Samsung Smart Camera WB200F – A Newbie’s Thoughts


[dropcap style=’default’]I[/dropcap] am no expert in photography, I only shot photos with my smartphones, and most of them can be found in my Instagram profile. I have taken photos of various events I took part in, and they are stored safely in my external HDD. I am very sure that no one would find them “artistic”. 🙂

We’re getting ready for the annual trip of our office, and one of my colleagues – called Sandun, who is going to start his own websites named http://runtimehint.com/. Good luck with your website mate! 🙂 – who too didn’t own a camera yet, suggested me that we should buy cameras, so that we can take better photos at our trip, rather than with our smartphones like we did last time. We searched for local electronic stores for a good one, and “Samsung Smart Camera WB200F” looked like a good deal. So we went to Panadura branch of Singer Mega and bought two cameras with 12 months installment payments on my HNB Credit Card.

Samsung Smart Camera WB200F

This is my first camera, but I have used and shooted with several cameras of my friends. So catching up with the device was easy, and the “tool tip” function of this camera made it easier to understand something that was rather less intuitive.

This camera can produce 14MP photos, and can zoom up to 18X in optical zooming mode and from there digital zooming up to 36X.

One of the main marketing points of this device – and the “Smart Camera” line, I assume – is this camera’s ability to connect to WiFi network. After connecting, you can transfer your photos wirelessly to a computer in the same network, or you can control the camera from your smartphone. You also get the ability to directly upload your photos to Facebook and other social networks. I tried doing so few times, but it failed. I am not sure whether it is a fault in the camera or my WiFi network.

The biggest downside I found in the photos taken from this camera, is that it doesn’t display edges of objects sharp enough. Edges are always blurred. You can reduce the blurriness if you reduced the number of Mega Pixels, but I don’t think that’s a good trade off because you won’t notice the blurriness unless you zoom your images to their exact size. Photos you take in 14 MP mode is too big to be displayed in actual size in most monitors, and you can’t notice the blurriness there.

Some Photos taken with Samsung Smart Camera WB200F

Photo taken with Samsung Smart Camera WB200F.

Photo taken with Samsung Smart Camera WB200F.

Photo taken with Samsung Smart Camera WB200F.

Photo taken with Samsung Smart Camera WB200F.

Photo taken with Samsung Smart Camera WB200F.

Photo taken with Samsung Smart Camera WB200F.

Photo taken with Samsung Smart Camera WB200F.

Photo taken with Samsung Smart Camera WB200F.

Taking Pictures.

Samsung Smart Camera WB200F offers features to take pictures in various modes:

  • Smart Auto.
  • Program.
  • ASM
  • Smart
  • Panorama

In “Smart Auto”, the camera decides and does everything for you. Only thing you have to do is “point and shoot”. In this mode camera calculates lighting conditions and automatically adjust aperture and shutter speed to best match the environment.

In “Program”, you have the ability to decide the Exposure Value (EV), and the camera does the rest of the work.

In “ASM”, you can either manually adjust aperture (“A”) and shutter speed automatically changes to match that, or manually adjust shutter speed (“S”) and aperture adjusts to match that, or you can manually (“M”) adjust both of them. This mode allows your inner artistic photographer to work his magic.

“Smart” mode has some presets such as “Beauty Face”, “Landscape”, and “Macro” so that the camera adjust its settings to best match the seleted situation.

Last one is a surprise, “Panorama” mode can take… panoramic pictures. 😛

The camera also offers options for various fun applications of photos like “Magic Frame” and “Split Shot”, which lets you take photo inside photo and take two photos half by half. Just fun stuff, no real value.

Final Thoughts

Samsung Smart Camera WB200F is a good point-and-shoot device to capture your life events. I’d recommend this to anyone, also mentioning the blurriness issue.

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55 responses to “Samsung Smart Camera WB200F – A Newbie’s Thoughts”

  1. Awesome pics. Thanks for the honest review. I saw this camera online and thought it was interesting but didnt have anything to base my thoughts on. This review was so helpful and informative.

  2. It’s crazy how for technology has come in the last 20 years i remember when i was 3 and i got my first computer and i had to type dos for it to boot up now computers and cameras are millions of times faster and more powerful cant wait to see what will come out in the next 20 years.

  3. It looks like a terrific camera, but I’m curious what you will use it for? I don’t have a camera this fancy, but my Canon Digital Elph has been sitting in drawer ever since the first iPhone. Thanks for the post. I can see you are able to take some great photos with this camera!

    • I am glad you liked my photos Terri. Yeah, my smartphone is more than enough to take good photos. But I can’t rely on it when I have to take photos in a party or a trip, because it’s battery is more likely to drain out before the event is over. So I have the need of a dedicated photo shooter. 🙂

  4. Samsung is one of my favorite brands!My father and my son also use Samsung appliances and gadgets! Still, I preffer Nokia 1200 which offers 41-megapixel PureView camera with Carl Zeiss lens technology.

  5. Hi Supun,

    I am using Samsung smart phone and love it so far. If I am not mistaken, your camera is powered by Android as well, right? i.e. Similar to a smart phone that are able to download apps and access to web too 🙂

    By the way, the quality of the photo is really top notch!

    Cheers,
    Ming

        • Hehe, yeah, with the plethora of devices manufactured by Samsung, it is easier to mistake one for another. Smart features in this particular device includes controlling (remote view finding and copying photos from camera to phone over WiFi) the camera through “Samsung Smart Camera App” installed in any Android device, auto back up to PC (only in Windows), sending emails with photos attached from camera, and uploading photos and videos directly to Facebook, Picasa, YouTube, and Skydrive.

          Although not running Android, this is smart enough. LOL.

  6. The writing was solid, concise, concentrated and straight to the point without feeling rushed…I liked that, but even better those pictures really helped to tie everything together; although I’ve gotta admit those spider pictures made me jump a little 😛

  7. I never really had much to do with photography but even this has me stimulated. I honestly never reall compared or saw a difference in cameras :L i feel like an idiot. But still great post! i’d love to read some more

  8. Great looking Camera, though i don’t have one of those. But yes, i am using a Samsung galaxy Phone, and the camera, is class, unlike others, i have not seen anything like that in any other. So keeping that in mind, i think the camera you have depicted here, is also, one of its kind, since the picture quality shown up, is fantastic and mind blowing. Thanks for sharing

  9. It’s clear we’re headed for an era of increased merging of photography with social networks and online storage.

  10. Hello. I just received this camera as a Christmas gift.
    I’ve been successful in emailing photos on the camera, but I can’t get it to send the photos to my PC or laptop either, and I have the software installed on both. Have you figured that out? If so, I’d love to hear about it. I feel as though there is some setting I’m missing.

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