Samsung EX2F review

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Verdict:

The superb lens tops the impressive list of features, but numerous niggles hold it back

Review Date: 21 Dec 2012

Price when reviewed: £380

Supplier: http://www.johnlewis.com

Reviewed By: Ben Pitt

Our Rating 3 stars out of 5

Samsung was the first manufacturer to bring sophisticated Wi-Fi functions to digital cameras. Other manufacturers are catching up, but the Canon S110 (review coming soon) is the only other camera in this class to include Wi-Fi. The Samsung comes top for breadth of features, with an app for iOS and Android for browsing and transferring photos, and another that provides a remote viewfinder and shutter release. It can also control the zoom, flash, self-timer and resolution settings, and transfer the last photo to the smartphone or tablet. It's great for group self-portraits, but the limited control is a little frustrating. The camera's controls are locked while the app is running, and zooming from the app involved lots of small shunts.

Here's the remote control app in use

Wi-Fi options continue with the ability to connect to a home network and share photos and videos via email, Facebook, YouTube, Picasa and Photo Bucket. It can upload to Microsoft SkyDrive, back up to a local PC and act as a DLNA server, streaming photos and videos to a smart TV. As usual for the new crop of Wi-Fi-enabled cameras, a couple of features didn't work properly in our tests. In this case it was the PC backup utility and the Remote Viewfinder app for Android.

Viewed in isolation, it's easy to find lots to praise about this camera. However, with the fantastic Panasonic LX7 lingering in our memory, it was the EX2F's flaws that were more striking. The LX7 doesn't have Wi-Fi or an articulated screen, but we'd gladly trade them for its even better image quality, longer zoom, friendlier controls, faster performance and more capable video mode. If Wi-Fi is an essential feature, we'd recommend the Canon S110. Its lens isn't nearly as bright but its controls are a lot less frustrating.

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