Samsung NV8 Digital Camera
The NV8 reliably produces very good photos in most circumstances, and is especially good for casual social photography, where the excellent low-light focusing and flash performance are a big advantage. The camera’s body is all metal, and the matt black finish of my review sample proved to be very resistant to marks and scratches. While it is small and light, it feels solid and well made. The lens does protrude somewhat when deactivated, and the unusual shape of the body means that the NV8 isn’t the slimmest camera in the world, but it is by no means bulky and fits well into a pocket or handbag for a night out. The camera measures 96.5 x 60 x 27mm.Image quality is much better than one might expect from such a low priced camera. The excellent f/2.8-5.6 Schneider Kreuznach lens takes a lot of the credit, providing a very high level of sharp detail and outstanding corner sharpness. The noise reduction system is quite heavy-handed, smudging fine detail in shadow areas even at 200 ISO, but even so it can’t prevent mid-tone colour noise occurring at all ISO settings from 200 upwards, and predictably the 1600 and 3200 ISO settings produce very poor image quality. 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. Flash range, exposure and coverage is also very good, with a quick flash recharge time of about four seconds.
