Camera Labs

Hi ladies and Gents.

First off I am no pixelphile and was only looking for a quality camera to take simply but high quality holiday snaps and to document my relocation to Dubai.

I purchased the Samsum NV10 (10.1 mp) last Christmas after the rave reviews from all the tech mags around.

Out door daytime images are a joy. The level of detail and image quality for a compact snapper is excellent. It is when darkness falls that its evil lurks.

In Semi to Dark enviroments, an over excited ant some many miles away causes major problems to the image. No amount of setting tweaking can fix this.

So fire it into auto mode, up flicks the cheeky little flash and off you go... well no. The flash provides enough light to light up the dark side of the moon, shoot a sun kissed friend in the pub and wham its like you took the picture of his vampire mate in mid day sunshine.

So off with Auto and on to its bewildering aray of manual options, One by one over a period of months flicking through the options and snapping to see what can be achieved. While the menu system with its touch sensitive controls is very nice to use, the camera just dosnt have the pic up and play'ness of the compacts sonys that time after time take the best shot.

Things get worse with build quality. The shutter sheild semi opens and needs to be helped along. After two months the Lense had to be replaced as the motor on its zoom had died. This was not a cheap camera and this repair is not covered by Samsung warrenty. Worse still is the problem appears to be dying to return again at my cost.

Maybe i am a noob or a case of all the Gear no Idea, but I would highly recommend everyone stays away from this over hyped pretty boy.

Click the link for some of the better snaps taken with the Samsung NV10.

Nicco our dog in a huff
http://picasaweb.google.com/grahamstev/ ... 1242636786
Shopping mall in Dubai at night. (No one breathed during the taking of this image)
http://picasaweb.google.com/grahamstev/ ... 2651697074
Burj Al Arab - Day Time
http://picasaweb.google.com/grahamstev/ ... 5692197522
Burj Al Arab - Night Time
http://picasaweb.google.com/grahamstev/ ... 4422417362
Mountain Climbing in our Car.
http://picasaweb.google.com/grahamstev/ ... 2144165394

Anyway hope they are up to the standard of around here, like i say i am a noob with a compact thinking of Upgrading to a Cannon D400 do you think i should?

Hi Tyrant, welcome the Cameralabs forums!

Sorry to hear you're having problems with your NV10 - I never reviewed it, so can't offer any of my own experiences.

If you're after superior low light performance though, a DSLR will be much better, but if you're disappointed by the build of your NV10, check your proposed DSLRs carefully. It may be worth buying a slightly higher end model.

To find out the pros and cons of DSLRs, check out this article:

http://www.cameralabs.com/features/DSLR ... DSLR.shtml

And our recommended budget DSLRs are here:

http://www.cameralabs.com/buyers_guide/ ... DSLR.shtml

I have been reading your site for a while now and watching your videos all starting with "Hi I am Gordon Laing" , you know the ones on the various options and models to go for. All very helpfull.

The cannon D400 with the stock lense and tripod and a two gig memory card can be picked up here for Dhs3000 around GBP400. I looked at its bigger brother D40, but it is a lot of toy and cash for a newbie.

Do you think the D400 can easily cope with the Sand and heat of Dubai?

Bonjour tyrant,

Have a look at the dust-proof, weather-resistant bodies, like the Pentax K10D.

You'll find the specs from Pentax and my user review.

However, protection isn't complete without adequate dust-proof, weather-resistant lenses, as the smc DA * range. Here are the specs from Pentax.

• the smc DA * 16-50mm F2.8 ED/AL (IF) SDM and
• the smc DA * 50-135mm F2.8 ED (IF) SDM. Here is my user review.

I'm using the K10DF and the 50-135mm, and I'm very happy with the quality of the pictures, close to film camera . However, I've never tried them under rain or sand

_________________
--- rei_vilo
Pentax K-5 + BG4 + DA* 16-50 + DA* 50-135 + DA* 60-250 + AF-540FGZ
reivilophotography.weebly.com

Just seen what i think is a great offer:

Dhs 3500
Nikon D40
And two lenses. 18 to 55 and i think it was 25 to 300

However none come with the optical stable or the dust cleaning thingy...