Samsung TL350 (WB2000) review

Hi,

I just got a WB2000 (US$375 or 250 quid, ouch). I
also considered Canon S90, Sony HX5 and waiting for
the Panasonic LX5 and Sony WX5, but the amazing
screen and the full HD video swung it for me.

BTW the lens is f/2.4 at its brightest, not f/2.8 as the
specs on this site say. It's a little sharper than the Fuji
F200EXR in the centre but a little softer in the corners.
I haven't tried all zoom settings or apertures yet so this
is just my general impression so far. It's being corrected
for distortion and CA.

It feels very nice in the hand with a good grip and
metal body. The screen is absolutely lovely. Initially I
was disappointed that the thumb wheel doesn't do
anything other than change frame options (10x, 5X,
3x, bkt, self timer etc) but the rotary wheel lower
down works very well so that's fine, and I quite like
this now.

The shooting display gives a good amount of info, and
a live histogram which is great.

It charges from my notebook USB just like my phone
so that's very convenient for me.

Start up, shot to shot, zoom and AF times are nothing
special but not slow either. With an average sd card, a
10M jpeg takes about 2-3 seconds to write to the card
in the Smart Auto mode and the cam keeps working
throughout. With a fast SDHC (30Mbs) card it's much
faster and the lag opening RAW files is very slight,
which is great news. The internal memory (only
enough for 1 raw image) seems much slower so for me
a fast card is essential for RAW.

10fps is 10fps and at full resolution. That's very cool.
Max frames is 10 and there's no AF changes.

The raw converter software is pretty extensive but I'm
already on top of it which is a surprise. It's quite easy
to get more pleasing images this way too so RAW is a
great feature on this camera.

There are also lots of features in the camera like
beauty shot and a kind of HDR called smart range.

The beauty shot settings have an effect but it's up to
you as to whether you'll like the effect. I do. They can
change skin tone (brighter) and re-touch blemishes to
make people look younger. It can be combined with
some setting changes to create a flattering portrait.

The smart range doesn't work for scenes with any
motion in them, which includes leaves gently moving in
the breeze. It doesn't seem to have much effect
indoors either, so I'm still working out how to get the
most from this feature.

Image quality is surprisingly good for a little camera like
this with good sharp details at low iso, but of course at
100% you can see minor effects of noise even at
iso80. Samsung haven't revolutionised small sensor
cams. The F200EXR is cleaner but it's only noticeable
at over 70%. RAW files can be tweaked for better
performance but for me they're not hugely better re
noise so far.

I haven't tried the video much yet so I can't comment
on that but it seems okay on my hdtv, except in low
light and the auto WB sucks in video mode..

The panorama sweep works for a 180 degree shot,
but the final image is only 720 pixels high by about
3800 pixels wide iirc.

Manual focus is useful for macro - set it to minimum
focus distance and move the cam for the best
reproduction ratio, then the screen is just good
enough to tweak the focus, but only just.

Anyway, I like this cam because it has the right blend
of compromises that I want, but if noise at 100%
bothers you then you'd do better with a micro4/3rds
and bigger pockets, or perhaps an LX5 in due course.
For me, I have a D90 for that.

Is it better than the Fuji ? Well, the Fuji gives better
jpegs so I gave that 4 and this cam 3.5, but this cam
has RAW so I'm happy to keep this cam and sell the
Fuji.

Problems:

Smallish sensor means you won't like looking at these
shots at 100%, but then you should know this already
and not be expecting dslr quality.

No HDMI cable ! It has special socket but they don't
include their special cable - very poor show Samsung.

The menus and features will take some time to learn
to use because some things are not intuitive; for
example, in shutter priority, to change the shutter
speed I must first press the ok button before I spin
the wheel, but I don't have to in aperture priority.

Very often options are grayed out and it's frustrating
trying to find out why. Maybe I should read the
manual...

It isn't very customisable. That thumb wheel is begging
to be used for EV or shutter speed etc.

No EV lock button, but a half-pressed shutter does the
job.

WB in video is very changeable so manually
setting the WB before I start shooting is essential. AF
in video doesn't seem that good but that might be
me.