Samsung WB5000 Review

February 8, 2010 | Mark Goldstein | Rating star Rating star Rating star Half rating star

Introduction

The Samsung WB5000 (also known as the HZ25W) is Samsung's first entry into the competitive super-zoom compact camera market. Offering a 24x optical zoom lens with a 26mm wide angle setting (26-624mm focal range), the WB5000 can capture everything from wide-angle landscapes to close-up nature shots. The 12.5 megapixel WB5000 can also record HD video in 1280x720p resolution at 30 frames per second using the latest H.264 format. For more advanced users, the WB5000 offers RAW shooting plus aperture priority, shutter priority as well as full manual mode. Available in black, the Samsung WB5000 / HZ25W costs £349 in the UK and $399.99 in the US.

Ease of Use

The Samsung WB5000 is commendably light and compact for a camera with such a big zoom lens, although its all-plastic construction doesn't feel as robust as rivals like the Panasonic FZ series or Olympus SP models. Still, what you lose in strength you gain in portability, with the WB5000 easily slipping unnoticed inside a small shoulder bag. That 24x optical zoom lens extends to provide a 26-624mm focal length, versatile enough for almost any photographic subject that you care to think of. There have been a number of recently announced models with 30x lenses, but in our view 24x is quite enough thank you, especially as it's often difficult to get sharp shots at the telephoto lens even despite being able to employ the effective built-in anti-shake system. The WB5000's 'Dual IS' mode offers both optical image stabilization and the ISO boosting digital variety, and in terms of light sensitivity there's a very respectable range stretching from ISO 64 up to ISO 6400. We'll of course be examining how well it does at its higher settings in the 'Image Quality' section of our review.

As expected, the WB5000's large lens dominates proceedings at the front of the camera. As the lens takes up the full height of the face plate, the small porthole-style window for the AF assist/self timer lamp is shifted over to the left out of harm's way. Above the lens is the built-in pop-up flash, activated by a button on the right of the lens barrel. The WB5000 has a fairly chunky handgrip that's covered in a textured rubber to aid handling, while there's a small thumb-rest on the rear coated in the same material. This combination makes the camera more comfortable to hold, and steadier too when shooting handheld at the extremities of the zoom.

Looking down on the WB5000's top plate we find the afore-mentioned flash, a shooting mode dial, small power button, and a rather spongy shutter button encircled by an equally unresponsive zoom lever. It's fair to say that I wasn't particularly enamoured with the performance of these two important controls. The WB5000 has a rather plasticky rocker switch for operating the zoom which takes around three seconds to travel from maximum wide angle to full telephoto - which is pretty quick for its focal range. We did find on occasion that said zoom took a moment or two to 'wake up' - and that its transitions are sound-tracked by a low mechanical blur; but it's low enough to avoid being off-putting.

Once you've zoomed in and got your composition how you want, with a half press of the shutter button the Samsung WB5000 is commendably swift to determine focus and exposure, the AF point highlighted in green and an operational 'beep' confirming you're good to go on and take the shot. With little noticeable shutter lag, at highest resolution setting a JPEG image is committed to memory in just under two seconds, the screen blanking out briefly, which isn't bad at all.

Samsung WB5000 Samsung WB5000
Front Rear

The familiar bottle-top style dial which provides quick access to the shooting modes is much better, offering a positive action that clicks into place and stays there. This feels firm to the touch and well implemented, in that the user can't accidentally slip from one setting to the other. Ranged around the dial, we start with Samsung's own 'Smart Auto' mode. As it sounds, this is the manufacturer's equivalent of the intelligent auto modes on competitors from Panasonic (its Lumix range), Sony (the latest T-series Cyber-shots) and Canon (Digital IXUS family). Namely you point the WB5000 at a scene or subject that hopefully the camera recognizes, automatically adjusting its settings to deliver optimum results. This means that it's not necessary for the user to manually delve into scene modes to call up the likes of 'landscape' or 'flower'; the WB5000's operation is merely a case of point and shoot. Also of interest is the WB5000's Smart Face Recognition technology, which can learn up to 20 of your friends and family and automatically focus on them first, making sure that the most important subjects are always pin-sharp. In addition you can also browse more efficiently through your images by the people that you’ve registered with the camera.

