Now, some camera companies are trying to make it easier to share high-quality photos with WiFi-enabled digital cameras. I tested Samsung's ST80, a 14.2 megapixel point-and-shoot camera that lets you send photos straight from the device over WiFi.
The ST80 came out last month and costs $249.99. It's a tiny camera, measuring approximately 3.6 by 2.2 inches and weighing about 4 ounces. I actually found it difficult to get a good grip on the camera. The 3-inch touchscreen was responsive and easy to use, and the camera can also record 720p video.
Shots came out best in bright daylight. At first glance, photos I took of the gold statue and ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center looked true to life. But people and scenery in the background looked murky, and the photos lacked crispness.
I also noticed a slight capture delay after pressing the shutter button, which wasn't a problem until I tried to take a photo of an ice skater mid-jump. Even when I pressed the button slightly before she jumped, I was never able to capture the skater mid-air.
I also had trouble taking photos at night or in low light. Even in Times Square, which stays fairly well-lit at night, most photos weren't sharp. When I turned on the flash to take a photo of my plate at a restaurant, it ended up washed out.
A Samsung spokesperson suggested focusing on the subject of the photo while in "program" mode by using options like "one touch shooting," which allows you to select a specific area of focus using the touchscreen. I experimented with this option in my apartment at night, and the objects I photographed looked like they were in broad daylight.
The ST80 can connect to free WiFi, your home network or Boingo, a network with nearly 30,000 hotspots in the U.S. (ST80 users get a 3-month free trial when they purchase the camera; thereafter, Boingo costs $7.95 a month.) The camera only attempts to connect to WiFi once you select "web" on the "wireless networking" menu.
I tested out the ST80's photo-sharing capabilities in Times Square, one of the few places where I found a free WiFi connection. After a couple of tries, I got a connection through the Boingo network. To upload photos to an existing Facebook album, I had to sign into Facebook and select an existing photo album on my profile. Then, I dragged the photos into the album.
The entire process took about two minutes, which was noticeably longer than it takes me to send photos to Facebook using my iPhone on the 3G network.
But I was able to upload more than one photo at a time to Facebook with the ST80, which was very convenient. Of course, it takes longer to upload multiple photos.
I also e-mailed photos and uploaded them to Picasa. The ST80 supports sharing photos on Photobucket and Samsung's imaging site and 30-second video clips on YouTube. Unfortunately, posting photos to Twitter isn't among the options.
And finding a free WiFi network to connect to sometimes felt like searching for a needle in a haystack. I often couldn't get the camera to pick up a signal when I was out on the street in New York, even in the middle of Rockefeller Center and Greenwich Village.
I was concerned that the WiFi connectivity would drain the battery quickly. But since the ST80 only searches for WiFi when you try to share photos, this didn't add extra strain to the battery life.
One useful feature is that the camera has more than two dozen built-in editing options including cropping and face retouching. I liked being able to fix photos before sharing them with the world, and editing on the camera using the touchscreen was surprisingly easy and fun.
So is the ST80 worth it? $250 can buy a lot of digital camera these days, and I wasn't wowed by the photos I captured, particularly action shots. The WiFi connectivity is a great feature in theory, but didn't perform well in practice. We'll have to keep waiting for a camera that perfectly pairs high-quality photos with easy sharing.
0 коммент.:
Отправить комментарий