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Samsung NV7 Review
Review Date: November 22nd 2006
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using
the 7 megapixel Super Fine mode, which gives an average image
size of around 3.5Mb.
Noise
There are 5 ISO settings available on the Samsung NV7 which
you can select at any time if the camera is in the normal
shooting mode. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise
levels for each ISO setting:
The Samsung NV7 is a very noisy camera, with some noise
apparent even at the slowest setting of ISO 100. There is
even more noise and colour artifacts at ISO 200, and by ISO
400 it is very obvious indeed. Both ISO 800 and ISO 1000 are
virtually unusable.
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 of Normal. You can change
the in-camera sharpening level to one of the preset levels
(Soft, Normal or Vivid) if you don't like the default look.
File Quality
The Samsung NV7 has 3 different image quality settings available,
with Super 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.
Chromatic Aberrations
The Samsung NV7 dealt very well with chromatic aberrations
during the review. Limited purple fringing was present around
the edges of objects in high-contrast situations, particularly
at the edges of the frame, as shown in the examples below.
Macro
The Samsung NV7 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.
Flash
The flash settings on the Samsung NV7 are Auto, Red Eye,
Fill In, Slow Sync and Off. These shots of a magnolia coloured
wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
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Auto Flash - Telephoto (270mm) |
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And here are some shots of yours truly. As you can see, both
the Auto setting and the Red Eye option caused a tiny amount
of red-eye.
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Auto (100% Crop) |
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Flash - Red-Eye Reduction (100%
Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Samsung NV7's maximum shutter speed is 15 seconds, which
is good news if you're seriously interested in night photography.
The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 10 seconds,
aperture of f/10.1 at ISO 100. I've included a 100% crop of
the image to show what the quality is like, which as you can
see is quite noisy.
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Night Shot (100% Crop) |
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Optical Image Stabilisation
The Samsung NV7 has an optical image stabilisation system,
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 lens set to the same focal
length, with the ISO speed set to 100. The first shot was
taken with optical image stabilisation turned off, the second
with it turned on. Here is a 100% crop of the image 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.
Note that optical image stabilisation is set to off
whenever the camera is powered on (which cannot be changed),
an annoying design choice given the usefulness of this feature.
Advanced Shake Reduction
The Samsung NV7 also has an Advanced Shake Reduction shooting
mode, which again 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 lens set
to the same focal length, with the ISO speed set to 100. The
first shot was taken with the camera set to Program mode,
the second with it set to the ASR mode. Here is a 100% crop
of the image to show the results.
As you can see, with Advanced Shake Reduction on, the images
are definitely sharper than with it turned off. The Samsung
NV7 appears to increase the ISO speed if neccessary and perform
some extra in-camera processing (it takes a few seconds for
the image to be processed). However, I found that it only
ever increased the ISO to 200, even when the shutter speed
was greater than 1 second, resulting in blurred results. Also,
if you are more experienced, you will know how and when to
change the ISO speed yourself to compensate for poor lighting.
Therefore the Advanced Shake Reduction mode seems to be targetted
more at beginners, and is only genuinely useful in certain
situations.
Overall Image Quality
The Samsung NV7's image quality is below average. The Samsung
NV7 handled chromatic aberrations well, with only limited
purple fringing effects appearing in very high contrast situations.
The 7 megapixel images were on the soft side straight out
of the camera at the default setting of Normal, but you can
increase the in-camera sharpening level if you wish. The night
photograph was OK, with the maximum shutter speed of 15 seconds
allowing you to capture enough light for most situations,
but the resulting images were quite noisy. Macro performance
is excellent, allowing you to focus as close as 1cm away from
the subject at the wide-angle lens setting in the super-macro
mode. The pop-up flash unit worked well indoors, with a tiny
amount of red-eye and good overall exposure. The Advanced
Shake Reduction shooting mode unfortunately seems to be little
more than an automated way of increasing the ISO speed, but
the true optical image stabilisation system worked very well,
allowing you to hand-hold the camera at slower shutter speeds
than normal. The Samsung NV7's main drawback in terms of image
quality is noise, with even the slowest speed of ISO 100 showing
some noise, particularly in shadow areas. The noise gets progressively
worse as you go from ISO 100 to ISO 400 and finally the virtually
unusable ISO 800 and 1000 settings.
 PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Samsung NV7 have been
submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.
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