Incidentally, as you turn the shooting dial, a virtual version with the same eight settings rotates in tandem on screen, highlighting and explaining each one as you select it. Continuing around the dial we discover the Movie mode (largely redundant given the one-touch movie button on the back). Although it hasn't got an 'HD' suffix in the model name, as indicated in our introduction the Samsung WB5000 nevertheless offers High Definition video clips, though at 1280x720 pixels rather than full HD 1920x1080. The adjacent setting on the dial is for video mode. You get the opportunity to either shoot at top resolution, a less memory hungry 640x480 pixels, or 320x240 pixels; choice dependant on intended use (whether playing back on an HDTV or merely posting on the Internet). Maximum frame rate at 1280x720 resolution is 30fps, with a reduced 15fps rate also selectable with a press of the button marked 'Fn' (or 'Function') on the camera back. Should users however plump for the very lowest picture quality, a faster frame rate of 60fps is selectable.

The full extent of the optical zoom is thankfully accessible when shooting movies, and there's also a very handy one-touch record button on the rear of the camera. The WB5000 offers stereo sound for better audio than competing models, while the H.264 format provides longer recording times. The only thing missing from the WB5000's comprehensive array of video options is the ability to pause recording mid-flow and then restart it, a useful function that's offered by several other Samsung compacts.

Samsung WB5000 Samsung WB5000
Side Front

Next in line on the Mode dial is the dedicated Scene mode, with the various settings helpfully displayed on the LCD screen as icons with accompanying explanatory text. Along with 'Night', 'Portrait', 'Children' and 'Landscape' we get 'Text', 'Sunset', 'Dawn' and 'Backlight', with 11 choices in all. Samsung's 'Beauty Shot' mode is next, useful for both acne-d adolescents and those of us who have over-indulged by automatically retouching out spots and blemishes. The Night mode also finds its way onto the main dial, while the User1 and User2 allow you to customise the WB5000 to a certain extent by saving your key settings.

The final three modes will be of particular interest to more advanced users, with P (Program), A-S (Aperture / Shutter Priority) and Manual forming the creative heart of the WB5000. All three modes allow access to all of the WB5000's key features, while the A-S mode additionally allows you to set either the aperture or shutter speed, and M mode allows you to change both at the same time. The circular control wheel on the rear toggles between the Aperture and Shutter speed by pressing left and right, while spinning it round changes the values - an elegant solution on paper but one that only really works when holding the WB5000 at arm's length, rather than up to your eye. Still, the ability to select from an aperture range of f2.8 - 8 and shutter speeds of 1/2000th - 16 seconds is very welcome on this kind of camera.

Less welcome is the WB5000's shockingly bad RAW file implementation. One of the key attractions of this camera for pro shooters when it was first announced towards the end of 2009, in reality it turns out to a curse in disguise, rather than a blessing. The main problem is the glacial processing speeds, with the WB5000 taking over 10 seconds to save a single RAW image to memory, which means that you can only take advantage of all the benefits that RAW files have to offer if you're shooting non-moving or extremely patient subjects (and if you are very patient too). Selecting the RAW format also inexplicably limits the ISO range to 64-400, with 800-6400 only available for JPEG files, taking away one of the main advantages that RAW files offer. In short, if you're interested in the WB5000 mainly because of its RAW file support, start looking elsewhere now - this camera only really makes sense for JPEG shooters.

Samsung WB5000 Samsung WB5000
Pop-up Flash Top

The rear of the WB5000 is dominated by the large 3-inch LCD screen, which is the main way of composing your images for the majority of users. Disappointingly the screen has an average resolution of 230k dots - we've been rather spoiled by some recent competitors with higher-resolution screens. That said, we didn't have too many problems viewing the WB5000's screen in all but the brightest sunlight conditions.

