Choosing a P&S Camera - Samsung HZ30W Review

Samsung HZ30W (also known as the Samsung WB600)

I recently needed a new P&S camera for those times when all I can carry is something that will fit in my pocket. Like everyone else in the same situation, I found it hard to know where to start looking. There are so many P&S cameras available (something like 400 I believe) that the possible choices are quite confusing.

So where to start? Rather than simply look for the "best" camera or the camera with lowest noise or highest resolution I think it's better to make a list of the most important features in approximate order of importance and go from there. I Think it's far better to have a camera with the lens you need than one with a 1dB noise advantage and the wrong lens.

1. Pocketability. An SLR style "bridge" camera which won't fit in my pocket isn't what I'm looking for.
2. A wide range zoom. If I only have one camera with me and it only has one lens, I'd like it to do as much as possible.
3. A wide wide lens. 35mm is just too long. 28mm is better, but 24mm is best
4. An optically stabilized lens. Since high ISO settings can be noisy on P&S cameras, the ability to hand hold at relatively slow shutter speeds (resulting from lower ISO settings) is important.
5. Image quality. It should be decent, but I'm not going to sacrifice usability (wide zoom range) for a slight image quality improvement. RAW storage capacity would be nice, but I can live with JPEGs for this camera.
6. Cost. I really didn't want to spend more than $200 to $300 on this camera.
7. Manual control. I want to be able to fully control shutter speeds, aperture and ISO if I need to
8. Long shutter speeds. I want the choice of long shutter speeds (at least 10 seconds) If I chose to.
9. High ISO capability. High ISO is going to give marginal image quality in a P&S camera, but I'd like the option of a marginal quality image over no image at all.
10. Reasonably quick operation. I don't want to have to wait 10 seconds for the camera to wake up and 3 seconds between shots.
11. Video. Although I don't shoot much video, it would be nice to have HD capability. Preferably 1080p, but at least 720p.

So given these constraints, what cameras are available and which good cameras are ruled out?

Well, on a number of grounds (cost, zoom range for example), cameras like the Canon Powershot S95 and Canon Poweshot G12 are ruled out, even though they are pocketable, have a fast lens, can shoot in RAW mode and have excellent image quality.

Similarly, despite their very wide zoom range, larger cameras such as the Canon Powershot S30 IS, the Nikon Coolpix P500, the Olympus SP-810 UZ and the Sony Cybershot DSC-HX100V are rules out because of cost and pocketability issues. If I can't get it in my pocket, I might as well carry an SLR.

So looking at pocketable cameras with a zoom starting around 24-28mm and going out to at least 240mm we have such cameras as the Leica V-lux 30, the Samsung HZ30W and HZ35W, the Casio Exilim FH100 and the Canon Powershot SX210 IS. Price rules out the Leica. The Canon Powershot SX 210 IS looks good, but the lens does start at 28mm. Both the Samsungs and the Casio start out at 24mm, but the Samsung goes out to 360mm while the Casio's longest focal length is 240mm.

The Canon Powershot SX230 HS is also very interesting. It has a 28-392 lens and the HS (High Speed) designation is given because the SX230 HS can shoot at 8 frames/sec in a 3MB image mode (approx 2050 x 1540 pixels), plus 240 frames/sec video in 320x240 resolution. It also has 1080p HD video capability. However the current price of around $300 put it at the upper limit of my price range. Still a very interesting camera though and one of these days I'd like to hold of one to test.

The Samsung HZ30W and HZ35W are essentially the same camera except the 35W has GPS built in and uses an AMOLED screen. However it is/was priced around $350 while the very similar HZ30W is/was priced closer to $200 and I really don't need GPS in a camera.

The Samsung HZ30W also meets my requirements for manual control, long shutter speeds, optical stabilization and has a pretty good Schneider-Kreuznach 3.9-58.5/3.2-5.8 lens (24-360mm 35mm equivalent). It's not super fast, but it's fast enough. So I bought one.

