Compared to... Canon PowerShot A710 IS

Perhaps the most obvious competitor to the NV7 is Canon's PowerShot A710IS, which has a similar feature set (albeit with a longer lens range) in a compact body. Below, and on the following pages you will find a studio comparison between these cameras. We've included samples at each camera's lowest ISO (NV7: ISO 100, A710IS: ISO 80), ISO 400 and ISO 800 (the A710 IS' highest setting). You can see a studio shot at ISO 1000 later in the review.

Studio scene comparison (NV7 @ ISO 100, A710 IS @ ISO 80)  

• Samsung NV7 OPS: Program mode, ISO 100, Default Image Parameters,
  Manual white balance, +0.7 EV compensation
  
  
• Canon PowerShot A710 IS: Aperture Priority mode, ISO 80, Default Image Parameters,
  Manual white balance, +0.66 EV compensation
   
• Lighting: Daylight simulation, >98% CRI

Samsung NV7 OPS	Canon A710 IS
ISO 80, 1/200 sec, F4.0	ISO 80, 1/50 sec, F5.0
3,220 KB JPEG	2,842 KB JPEG

Although there's not a huge difference in the amount of detail being captured in the center of the frame (certainly not enough to appear in a print), the Canon is obviously offering better edge-to-edge performance, with the NV7 image (well this particular sample) getting very soft in the corners - bottom right in particular.

Color is good (if over-saturated) but the overall impression - viewed at 100% as here - isn't that impressive; the Samsung image shows distinct artefacts, some evidence of noise and excessive sharpening & contrast. For the average user producing standard sized prints it's not going to be a major issue, but if pixel-level quality matters to you neither lens nor sensor are going to impress. I'd be a lot happier if you could reduce the contrast in-camera (some of the scene modes have lower contrast, but you sacrifice full control over the camera's functions).