Samsung WB700 review

The 18x zoom may not be record-breaking but it’s still an impressive achievement, stretching from a wide-angle 24mm (equivalent) focal length all the way to a paparazzi-like 432mm. However, in order to achieve this, the WB700 uses just the central 14-megapixel area of its 16-megapixel sensor. This isn’t good news for detail levels, as 1/2.3in, 16-megapixel sensors tend to produce a lot of noise, and the ensuing noise reduction smears details. In the WB700, there isn’t even the small compensation of having massive 16-megapixel photos.

The WB700 is noisier than its immediate competitors at ISO 1600 – Click on the image to enlarge it

Comparing our studio test shots at ISO 1600, the WB700 was noisier than the 16-megapixel Olympus SZ-30MR and much noisier than the 12-megapixel Nikon S9100. At their slowest ISO speeds, the WB700 still exhibited a little noise and couldn’t match the others for detail levels, especially towards the corners of frames at focal lengths between 50mm and 150mm.

In practice, these issues had little impact in brightly lit conditions, where its photos looked perfectly sharp when resized to fit a computer screen or for normal print sizes. However, the WB700’s disadvantage was more apparent in low-light shots without the flash. Grainy noise dominated darker areas of photos and delicate tones were drained of all colour, giving an unsightly patchwork of coloured and grey blotches.

Low light performance was unimpressive – Click on the image to enlarge it

The WB700’s videos didn’t make the grade, either, not least because their 720p resolution can’t match the 1080p videos from the Nikon and Olympus cameras. Optical zoom was available while recording but focus was fixed for the duration of clips. That wasn’t a serious problem for wide-angle shots where a wide depth of field meant everything stayed largely in focus, but telephoto videos were often spoiled by inaccurate focus. Image noise was a problem once again, smudging details in bright light and obliterating shadows in low light.

Last year, compact ultra-zoom cameras were much of a muchness in terms of image quality. This year, the situation is reversed. The WB700 is by no means a disaster but – as other camera manufacturers are zooming ahead for image quality – Samsung remains in the slow lane.