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| All | |
| $350.00 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $398.55 | New | |
| Used | |
| $350.00 | Used
- VeryGood | |
| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review:
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 Fun little camera, that's about it Jan 30, 2009
I have had this camera for about a year now, and can say I do enjoy using it. The menu system is intuitive, smart, and quick--exactly what I expect from a solid maker like Samsung. This menu system is a great example of what a relatively new (and tech-friendly) company to the photo game brings to the camera market. The design is beautiful and the vintage rangefinder-esque, slim body is what drew me to this and ultimately led me to purchasing it.
Now lets get to arguably the most important part: picturetaking. If all you do is shoot simple portraits and landscapes, then you probably will be happy with this. If you want a little more picturetaking "chops", you should probably look elsewhere. I am fine with its limited capabilities, due to the fact that I use it 90% of the time simply for snapshots. And I have since bought a Nikon D300--so I don't need a big-performing point-and-shoot.
I have tried using the NV15 on active subjects, with mixed results at best. It's AF (autofocus) is slow, and optical quality in low light without flash (@ higher ISO) is pretty poor. Its image stabilization is also so-so, compared to offerings by the established camera makers. And to boot, I dropped the camera from a very small height, and the topline of the camera shows a large crease through it. The stainless steel that comprises the top piece is, in my opinion, too thin and a poor choice of material. Samsung could remedy this by employing a piece of lighter and thicker material that has less malleability, i.e. aluminum or magnesium. I don't expect that camera makers design this class of camera for particularly rugged durability (unless they are going specifically after this niche, like Olympus has) so I'm not too bummed about the dent.
All in all, I like the camera fine and I suppose from an aesthetics perspective, the design and the menu selection system alone make it worth the purchase--barely. If I had to do it over again a year ago, knowing what I know now, I would have bought something like the Canon sd750. On the market now are at least a dozen cameras that would be great alternatives and are feature-packed. In the past year, I hope that Samsung has improved their picturetaking features from the NV15 such as AF, higher ISO image quality and image stabilization. Because if those qualities are paired with Samsung's current innovative features, they could become an elite player in the market.
 Excellent camera, loads of features!! Jan 26, 2009
This is my third camera like this. I bought one for each of my children and was always envious of the them, especially the close up capabillities. I wanted a camera to photograph close up pictures of some coins I want to catalog and this camera does a wonderful job. Using the higher resolutions allows me to zoom in on a particular feature of the coin to better show detail and/or mint errors. Great camera, easy to use and very easy to carry around. The one drawback is that the flash tends to pop open so if you carry it around much use a well fitted case so you don't damage the flash should it pop up.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Disappointed Sep 24, 2008
First, I'll say that there are some things I really liked about this camera after using it for the past six months. The retro design makes it unique among digital cameras, and is very attractive if that's your style. The low price for a 10 megapixel camera is unrivaled as well, and was one of the main draws for me for this camera. It holds battery well, so I didn't have to recharge as often as some other cameras I've had. (It has an internal battery, so requires computer connection and cable to charge.)
Now, the downsides. It is very, very slow to take and process pictures: Expect to wait several seconds after snapping a shot before you're able to preview the picture. That doesn't sound like a lot, but for a camera that has problematic settings and needs more attention than the average point-and-shoot (see below), I found I was missing shots that even a disposable film camera could have snapped more easily and quickly.
In automatic mode, I rarely came out with focused pictures; it usually required playing around with various scenes and settings, even in full daylight. The on-screen functions are confusing, which may reflect my own personal preference, but I never really got used to them. I don't consider this camera a simple point-and-shoot, so because it requires heavy adjustments on the settings, I would have hoped them to be a little more user friendly. There are a series of buttons along the bottom and right side of the screen to scroll through the functions, which I found complicated to navigate -- I was always clicking the wrong functions because it was not clear which button matched up to what.
One of my major complaints is that the structure of the camera itself was, in my opinion, shoddy. I took very good care of the camera, always stored it in a case and never abused it. However, after less than two months of use, the pop-up flash started acting up. The flash would go off but not pop up sometimes, causing ruined, black pictures when flash was necessary. Not much later it broke completely -- the flash device is up 100% of the time and won't go down unless held there, so while I don't have dark pictures anymore, the flash risks snapping off.
In the end, I gave the camera away and just bought a Nikon S210 to replace it. The price on the new camera is about the same, and although the Nikon is 8 megapixels, it has consistently taken better pictures faster than the Samsung, and thrives in automatic mode.
For a nice looking, attractive camera, go for the Samsung NV15. For quality pictures, steer clear.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Generally happy, but with some concern. Sep 17, 2008
Picture quality is very good, but not excellent. I don't like the pop-up flash. When someone else uses the camera, they tend to think it can be opened manually -- a logical conclusion. Fortunately, I've been able to give them advanced warning. If that isn't possible in the future, someone may innocently break the camera by opening the flash. Also, dust seems to be collecting under the LCD cover. That would be OK, if there were a way the user could clean it out.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Great camera, great price, great service Aug 28, 2008
Everything I expected and more. This camera is sexy. Easy to use, fast from power to click, long battery life.
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