Review: Samsung NV10 digital camera

At first glance, the NV10 looks like a rather serious camera.

It’s finished in matt black for people who want to take photographs, not frosted pink for people who want a piece of bling to match their phone. Neither are its credentials emblazoned across its facia.

Yes, it has a 10megapixel CCD and a 3x optical zoom, but good taste precludes such boasts. Instead we get elegant yet stylish understatement and superbly high build quality.

Despite its compact dimensions, the NV10 is no point-and-shoot toy. Enthusiasts will be pleased to hear there’s a full manual mode in addition to the usual scene, program and fully-automatic options.

Just as the quietest of folk are often said to live the most colourful lives behind closed doors, the Samsung NV10 hides a surprising array of features beneath its smart exterior.

This is a camera which does just about anything you could want, and a few things you probably didn’t think of. Some are innovative and useful, others are fun, and some are some perhaps a little silly.

Seven shooting modes are accessed via a control dial that is echoed by an animated version appearing on the LCD. This means you won’t need to take your eyes off your composition to adjust it; it also means there will be no squinting and fumbling when taking shots in the dark.

A raised shutter release and a recessed power button complete the top-mounted controls, accompanied by a small pop-up flash.

To the rear of the camera, things get a little less conventional. There’s no menu button to be found, instead there’s a total of 15 buttons. Of these, 13 are of the capacitive, touch-sensitive type and are arranged along two sides of the LCD.

Touching a button reveals additional information about its function, while depressing it fully pops out a highlighted bar containing a row or column of icons. Touching one of the buttons along the other edge of the display highlights a similar bar perpendicular to the first, and where the bars intersect, the icon is selected.

Although this sounds complicated, it’s actually quite intuitive and can give you very quick access to a large number of features without having to page through wordy menus.

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