FULL REVIEW: SAMSUNG CAMERA - DV300F

Camwhorers rejoice, Samsung recently announced a brand new dual-view camera, the DV300F and what better camera to take self-shots than one with an extra display just so you can look at yourself? To make things even better, the new DV300F comes with built-in Wi-Fi connectivity so after you're satisfied with your image, you can share it immediately without the need of uploading to a computer. But the second display isn't just something that assist you take pictures of yourself; apart from using it to see if you fit in the frame properly and if you look good, it can also be used as a self-timer and for those with children, it can be used to show animated clips with sound to catch your children's attention and to get them to look at the camera. Hit the break to read about our review of the 16.1MP point-and-shoot camera from Samsung. Design The DV300F is a very decent point-and-shoot camera suitable for beginners or those who are not fussy with the pictures they take. With a small dimension measuring at only 95.2mm x 56.5mm x 18.3mm, it fits perfectly even into your pockets and is good enough for one-hand operability – sort of like your mobile phone. On top of a small frame, the DV300F is also built to be pretty idiot-proof, you don't need an extra charger or a card reader to charge your device and to transfer images, all you need is a micro USB cable and you can do both at the same time. Since the DV300F doesn't come with a touchscreen, all the buttons lies to the right side of the 3" display – Home, Menu, Playback, Trash, etc. The micro USB slot is located on the right side of the camera, the front is adorned with a 1.5" second display next to the lens while the left contains no buttons or slots at all. The top comes with a power button, shutter button and right next to that, an extra button for you to activate the front LCD quickly. One thing I must say about the buttons – power and F.LCD is that they are pretty difficult to press. You're going to have to push real hard for it to respond otherwise you're left to believe that it is out of juice. The battery and microSD slot are both located under the cover at the bottom of the camera.   Filters and Effects Another notable thing about the DV300F would be the many different filters and effects that comes with the camera. Sure, your smartphone has plenty of photo editing apps and allows you to add frames, stamps and make a collage, but with the DV300F, you don't have to do any editing and you can upload the pictures straight from the camera itself. One pretty cool feature would be the Artistic Brush that gives an artistic effect to your picture and even provides a video clip of the image being painted/sketched.   Personally, my favourite part of the camera is the Split Shot feature that lets you merge up to three different images to create "an artistic statement". Other effects include Picture in Picture, Jump Shot, Beauty Shot, Magic Frame, Funny Face and Motion Photo.   Children Mode   Unlike the previous dual-view camera, the DV300F comes with only one animated clip for its Child Mode; it'll be nice to have something different for a change, I don't think my baby will be bothered with it anymore once he gets used to it. Another thing to note that if you're getting the camera just to take pictures of your children, do hold the camera properly because the second display is located below the shutter button which means you'll most likely be blocking the display when you're holding the camera. While Child Mode is pretty interesting because it comes with an animated clip of a popular Korean cartoon Pororo, it isn't really useful for those with a young baby. Sure, the baby will stare, but with a blur face and since the shutter is pretty slow, what you'll get most of the time are blurry pictures of a baby's face you wouldn't want to show off. It could be just me, I'd rather show a picture of my baby smiling. Functions   Apart from being able to share via Wi-Fi, be glad to know that you can back up your images on SkyDrive – a big relief because if you activated your SkyDrive earlier, you would've gotten 25GB of space for life.   You won't need a menu to understand the camera, all you have to do is scroll to the desired setting and wait for the description to pop up. That said, this means that the camera does not ship with an instruction menu inside the box. Conclusion Unfortunately though, while the camera may be compact, it may have some pretty fancy features, the shutter is a wee bit too slow to churn out good pictures. Most of my images turned out pretty blur, especially if they involved a baby. Don't get me wrong though, taking pictures of adults who are capable of standing still and of inanimate objects, it does a pretty decent job. Overall, I'd give it an 8/10 with most points going off to its price of only RM699, I mean, RM699 for a 16MP camera with two displays, why not? I'd recommend this to first time camera (phone cameras not included) buyers who want to take pictures just so they can print one or two and share the rest on social networks, after all, I guess that's what the camera is for given its Wi-Fi capabilities. Sample Images (Click to enlarge) Split shot of 3 different images Artistic brush Smart Auto mode Image of the TVC on a Samsung TV. More Images