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Samsung Galaxy Camera 2 Review
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Samsung is not one to shy away from trying
something new (remember the Dual View cameras?), and more recently they've been blurring the lines between
Android smartphones and traditional digital cameras. Only one of the company's
four products was actually a phone: the Galaxy S4 Zoom. The Galaxy NX and original Galaxy Camera offered 3G and 4G connectivity, but you
couldn't make a call on them (unless Skype counts). Samsung's latest model
is the Galaxy Camera 2, which goes Wi-Fi only but is otherwise a
nice upgrade to its predecessor.
The benefits of having an Android-based camera are
pretty clear: you can take photos with the built-in or third-party apps
and get them on their way to any social media/photo sharing site
within seconds. As hinted at about, there is a catch, which is that since
the GC2 lacks 3G and 4G connectivity, you'll need to be near a hotspot in order
to actually share your photos and videos.
Galaxy Camera 2 key specifications:
- 16MP 1/2.3" BSI-CMOS
sensor
- F2.8-5.9 23-483mm equivalent
lens (21X zoom)
- Quad-core 1.6GHz Samsung Exynos
4412 processor
- 2GB of RAM
- Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean)
- 4.8" 720p touchscreen LCD (16:9 aspect
ratio)
- 1080/30p video
- Headphone jack
- microSD card slot
That's a pretty impressive set of specs, especially
that huge HD 'White Magic' (RGBW) LCD display that really is the core of the
Galaxy Camera 2. Speaking of which, the Exynos 4412 quad-core processor is
nothing to sneeze at, either - you can expect performance pretty close to
2012-2013 smartphones (it's the same SoC as in the Galaxy S3).
One bummer is that the GC2 is behind the times in the
Android world, running version 4.3 (Jelly Bean) rather than 4.4
(KitKat) which, among other things, improves battery life (Android
5, aka Lollipop, would be even nicer).
The focal range of the lens is fairly standard for a
compact (well, semi-compact) travel zoom and, as you'd expect, is optically
stabilized. While it has a ridiculous amount of auto modes, Samsung thankfully
put in some manual controls for more advanced photographers.
Galaxy Camera vs
Galaxy Camera 2 key differences
|
|
 Galaxy Camera |
 Galaxy Camera 2 |
|
Sensor
|
16.3MP BSI-CMOS
|
|
|
Lens
|
F2.8-5.9 23-483mm equiv.
|
|
|
Processor
|
1.4Ghz quad-core Exynos 4412
|
1.6GHz quad-core Exynos 4412
|
|
RAM
|
1GB
|
2GB
|
|
Android
version
|
4.1
|
4.3
|
|
Display
|
4.8" 720p touchscreen LCD (16:9)
|
|
|
Wi-Fi
|
802.11a/b/g/n/a (dual band)
|
|
|
NFC
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
3G/4G
connectivity
|
Optional
|
No
|
|
Video
|
1080/30p (MPEG-4)
|
|
|
Battery
capacity
|
1650 mAh
|
2000 mAh
|
|
Battery
life (CIPA)
|
340 shots
|
400 shots
|
|
Dimensions
(WxHxD)
|
71 x 129 x 19 mm
|
71 x 133 x 19 mm
|
|
Weight
|
302 g
|
285 g
|
As you can see, the Galaxy Camera 2 is mostly a spec
bump compared to its predecessor. The most welcome feature is a
larger battery, something that's much needed on a camera that will spend most
of its time with its huge LCD turned on. It's a slightly larger camera, but not
by much. There are a few new features as well, such as the 'Smart Mode
Selfie Alarm'.
Samsung Galaxy Camera 2 specifications
Body & Design
The Galaxy
Camera 2 is probably the largest compact camera you'll find. It's very thin,
fairly tall, and extremely wide - imagine a thick Galaxy S5 or iPhone 6, and
that's the GC2. If you can fit one of those smartphones in your pocket, then
the GC2 will probably fit too.
 |
|
You can get a feel for the size of the Galaxy
Camera 2 when it's put up against the HTC One M8 (left) and Galaxy Note
4 (right).
|
Another thing
that's smartphone-sized is the Galaxy Camera 2's enormous 4.8" LCD
display. The resolution of the display is 1280 x 720, which has a pixel density
of 308 ppi (which puts it into 'retina' territory). The display has a variation
of a RGBW pixel layout, with the extra white pixel improving brightness while
reducing battery consumption. The display is bright and offers a wide viewing
angle. While there's no auto brightness adjustment when using the Galaxy Camera
as an Android device, there is when using it as a camera.
