Samsung WB1000

Do analog features belong in a digital world?

You really have to take your hat off to Samsung when it comes to visual design. The first thing that grabs your attention when you see the WB1000 are the retro analog dials. For a camera with such a stylish new look, it seems like a strange addition but some how works beautifully well.

Sturdy construction should be standard for a high-end compact but although the body may look tough it feels a bit flimsy. Overall the buttons feel lose and can be awkward to access quickly. Usb and AV outputs share an uncovered port at the base so will need good looking after to maintain physical connectivity.

Don’t let this immediately put you off though, although it may be slightly different to your standard compact shooter you can easily adapt. Focusing heavily on manual controls means a more intricate button structure is required. The addition of the menu wheel throws out the physical layout of the camera, although a great feature it can clutter a compact. Part of the reason for the lack of space is the LCD screen dominating the back of the camera. 

The 3.0” AMOLED screen is simply incredible offering not only a great picture in all lighting conditions but a sturdy back to the camera. Colour and contrast are good but the screen attracts fingerprints and dirt very easily. Teamed with the smart-control dial you can scroll through menus and images with ease. 

Doubled as a D-pad you have all your navigation controls in one tidy place. The manual focus and metering options are especially more accessible with this feature. The menus will change in accordance to the mode the camera is set on.

Samsung have tied in a lot of useful features and shooting modes. Motion shooting is the fastest shutter speed available but can only be shot at 640 x 480. Continuous shooting will take high-resolution shots for as long as the shutter is depressed. A Smart Auto function offers full control to the camera including image distance, lighting conditions using constant focus.    

Even with all the manual controls very slight noise is still visible at 80 iso which is the lowest end of the scale for the camera which is a shame. Pushing the settings beyond 400 is not advised with images becoming blurry and dramatically losing quality. For a camera in this price range unfortunately it does not meet up to even minimum expectations.

The camera’s wide lens and decent focal length are perfect for in most shooting situations. Steadying the camera whilst framing shots can be awkward due to the setup of the zoom rocker.  So long as you have time to compose and frame your shots the full 5x optical zoom teamed with the camera’s dual image stabilisation can create nice images.

5cm may not be ideal for a macro shooting distance but the clarity is impressive. You will not have luck with anything too intricate as it struggles to pick out some colours leaving soft edges.

For those who like shooting in video there is a HD recording setting using the popular H.264 setting. Although using the zoom will interrupt audio recording so you are a bit limited.

A main concern with this camera aside from image quality is the menu system. Even in its simplest form of selecting shortcut options like the flash and macro focus it is too abrupt. The camera will select something after 2 seconds of viewing it, which only useful if you know what all the functions do. If this is not the case then it doesn’t even leave you enough time to read the descriptions. This can be frustrating as the camera is crammed with different settings. To add to that the flash is tied in to all the modes rather than being an independent function meaning you need to keep setting it.

Held back by its manual controls and price tag it is too over-complicated and expensive to simply be used a point-and-shoot. Then on the other-hand image quality and build are not impressive enough to buy it solely for the manual controls.    

This particular model is aimed at the style conscious consumer but is intended for more intermediate photography. Good quality results can be produced with time and patience but not good enough to warrant such a high price tag.  

Final Verdict For those focusing more on having a unique compact camera with plenty of manual controls this is ideal. Image quality and build issues hold it back from contending at this level. OVERALL

Experimenting in different areas of photography has always been a big passion of Steve’s. Currently working on improving his macro photography in both natural and studio environments, Steve is fast becoming an expert in this field.