The second way to compose your images is the electronic viewfinder, which juts out from the rear of the camera and helpfully offers dioptre control for glasses wearers. The EVF button on the rear toggles between this and the LCD screen. The EVF is a little small, grainy and murky, but it does helpfully display an array of shooting information and is useful in really bright conditions. As mentioned above, suing the control wheel to change the aperture / shutter speed is a little tricky while holding the WB5000 up to your eye, but certainly not impossible.

To the right of the LCD screen are the Movie Record and EVF buttons that we've previously discussed, and to the right of them are the small but none-the-less useful AEL (Auto Exposure Lock) and Exposure Compensation buttons, both of which are very useful for obtaining spot-on exposures. Directly underneath the EVF button is a small Menu button, which provides a range of selectable options, the brevity or otherwise of which is dependant on the particular mode the user is in. Let's assume, for example, we're shooting in Program mode. An icon illustrated vertical list provides access to four menus - Functions, Sound, Display and Settings. These include the ability to tweak operational sounds, LCD display, plus access to a setting menu, enabling memory to formatted or previously selected functions reset.

Samsung WB5000 Samsung WB5000
Memory Card Slot Battery Compartment

Underneath the Menu button is a four-way directional control pad / control wheel with an OK button at its centre. This will be familiar to just about anyone who has ever used a digital compact before. It provides a means of selecting flash modes, self timer options, focus / macro mode or changing the on-screen display to show a nine zone compositional grid, all shooting information or just the very basics (i.e. simply the number of shots remaining). In the Manual focus mode the subject is helpfully enlarged and a horizontal distance scale is displayed to aid accurate focusing, although I still found it difficult to regularly achieve pin-point accuracy.

Below the control pad are two buttons. The obvious Play button also doubles up as a means of earmarking selected images for direct printing. The Function button allows quick access to some of the camera's key settings. As expected the amount of information and options accessed via a press of 'Fn' varies dependant on which shooting mode is selected. For example in regular auto mode the user merely has the ability to adjust image size and resolution. Twist the dial around to the program mode however and there's the ability to change the EV, choose metering modes, change from single shot to continuous capture, choose from the range of ISO settings, adjust white balance, set the photo style or turn the ubiquitous face detection mode on or off. Like its rivals, Samsung also allows user access to blink detection and smile shot in this mode. The Function button also handily doubles up as a delete button in playback mode.

There are two controls on the left hand side of the WB5000 (if viewing from the rear), where we find holes for the microphone and an included HDMI port for hooking the camera up to an HDTV. Increasingly common for DSLRs that also shoot movies, it's still a comparative rarity to find such on a digital compact, even if it does shoot HD video. Like the aforementioned remote control, the required HDMI cable is an optional extra though, so bear in mind if you're on a budget. The HDMI port also doubles up as the means of re-charging the camera, with the battery left in the camera itself, either from an electrical socket or or alternatively straight from a USB port connected to your computer. This is fine if you only have one battery, but obviously ties the camera up, so there's little point in buying a spare. There are no controls on the right side.

On the bottom is a centrally located plastic screw thread for attaching a tripod and alongside that a sliding cover for protecting the compartment that jointly houses removable SD or SDHC media plus the provided battery. Battery life is good for approximately 300 shots from a full charge - fine if not incredible. Also in the box is a quick-start guide as a hard copy, the full manual on CD ROM, plus a lens cap and shoulder strap.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12 megapixel JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 5Mb.

The Samsung WB5000 produced images of average quality during the review period. Noise is by far the main problem, being obvious at the relatively slow speed of ISO 100 and then becoming progressively worse at the faster settings of 200 and 400. By ISO 800 the images have become almost unusable, and it's best just to diregard the 1600-6400 settings completely.

Chromatic aberrations were quite well controlled, with some purple fringing effects appearing in high contrast situations. The 12 megapixel images were a little soft straight out of the camera and ideally require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you can increase the in-camera sharpening level.