Something to
keep in mind about shooting with the Galaxy Camera is that since the screen is
16:9, so are your photos (by default). That said, if you shoot at the
'standard' 4:3 ratio you will end up with black bars on both sides of the
screen when composing.
As the photo
above shows, the GC2's lens extends considerably at its full telephoto position
(483mm equiv). As you can probably imagine the camera will tip forward at this
point (though we can't imagine why one would be doing this).
In your hand
As mentioned
above, the Galaxy Camera is quite a handful. It also has some strange quirks
that come along with its 'lens bolted to a screen' design.
 |
 |
|
There's not a whole lot of room for your right
thumb on the back of the camera, with a bezel roughly 0.5" across. It's
not hard for your thumb to accidentally wander onto the display and press one
of the soft keys.
|
There's almost no grip on the GC2 and the faux
leather plastic surface is quite slippery. Hold on tight!
|
There are few
design quibbles worth mentioning. The first is the location of the zoom
controller / shutter release. While it's fine for taking photos, when you're
using the Galaxy Camera 2 as an Android device (holding it vertically) we found
that our fingers kept bumping the zoom controller, which adjusts the volume
when out of camera mode.
Something else
to watch out for is the lens. If you were in shooting mode and hit the power
button to turn the camera off temporarily, make sure your hand is out of the
way before you turn the camera back on, as the lens will extend right into it.
Body Elements
|
|
The Galaxy Camera 2 has a long 21X optical
zoom lens, equivalent to 23-483mm. The maximum aperture range of F2.8-5.9
isn't bad for a superzoom camera which, in some cases, top out at F7.
A big zoom camera needs image stabilization, and the GC2 uses the lens-shift variety. |
 |
The Galaxy Camera 2 has a pop-up flash with a
maximum range of 3.8 meters at Auto ISO (which tops out at ISO 1250).
The flash can be tilted upward for a bounce effect. |
 |
The zoom controller encircles the shutter
release button. The controller has way too much play which, combined with its
location, makes it easy to accidentally bump when holding the GC2 vertically.
To its left is the camera's sole microphone. It's disappointing to see that the GC2 does not record stereo sound. |
 |
On the left side of the camera is the speaker
and the touch point for devices compatible with the NFC (near-field
communication) standard. NFC allows for 'tap and go' pairing and image
transfer.
|
 |
On the opposite side of the GC2 is its stereo
headphone jack and USB port. This USB port is also used for charging the
battery.
|
 |
Under a plastic door on the bottom of the GC2
is its battery, microSD memory card slot, and micro-HDMI port.
Note that you don't have to open the whole door to access the HDMI port - there's a small flap that you can use to get to it. The BP2000 battery has 7.4Wh worth of energy and Samsung claims 400 shots per charge using the CIPA standard. In our experience the battery drained a lot quicker. |
Features
Using the Galaxy Camera 2 is a bit different than a
'traditional' camera due to its smartphone roots. On the one hand it's a very
capable Android device, while on the other it's a superzoom with some strange
quirks that come from being an Android device. If you're used to using
a 'regular' digital camera then you may be wondering where the menu button is
and how to switch shooting modes. Those who are familiar with Android phones
will feel much more at home, though Samsung's camera app is much more
robust than what comes built into most devices.
The GC2 looks and functions like any recent Samsung
smartphone. It runs Android 4.3, which is getting pretty stale at
this point, and it's a safe bet that the Galaxy Camera will ever see anything
newer. The GC2 uses Samsung's TouchWiz interface, which hasn't been
particularly popular on smartphones. The home screen can be
customized to your liking, and there's a camera icon on every page, so you
don't have to fumble around for buttons (you can always hold down the shutter
release to enter photo taking mode).
