Samsung NV40

The Samsung NV40 is the new headline model in Samsung's now extensive range of New Vision (NV) branded compact digital cameras. It actually offers less megapixels than its predecessor, the NV20, which is a rather strange but refreshing approach. The 10 megapixel NV40 has the same 3x zoom lens equivalent to 34-102mm, but now additionally includes true optical image stabilisation as well as a digital implementation. A 2.5 inch LCD screen, Face Detection mode, a Manual mode for the more experienced photographer, choice of 8 different Photo Styles and a new Auto Contrast Balance function complete the headline specifications.

On paper the Samsung NV40 looks very similar to a lot of other cameras on the market, but look at the back and you’ll instantly notice that it has a markedly different user interface to most digicams. The NV40 employs a touch-sensitive smart button system to make its menu system more accessible. The 2.5 inch LCD screen is surrounded by a vertical row of 6 square buttons on the right and 7 buttons on the bottom. Only one button is labelled, the OIS/Back button, and there's also an additional Play button. The rocker-style zoom lever becomes the zoom button when viewing images that you have taken, whilst the metal camera strap eyelet cleverly doubles up as a convenient place to hold the camera with your right thumb.

So what do all those unlabelled buttons actually do? Samsung refer to them as Smart buttons, briefly explaining in the User Guide that they are "used for shifting the menu cursor to select or for confirming the selected menu". Not a great explanation! The 13 buttons effectively replace the conventional main menu system that most cameras have with a context-sensitive system that is always shown on-screen. Depending on which shooting mode is currently selected, each button corresponds to a specific option, for example auto-focus mode, which is represented by an icon on the LCD screen. You simply press the corresponding vertical or horizontal button to display and select the sub-options for that function. You can also scroll through the options by moving your thumb up or down, left or right across the touch-sensitive buttons. Initially I found the touch sensitive smart button system to be more revolutionary than effective, but once I'd discovered the Hide option and used it for a while, it became a lot more intuitive. It's a brave step by Samsung as the unconventional look and feel may put casual buyers off, but on the whole it's also a great idea that works well in practice.

The unusual user interface is undoubtedly the major selling point of the NV40, but there are a few others worth mentioning. Mechanical optical stabilization is a very welcome addition, even though the NV40 only has a standard 3x zoom lens. It can be used in conjunction with the digital stabilizer in the Dual shooting mode, or by activating it in any other shooting mode, which we’d recommend as it produces good results without having to increase the ISO speed. The new Photo Style dial on top of the camera provides direct access to 7 different colour effects (Soft, Vivid, Forest, Retro, Cool, Calm, Classic), all previewable via the LCD screen. In addition the hue, curve, contrast and sharpness of each effect can be changed to suit your tastes.

Serious photographers will welcome the Manual mode, which gives you full control over both aperture and shutter speed. When you half-press the shutter button, the camera tells you how under- or over- exposed the resulting image will be based on the current shutter speed and aperture by showing the Exposure Compensation symbol and a plus or minus value, with values greater than +-2 shown in red. It's a simple system that works quite well, although there are a couple of notable drawbacks. Firstly, it's tricky to use the touch sensitive user interface to quickly and accurately select a shutter speed. More importantly, only two aperture values are available, for example f/2.8 and f/7.0 when the lens is set to wide-angle, which perhaps explains why there is no aperture-priority mode.

So far, so good for the Samsung NV40, but how does its image quality measure up? Unfortunately not as well as the feature set or innovative interface. The Samsung NV20's main drawback is noise, with the relatively slow speed of ISO 200 suffering particularly in shadow areas. The noise gets progressively worse as you go from ISO 200 to ISO 400 and finally the unusable ISO 800 and 1600 settings. The Samsung NV20 didn't handle chromatic aberrations very well either, with purple fringing effects appearing in high contrast situations. Macro performance is average, allowing you to focus as close as 5cms away from the subject at the wide-angle lens setting. On a more positive note, the 10 megapixel images were sharp straight out of the camera at the default setting of Normal, colour and white balance were accurate in most situations, and the amount of dynamic range on offer was also impressive.

ltimately the innovative user interface, great build quality and sensible feature list can’t make up for the NV40’s relatively average image quality and high price-tag.