Macro performance is a standout highlight, allowing you to focus as close as 1cm away from the subject. Barrel distortion at the 26mm wide-angle focal length is obvious in our white wall test shots, although there is a Distortion menu option which partially removes this unwanted effect. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and good overall exposure.

Anti-shake works very well when hand-holding the WB5000 in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of that huge zoom range. The maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds easily allows the camera to capture enough light for most after-dark situations.

The Samsung WB5000 allows you to record RAW files, but it takes around 10 seconds to write a single image to the memory card, and it automatically limits the ISO range to 64-400.

Noise

There are 8 ISO settings available on the Samsung WB5000 for JPEG files, and 4 ISO settings for RAW files. ISO 3200 and 6400 are only available at lower resolutions (5 and 3 megapixels respectively). Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.

JPG RAW

ISO 64 (100% Crop)

ISO 64 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 100 (100% Crop)

ISO 100 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 200 (100% Crop)

ISO 200 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 400 (100% Crop)

ISO 400 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 800 (100% Crop)

 
 
   

ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

 
 
   

ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

 
 
   

ISO 6400 (100% Crop)

 
 

Focal Range

The Samsung WB5000's 24x zoom lens offers an incredibly versatile focal range, as illustrated by these examples:

26mm

624mm

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can also change the in-camera sharpening level.

Original (100% Crop)

Sharpened (100% Crop)

   

File Quality

The Samsung WB5000 has 3 different JPEG image quality settings available, with Fine being the highest quality option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.

12M Super Fine (5.8Mb) (100% Crop) 12M Fine (3.8Mb) (100% Crop)
   
12M Normal (2.5Mb) (100% Crop) 12M RAW (17.3Mb) (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Samsung WB5000 handled chromatic aberrations fairly well during the review, with some purple fringing present around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.

Example 1 (100% Crop)

Example 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Samsung WB5000 offers a Super Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is just 1cm away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.

Macro Shot

100% Crop

Flash

The flash settings on the Samsung WB5000 are Auto, Auto & Red-eye reduction, Fill-in flash, Slow sync, Flash off, Red eye fix. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Off - Wide Angle (26mm)

Fill-in - Wide Angle (26mm)

ISO 64 ISO 64
   

Off - Telephoto (624mm)

Fill-in - Telephoto (624mm)

ISO 64 ISO 64

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Auto or the Red eye fix settings caused any red-eye.

Auto

Auto (100% Crop)
   

Red eye fix

Red eye fix (100% Crop)

Night

The Samsung WB5000's maximum shutter speed is 30 seconds in the Manual and Shutter Priority modes, which is great news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 16 seconds at ISO 64.

Night Shot

100% Crop

Anti Shake

The Samsung WB5000 has an anti-shake mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the same settings. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here are some 100% crops of the images to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are much sharper than with anti shake turned off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length

Anti Shake Off (100% Crop)

Anti Shake On (100% Crop)

1/5th / 26mm
1/4th sec / 128mm

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Samsung WB5000 camera, which were all taken using the 12 megapixel Super Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample RAW Images

The Samsung WB5000 enables users to capture RAW and JPEG format files. We've provided some Samsung RAW (DNG) samples for you to download (thumbnail images shown below are not 100% representative).

Sample Movie & Video

This is a sample movie at the quality setting of 640x480 at 30 frames per second. Please note that this 15 second movie is 17.8Mb in size.

