point & shoot baby

Capture Your Life Like Never Before - the tagline for my new camera the Samsung WB500. Christopher bought it for me for Christmas. Thanks so much =] As previously posted on my Christmas list, I wanted a camera: the Canon IXUS 95 IS in orange to be exact (because it was orange). After looking around for said orange camera and finding none, I went and searched for another: the Canon IXUS 200 IS in all its gold and black touch screen glory. Alas, another one that I could not find anywhere. But after watching Avatar in 3D (great film btw guys, totally recommend that you watch it), Chris took me camera shopping. After some time, I tried to find another camera that I liked the look and feel of and came down to two Samsungs: the WB500 and the DualView TL220.

Out of the box with the shutter closed

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS.

Samsung WB500	Samsung DualView TL220
10.2MP 2.7" screen 10x optical zoom Captures HD video 24mm lens MMC/SD/SDHC external memory	12MP 3.5" touch screen 4.6x optical zoom Captures HD video 27mm lens MicroSD/SDHC external memory Self-portrait screen

Awake & fully operational. Look at the ultra wide lens <3

APPEARANCE.

So at first, Chris and I looked at the WB500 and thought whoa! ultra massive lens, and we kinda favoured the TL220 more because the lens didn't dominate the front facade of the camera. It looked a tad bit intimidating, and bulkier. However, upon holding them both and trying them out I found myself warming to the WB500 despite the lower MP (which does not necessarily mean better picture quality), smaller screen and the lack of haptic controls. It was easy to hold because of the chunkiness, it felt comfortable and stable in my awkward hands. The WB500's surface however was much better in my opinion, the TL220's casing was smudgy and retained too many fingerprints for my liking. The touch screen of the TL220 was impressive though, it was responsive and very bright, and the front screen was helpful to aim self-portraits.

PICTURE QUALITY.

I had previously looked up reviews on the TL220 and TL225, and the ones I read said something about the lacklusture picture quality. I tried both of them out in store and the WB500's picture quality looked great. I much preferred how whites turned out on the WB500 to the TL220 - the whites were far to bright on the TL220 in my opinion.

SELLING POINTS.

The TL220's key selling points for me were the touch screen and the front screen for self portraits, whilst the WB500 made me fall in love with its ultra awesome zoom capability, lens size and the way it felt in my hands. Practicality won in the end - I do adore touch screens, but the zoom was just so much more appealing.

The full extent of the zoom

So I brought the WB500 home with me, let it charge up and then began my exploration of the different settings and features of the camera. I found my two favourite settings: manual and beauty shot. Manual lets you have control of most elements of the shot which is great because I like my photos to look uniform. Beauty shot, with the right amount of tweaking makes your skin look ultra smooth, your skin tone even and lighter if you want. A definite must.

I am still learning how to use all of its features right now, but I am enjoying it. I have still yet to name my Zune - so I better hurry up, because this baby needs a name too.

PS. Thankyou Chris =]