By now, I’m sure most of you have a smart phone that takes pretty decent pictures. I don’t even take my digital camera out with me anymore because my Samsung Galaxy S III takes great pictures, so why carry two devices. However, after receiving the Samsung WB850F, which sure came in handy during the holidays, I have started using my phone’s camera less and less.
The Samsung WB850F 16.2 megapixels, smart camera has excellent Wi-Fi capabilities to back up your photos to your computer, send pictures to your phone and share them via Facebook, e-mail plus more. You can also upload 1920 x 1080P HD movies to YouTube. The best part of the camera, besides it fitting in your pocket is its 21x optical zoom/23mm wide-angle lens, which is perfect when taking pictures at a fashion show and zooming into the clothes.
With this smart camera you can take panorama, 3D, picture in picture, split shot photos, add frames or artistic brushes to your pictures and upload everything to a cloud service. Other features include dual capture, full manual mode, 3.0-inch AMOLED (VGA Resolution) and GPS with visual map.
The picture quality is very good. However, you need to play around with the camera for awhile before figuring out what setting you need it on since the smart auto option is not always the best shutter speed to use. Plus, the price of the camera is not the greatest either, but if you look around you can find it less than the MSRP: of $379.99.
Some other technical specifications you may want to know about the camera are below:
Sensor
1/2.3″ (Approx. 7.77mm) BSI CMOS
Approx. 16.2 Mega pixels
Approx. 16.8 Mega pixels
Image Stabilization
DAUL IS (Optical + Digital Image Stabilization)
Focusing
TTL Auto Focus (Center AF, Multi AF, Tracking AF, Face Detection AF, Face Recognition AF, Selection AF)* Manual Focus
Normal : 80cm ~ Infinity (Wide), 350cm ~ Infinity (Tele)
Macro : 10 cm ~ 80 cm (Wide), 150 cm ~ 350 cm (Tele)
Auto Macro : 10 cm ~ Infinity (Wide), 150 cm ~ Infinity (Tele)
Manual : 10 cm ~ Infinity (Wide), 150 cm ~ Infinity (Tele)
Exposure
Program AE, Aperture Priority AE, Shutter Priority AE, Manual Exposure
Multi, Spot, Center-weighted, Face Detection AE
±2EV (1/3EV steps)
Lens
Schneider-KREUZNACH 21x Zoom Lens f = 4.1 ~ 86.1mm (35mm film equivalent : 23 ~ 483mm)
F2.8 (W) ~ F5.9 (T)
Still Image mode : 1.0X ~ 4.0X
Play mode : 1.0X ~ 9.4X (depends on image size)
Smart Zoom 1.33X
Display
AMOLED
3.0″(7.62cm)
3″(7.62cm) VGA (640X480) 614k dots (PenTile)
Shutter Speed
Smart Auto : 1/8 ~ 1/2,000 sec.
Program : 1 ~ 1/2,000 sec., Night : 8 ~ 1/2,000 sec.
Manual : 16 ~ 1/2,000 sec.
Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Pinstripe Magazine. Creative thinker and menswear designer who has been writing articles dedicated to men’s fashion, lifestyle, luxury items, home design, gear, grooming and gadgets since 1998. For info on PinstripeMag, any editorial needs or to contact me please email at marv@pinstripemag.com.