Product Images

Samsung WB5000

Front of the Camera

 
Samsung WB5000

Front of the Camera / Flash Raised

 
Samsung WB5000

Front of the Camera / Lens Extended

 
Samsung WB5000

Isometric View

 
Samsung WB5000

Isometric View

 
Samsung WB5000

Rear of the Camera

 
Samsung WB5000

Rear of the Camera / Turned On

 
Samsung WB5000

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

 
Samsung WB5000

Rear of the Camera / Main Menu

 

Samsung WB5000

Rear of the Camera / Function Menu

 
Samsung WB5000

Top of the Camera

 
Samsung WB5000

Bottom of the Camera

 
Samsung WB5000

Side of the Camera

 
Samsung WB5000

Side of the Camera

 
Samsung WB5000

Front of the Camera

 
Samsung WB5000

Front of the Camera

 
Samsung WB5000

Memory Card Slot

 
Samsung WB5000

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Samsung WB5000 is one of those cameras that turns out to be better on paper than it is in the flesh, offering a compelling list of features that turn out to be rather half-baked. That's not to say that it's a bad camera, particularly for novice users, but more experienced snappers attracted by the manual shooting and RAW mode will be disappointed by the WB5000.

Top of the list of gripes is the excruciatingly slow RAW file processing times - we haven't experienced a wait like this for at least a couple of generations of cameras. 10 seconds or longer is simply too much to bear for everyone except those with the patience of several saints. Add in the inexplicably limited ISO range of 64-400 in RAW mode, and it seems that this feature has been added just to attract the attention of a wider audience.

The WB5000 makes much more sense as a JPEG shooting camera, but sadly even here it doesn't come up to scratch. There's unwanted noise in evidence even at the relatively slow speed of ISO 100, and by 400 and faster the degradation in image quality is plain for all to see. Again, we haven't seen such bad results from a 12 megapixel small-sensor camera for quite a while. In most other regards the WB5000 delivers good if not outstanding results, but the noise is simply too obvious to get away from.

Which leaves us with a well-specced, fairly stylish and light super-zoom camera that unfortunately can't match its main rivals in several fundamental areas. With an RRP of £349 / $399.99, the WB5000 doesn't even have the usual Samsung advantage of being able to undercut the competition financially. Instead you should avoid the WB5000 and take a look at our Main Rivals page for a selection of better alternatives.

3.5 stars

Ratings (out of 5)
Design 4
Features 4.5
Ease-of-use 3.5
Image quality 3
Value for money 3

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Samsung WB5000 from around the web.

reviews.cnet.co.uk »

Chasing a bigger slice of the digital-camera market, Samsung's added a long-range superzoom to its range. But the WB5000 doesn't really add anything to this sector that other makers haven't done already, and it's not the cheapest device of its type, either.
Read the full review »

