Samsung WB750 Review

4.5

December 8, 2011 | Mark Goldstein |

Buy a WB750 Black Digital Camera (12.5 MP, 18x Opt, SD/SDHC/SDXC Card Slot)

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12.5 megapixel SuperFine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 4.5Mb.

The Samsung WB650 produced images of good quality during the review period. Noise is the main problem, being obvious at the relatively slow speed of ISO 400 along with some colour desaturation, and then becoming progressively worse at the faster settings of 800 and 1600. ISO 3200 is really only to be used as a last resort.

Chromatic aberrations were well controlled, with some limited purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations. The 12.5 megapixel images were a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpen setting and require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you can change the in-camera sharpening level.

Macro performance is good, allowing you to focus as close as 5cms away from the subject. Commendably barrel distortion is well controlled even at the 24mm wide-angle focal length. The built-in flash worked fairly well indoors, with no red-eye and adequate overall exposure.

The image stabilisation system works very well when hand-holding the WB750 in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range. The maximum shutter speed of 16 seconds allows the camera to capture enough light for most after-dark situations.

Noise

There are 6 ISO settings available on the Samsung WB750. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.

ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)


ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)


ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The Samsung WB750's 18x zoom lens offers a very versatile focal range, as illustrated by these examples:

24mm	432mm

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 a little soft and ideally 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 WB750 has 3 different image quality settings available, with SuperFine 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.

14M SuperFine (4.70Mb) (100% Crop)	14M Fine (2.84Mb) (100% Crop)


14M Normal (1.84Mb) (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Samsung WB750 handled chromatic aberrations 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 WB750 offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 5cms 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 WB750 are Smart Flash / Flash Off / Auto / Auto & Red-eye reduction / Fill-in flash / Slow sync / Red-eye fix. Somewhat strangely the full range of options aren't available in the ASM modes. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (24mm)	Auto - Wide Angle (24mm)


Flash Off - Telephoto (432mm)	Auto - Telephoto (432mm)

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

Auto	Auto (100% Crop)


Red-eye fix	Red-eye fix (100% Crop)

Night Shot

The Samsung WB750's maximum shutter speed is 16 seconds in the Night scene mode, which is excellent news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 6 seconds at ISO 100.

Night Shot	Night Shot (100% Crop)

HDR

The WB750's HDR scene mode combines two differently exposed images to increase the detail in the highlight and shadow areas.

Off	On

Live Panorama

The WB750's Live Panorama mode shoots either a 2D or 3D panorama image by sweeping the camera either horizontally or vertically.

Smart Filters

The Samsung WB750 offers an extensive range of Smart Filter effects to help spice up your images.

Normal	Miniature


Vignetting	Soft Focus


Old Film	Half Tone Dot


Sketch	Fish-eye


Classic	Retro


Oil Painting	Cartoon


Ink Painting	Cross Filter