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Samsung HZ35W (WB650) review

Started Apr 27, 2010 | User reviews thread
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Fred McLean
Fred McLean Regular Member • Posts: 225
Samsung HZ35W (WB650) review

Bought as a replacement for my TZ5 and it was the GPS that sold it for me (unfortunately).

The camera is not as small as a number of modern compacts but for my big hands it is fine and about the same as my TZ5 was.

The controls are well laid out and the menu system is clear. Most camera controls are similar now so it did not take much time to get used to the layout.

Picture quality is average for a small sensor compact, I do not pixel peep so have no complaints at all.

15X zoom is very good if not particularly quick to get extended. Focus at full zoom is good and I enjoyed the extra reach the zoom gave me while still maintaining a largish file size.

Video is good but still not what you would get from a dedicated camcorder, zoom noise also shows up. Quality is about average for a top end compact.

GPS is so slow to acquire a signal (even in wide open ground) that it makes it all but useless for giving a location to travel photos. You cannot even store the last position acquired. If I am going to have to use Flickr or Picasa to geo tag my pics I would not have spent on a useless function like GPS.

Loading the map/s was a nightmare and not all intuitive with no guidance from Samsung.

Contact with Samsung regarding the GPS and maps got no usefiull answer and obviously no interest in users comments/problems.

Problems:

GPS so slow to acquire it is useless.

Samsung guidance/on line help is dreadfull.

Getting maps loaded and working is a real pain, to say the least.

 Fred McLean's gear list:Fred McLean's gear list
Panasonic FZ2500 Olympus E-M5 II Olympus M.Zuiko ED 75-300mm 1:4.8-6.7 II Panasonic Lumix G Vario HD 12-32mm F3.5-5.6 Mega OIS FastStone Image Viewer +4 more
Samsung HZ35W (WB650)
12 megapixels • 3 screen • 24 – 360 mm (15×)
Announced: Jan 19, 2010
Fred McLean's score
3.3
Average community score
3.2
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