Specifications

Image sensor Type 1/2.33" (7.83mm) CCD
Effective Pixel Approx. 12.47 Mega-pixel
Total Pixel Approx. 12.70 Mega-pixel
Lens Focal Length Schneider-Kreuznach Lens f = 4.6 ~ 110.4mm (35mm film equivalent: 26 ~ 624mm), 24x Zoom
F No. F 2.8 (W) ~ 5.0 (T)
Digital Zoom Still Image mode: 1x ~ 5x Play mode: 1x ~ 12.5x (depends on image size)
Focusing Type TTL auto focus (Multi AF, Center AF, Face Detection AF, Tracking AF, Selection AF)
Range Normal: 80cm ~ infinity (Wide), 170cm ~ infinity (Tele) Macro:10cm ~ 80cm (Wide), 80cm ~ 150cm (Macro Tele) Auto Macro: 10cm ~ Infinity (Wide), 80cm ~ Infinity (Macro Tele) Super Macro: 1 ~ 10cm Manual Focus: 10cm ~ Infinity
Exposure Compensation ±2EV (1/3EV steps)
Control Program AE
ISO Equivalent Auto, 64, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200 (up tp 5M), 6400 (up to 3M)
Metering Multi, Spot, Center Weighted, Face Detection AE
Flash Modes Auto, Auto & Red-eye reduction, Fill-in flash, Slow sync, Flash off, Red eye fix
Recharging Time Approx. 5 sec.
Range Wide: 0.3m ~ 6.0m, Tele: 0.5m ~ 3.0m (ISO AUTO)
Storage Media Internal Memory: About 20MB External Memory (Optional): SD (up to 4GB guaranteed) SDHC (up to 8GB guaranteed)* Internal memory capacity is subject to change without prior notice.
File format Still Image: RAW (DNG1.1), JPEG (DCF), EXIF 2.21, DPOF 1.1, PictBridge 1.0 Movie Clip: H.264 (AVC) Audio: WAV
Image Size 12M: 4000 x 3000 pixels, 10M P: 3984 x 2656 pixels 9M W: 3968 x 2232 pixels, 8M: 3264 x 2448 pixels 5M: 2592 x 1944 pixels, 3M: 2048 x 1536 pixels 2MW: 1920 x 1080 pixels, 1M: 1024 x 768 pixels
Interface Audio Microphone: StereoInternal Speaker: Mono
Digital output connector USB 2.0
Video Out AV: NTSC, PAL (user selectable)
DC power input 4.4V
Cradle N/A
Physical Specification Dimensions (WxHxD) 116.1 x 82.8 x 91.1mm (excluding protrusions)
Weight 398g (without battery and card)
Operating Temperature 0 ~ 40 °C
Operationg Humidity 5 ~ 85%
Display Type TFT LCD
Feature 3" (7.62cm) 230K
Movie Clip Recording With Audio or without Audio (Max Recording time: 20min in HQ Movie) Size: High Quality-1280 x 720 (30fps & 15fps) Standard Quality-640 x 480 (30fps & 15fps), 320 x 240 (60fps & 30fps) (With 24x Optical Zoom) Setting: Movie Stabilizer, Dynanic Range* Due to the noise while optical zooming, user can select to record sound or not.
Effect Color Style: Normal, Soft, Vivid, Forest, Retro, Cool, Calm, Classic, Negative, Custom
Edit Pause during Playing, Still Image Capture, Time Trimming
Still Image Shooting Mode : Smart Auto, P, M, A-S, USER1, USER2, Scene, Beautyshot, NightScene Recognition : Portrait, Night Portrait, Night, Backlight Portrait, Backlight, Landscape, White, Macro, Macro Text, Tripod, ActionScene : Frame Guide, Portrait, Children, Landscape, Text, Close-up, Sunset, Dawn, Backlight, Fireworks, Beach & SnowContinuous : Single, Continuous, HS Continuous, AEB, Motion CaptureSelf-timer : 2 sec., 10 sec., Double
Effect Color Style : Normal, Soft, Vivid, Forest, Retro, Cool, Calm, Classic, Negative, CustomImage Adjust : Sharpness, Contrast, Saturation (5 steps), Beauty shot, Dynamic Range
Edit Image Edit : Resize, Rotate, TrimmingColor Style : Normal, Soft, Vivid, Forest, Retro, Cool, Calm, Classic, Negative, CustomImage Adjust : Face Retouch, Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Red Eye Fix, ACB
Special Feature • 26mm wide, 24x Zoom Lens with Dual IS (OIS+DIS)
• Scene Recognition - Smart Auto Mode
• Face Recognition
• Perfect Portrait System - Face Recognition, Beauty Shot (Playback Retouch), Face Detection & Self Portrait, Blink Detection & Smile Detection
• High Definition Movie Recording - H.264, 720 (30fps), Stereo Mic.
• Smart Dial UI
• Full maual functions - WB control, MF control, RAW File Format, Etc
• ISO 6400 (3M)
• Function Description
• Frame Guide, Smart Album, Recycle Bin (Only JPEG Format)
• Dynamic Range, ACB
System Requirement in general For Windows PC with processor better than Pentium? 500MHz (Pentiumlll 800MHz recommended) Windows 2000 / XP / Vista 250MB of available hard-disk space (Over 1GB recommend) Minimum 256MB RAM (Over 512MB recommended) USB port CD-ROM drive 1024 x 768 pixels, 16-bit color display compatible monitor (24-bit color display recommended) Microsoft DirectX 9.0c or later
For Macintosh Power Mac G3 or later Mac OS 10.4 or higher Minimum 256MB RAM 110MB of available hard-disk space USB port CD-ROM drive

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