.05 x 61.65 x 21.65mm
_ Weight: 226g (without battery)
