We’re going on a review spree here at askthephotographer.com. Samsung’s latest entry into the digital camera realm is next up, with the NV8 Digital Camera getting reviewed by trustedreviews.com.

And from the sound of things they like the little eight megapixel camera with a 3x zoom.

“Since Samsung introduced its premium NV (New Vision) range of high-spec digital compact cameras in the summer of 2006, the company’s fortunes in the digital camera market have dramatically improved, and looking at the NV8 it’s easy to see why. Launched in August last year alongside the similarly-styled 10-megapixel NV15 and 12-megapixel NV20, the NV8 is a very stylish 8-megapixel pocket compact camera featuring a 3x zoom Schneider Kreuznach lens, a 2.5-inch 230k monitor and a wide range of options all operated by Samsung’s innovative Smart Touch control system.”

Overall it got an eight out of ten on the reviewers scale. One of the biggest features on the camera is the Smart Touch system, which kind of remind me how ATM menus work.

“The most obvious feature of the NV8’s design is the Smart Touch control system, which replaces the usual menu and D-pad arrangement with two rows of featureless black buttons below and the the right of the monitor screen. At first glance these might look a bit daunting, but once you’ve been shown how they work you’ll wonder why nobody came up with this idea before.”

And another feature that is interesting is the shooting speed. Smaller digital cameras have really advanced as to how fast they can fire off frames (obviously in a small resolution mode, but none the less impressive). The NV8 has a three frames per second mode, and then a seven frames per second mode, although the resolution is severely limited.

“Overall performance is extremely good. The camera starts up very quickly in just over 1.5 seconds, and shuts down again even more quickly. Shooting speed is fast as well, with a shot-to-shot time in single shot mode of just over 1.5 seconds per frame. In standard continuous shooting mode this speeds up to 1.2 seconds per shot, but in this mode the camera checks focus before every frame. There is also a high-speed burst mode that shoots three frames in approximately 1.5 seconds, and a motion capture mode that shoots 20 frames at 7fps, but only at 1024 x 768 resolution.”

And here is the reviewer’s verdict…

“For what is practically a budget price the Samsung NV8 provides a level of quality on a par with premium-range cameras from any of the other manufacturers. It has a lot of style, excellent build quality, fast performance and a range of useful and entertaining features, made more accessible by the clever Smart Touch control system. It lacks a little in the picture quality department due to its image noise problems, but makes up for this somewhat with good low-light performance.”

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