Inevitably as soon as I buy something it gets replaced by a newer model, which in this case is the Samsung WB750. It appears similar to the HZ30W (WB600), but it has a longer 18x 24-432mm lens (rather than a 15x 24-360 zoom), a higher resolution LCD screen, 1080p HD video (rather than 720p HD) and a new 12.5MP back illuminated sensor. However I'll talk about the HZ30W here since that's the one I have and it's still available from a few places and at an even lower price than I paid for it!

Samsung HZ30W Specifications

Samsung HZ30W

The Samsung HZ30W has a fairly conventional P&S digicam control layout. Theere's a main mode control dial on the top of the camera, along with the power button, the shutter release and the zoom control.

Samsung HZ30W with lens fully zoomed out (360mm equivalent). Lens retracts into body when power is off

On the back of the camera is the 3" LCD screen, a video start/stop button (red) and buttons for playback, and displaying menus and information. There's a 4 way controller which can either be used to scroll through menus and select options or select display information, flash mode, focus mode or drive modes.

The main complaint I have about the buttons is that they are identified only by raised symbols on them. With the buttons being small and having a shiny chrome finish, it can sometimes be a little difficult to identify what does what while learning how to use the camera.

I'm not going to give a detailed review of operation other than to say that overall I've been very pleased with it. The interface for getting to manual, aperture priority and shutter priority is a little clunky and changing apertures and shutter speeds needs several button pushes, but all the functions are there if you need them. The lens has a very useful range and the wide end being 24mm rather than the 28mm (or even 35mm) found on some similar cameras does make a significant difference. The optical stabilization system works well enabling the effective use of the full zoom (360mm) despite the fairly small f5.8 aperture without needing a tripod to hold the camera steady.

As with most P&S digicams, the lower the ISO you shoot at, the better the image quality. It's excellent at ISO 80 and 100, still good at ISO 200 and 400, acceptable at ISO 800, but above that the increased noise and the effects of noise reduction become quite visible. At ISO 3200 the image suffers significantly, though for small prints and web use it's still acceptable. Better lower quality images at ISO 3200 than no images at all!

Here's a shot taken at ISO 80, 100mm (equivalent) zoom, f6.3 @ 1/350s

Below are 100% crops from two sections of the image

At ISO 400 the image is still pretty good, though there is more noise as shown below. Shot at ISO 400. 240mm focal length, 1/20s @ f5.0 (handheld)

And here's a 100% crop from that image

Finally here's a shot at ISO 3200. It looks pretty good as a web image and it's capable of making a nice 6"x4" print.

However if you look closely, as in the 100% crop below, you can see the effects of noise and noise reduction lead to a blurring of detail. This is exactly what you'd expect from a small sensor P&S digicam, since the small size of the pixels inevitably give rise to higher noise at higher ISO settings.

Conclusions

As a small, light, inexpensive and versatile camera, I like the Samsung HZ30W. I can slip it into my pocket and carry it anywhere, it has a true wideangle 24mm coverage lens and if I need the reach I can zoom out all the way to 360mm for those elusive wildlife shots! Most of the time I leave it in Program mode and let the camera decide on ISO, shutter speed and aperture, but I can override any of those auto decisions if I have a need to. Image quality at ISO 80/100 is excellent, so if I want the best possible images and the light isn't bright I'll take along a small tripod and select a low ISO setting. The image stabilization is good, but there's nothing as good as a tripod and with such a small and light camera even the smallest and lightest of tripods work just fine.

I'd cite a somewhat convoluted menu path to some functions and lack of highly legible labels for the buttons as downsides, but they're really not major points against the camera since many P&S digicams share similar issues. I can't really cite loss of image quality at high ISO settings as a problem either since again that's something that all small sensor digicams share. It doesn't have a RAW image mode, but then again few P&S digicams do. Overall I'm pretty happy with the Samsung HZ30W, especially for the price I paid for it.

Where to Buy

As I mentioned earlier, the Samsung HZ30W has been discontinued, so it's not so easy to find new. However they are available as factory refurbished models and the best place to locate one is probably on eBay. Try this link:

Samsung HZ30W on eBay

The new and improved model, the WB750 is available new. Alternatives cameras with similar capabilities would include models such as the Canon Powershot SX210 IS, the Canon PowerShot SX230HS and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10