- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 6 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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4.5 stars
"Great camera when price is taken into account"
Pros: Value, size, weight, speed of operation, quality and picture
Cons: high (1600 & 3200) ISOs are noisy, silly price for case, low qdos for Samsung name on SLR (will change over time)
Summary: I happened to pick this up in a dual lens kit with free goodie bag at an offer price. I think its due to Samsung having difficulty pushing the brand. However its a bargain. You can set/change virtually everything. The buttons and quick presses are well thought through. Noobies can put it on auto and get far better pictures then compacts, expert amateurs can tweak everything they need.
For those interested its actually a rebadged Pentax *ist DS2. Samsung have mucked around with the process software a bit and unfortunately have screwed up the 1600 and 3200 iso settings. But 800 and below are identical to the Pentax and it takes all lenses/accessories. Its 6m pixels which are fine for me. Believe me when I tell you that a 6mp DSLR will shoot far better pictures then a 8mp or 10mp Compact. Also the raw files are manageable at 10-11 mbytes. One thing that struck me about this camera is the speed. Focusing is good but average in the DSLR world, however picture taking and power up is extrememly rapid.
If you want a good value, light DSLR which give you quality and potential and were considering a high-end Compact, this is a much better bet. If you want the best picture quality with levels of hugh functionality you will need to look at a Canon 30 or Nikon 200 or better. If you want something tiny and just to do snaps then get a small compact.
In its current discount form this camera blows away the top of the compact sector. This won't last as the Samsung brand name will build along with the price!
Samsung GX-1S:
