Galaxy Camera - first impressions

Just wanted to give feedback for intending purchasers.  In no particular order:

Purchased from Jessops in the UK at full initial retail price (GBP 399.00).  I expect this will drop rapidly; I noticed some people already paying a lot less

A competent "Superzoom" without being exceptional.  It's what I expected.  The camera (or at least lens) part looks like it's from the GBP 250.00 WB-850 which gets OK reviews.

Wide angle is very sharp in the centre but weak towards the corners and left / right edges. If you stop down a bit, say to f4, it's a lot better.  It stays sharp as you zoom in until you reach about 15x then deteriorates towards the maximum 21x, getting quite soft.  My sample has a slightly decentred lens which shows a weakness on the left side at longer focal lengths.

One aspect that has really impressed me is the Image Stabilisation.  It works well, as expected, at all focal lengths but, very unusually in my experience, allows sharp pictures down to 1 second exposure at wide angle.  I haven't had any camera with IS manage this before.  It could be the excellent raised grip plus the overall weight of the camera also helps.

As far as ISO peformance is concerned, it's OK.  It's not going to get anywhere near something like the Sony RX100, my usual "carry around" camera.  After dark the Sony is far superior.  But then it doesn't have a 21x zoom   It seems as good as most 1/2.3 sensor cameras I've encountered, without being exceptional.  Up to ISO400 is OK, though even ISO100 shots have some shadow noise.  ISO800 is getting smudgy.

I really wish it had RAW capability, as Samsung's noise reduction processing is a bit crude compared with some cameras - in my opinion.  Maybe RAW will be possible by hacking - I noticed at xda-developers the Galaxy Camera has already been "rooted"!

The screen is lovely, sharp and well saturated, with a decent (though not quite the best) viewing angle.

Movies seem excellent, and it works down to quite low indoor light levels without excessive image noise.  Zoom and optical IS are active all the time.  Sound is mono only, and is of reasonable, if unexceptional, sound quality.  With its 21x zoom, large grip and huge 16:9 screen it makes a very nice movie camera indeed, though you have little manual control.

There's one bug which is annoying.  I can't get the "sharpness", "contrast" and "saturation" parameters to be saved.  Every time you turn the camera completely off (long press on power button), or if Android decides to terminate the camera process, you have to re-enter these again.  I'm not banking on it, but hoping they will fix this, as it's just a firmware issue.

As a tablet the Galaxy Camera works really well.  The specs are probably similar to the latest Galaxy phones.  Without actual phone functionality of course.  It's more powerful than my 2 year old Asus transformer which cost me GBP 400.00 with keyboard.  It renders complex webpages without hesitation and would probably play virtually any video.  Despite Android Jelly Bean not supporting Adobe Flash, I have successfully "side loaded" it and it does BBC iPlayer perfectly.

One nice aspect of the Galaxy Camera - it seems to have an excellent standby time.  Pressing the power button briefly turns off the screen and locks the other buttons and hence stops the lens accidentally extending too.  In this state it comes back on instantly when required, yet takes very little battery, like a phone.  It looks like it should last several days on standby.  This makes it a nice internet tablet to have round the home, ready for immediate use.

You can, of course, turn it off completely with a long press of the power button, but then it takes at least 30 or so seconds booting up again.

Build quality is excellent.  It's mostly made from metal, and it looks like a solid casting rather than the thin metal sheet over plastic you get with a lot of so-called metal bodied cameras.  Even the lens sections are made from metal.

I'm pleased I got the Galaxy Camera.  It's a good, but not great, GBP 250.00 superzoom stills camera, a great movie camera, attached to an excellent up-to-date Android tablet which should be useful in lots of different ways.

Please don't ask for picture samples, I don't have the time or inclination.

Hope this has helped any prospective purchasers.