If there's an app you want to run, it'll work just
fine, and swiftly. You can use Photoshop Express or Lightroom Mobile to work with
your photos, and then spend a half-hour playing SimCity BuildIt.
Point-and-shoot Features
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|
The Galaxy Camera 2 has a million different scene and special
effects modes.
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Being a Samsung product you know that the Galaxy
Camera 2 will be loaded with crazy features and shooting modes, and the company
did not disappoint in that regard. Below are some of the features
that I personally found interesting:
Smart Mode Suggest is like auto scene selection with a
twist. Instead of the camera picking a scene mode and sticking with
it, the GC2 gives you a choice of three. You compose your photo, press the
shutter release halfway, and your three choices are shown at the bottom of the
display. Pick one and off you go.
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|
Smart Mode Suggest didn't pick very good options in this case.
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The problem with this feature is that it 1) distracts
you from taking the photo (your subject and/or composition could've changed),
2) may have undesirable effects (like not being able to zoom) and
3) may have poor suggestions, such as in the example above.
Both the eraser and best face features are lifted
from Samsung's smartphones. Both take fives shots in a row, let you make a
decision, and then saves the result as a single image. Eraser will allow
you to 'wipe away' a moving subject, and it actually works
(unfortunately it's impossible to illustrate that).
Best face is pretty clever, too. It takes five
exposures and brings up a screen showing the detected faces. You tap on a
face and choose which one you like best (the camera may have a preferred one
already picked out). Once you're happy it'll save them as a new image. The results are
surprisingly good.
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|
Original
photo
|
After painting on 'water sketch' effect in Paper Artist
|
One cool app that's pre-installed is Paper Artist,
which is already available on the Google Play and iTunes app stores. Pick
an image from a gallery and you can apply all kinds of artsy special
effects to it. The cool part about Paper Artist is that you can draw the effect onto
selected areas of your photo (the examples above show this better than words).
My favorite effects out of the 34 available are water sketch and comic book.
Manual controls and video
The Galaxy Camera 2 also offers a host of manual
exposure controls, though it doesn't support Raw. You get P/A/S/M modes as well
as fairly quick control of commonly used settings (like ISO and white balance).
Those settings are adjusted using a clever-looking but clumsy interface similar
to when you're using i-Function lenses on Samsung's mirrorless cameras.
 |
|
In P/A/S/M modes you can adjust settings using the clever-looking
interface on the right. If you want to use something more traditional, a
standard menu is also available.
|
Getting to this menu takes two button-presses, which
is one too many for my taste. While you can spin the virtual rings, I found it
easier to just tap on them instead. For those seeking a more traditional
interface, you can access the main menu by pressing the little widget icon at
the top-left of the display.
 |
|
It's a bit hard to see here, but the focus and exposure points have been
split in two, which is useful when shooting on a tripod.
|
One cool thing that you can do on the GC2 is set the
focus and exposure metering areas separately. By tapping on the top-right of
the focus point it will split into AF and AE boxes. You can move them
wherever you want and when finished just drag them back together. This will
certainly come in handy when shooting on a tripod.
As for video, the Galaxy Camera 2 can record
1080/30p video, albeit with monaural sound. Not surprisingly, movie recording
is a point-and-shoot experience, so whatever shutter speed and/or aperture you
may have set will be ignored. The camera can autofocus continuously, which
resulted in some 'hunting' in some of our videos.
Another neat thing about the Galaxy Camera 2 (and
Samsung's smartphones) is that you can pause recording and then pick right up
where you left off. There's a pretty capable bundled video editing app which
lets you combine video, stills, and audio into a timeline - not unlike in
iMovie. Titles, transitions, narration, and sound effects are all
available.
Wi-Fi
Samsung has been making 'Smart Cameras' for a
long time and each revision gets better. The GC2 is undoubtedly a social media
camera, and it's super-easy to get photos onto Facebook (assuming you have
an available Wi-Fi connection). You can open up Facebook, take a photo,
and have it posted to your timeline in moments. Same with Instagram or
e-mail. If there's any downside it's that the camera is point-and-shoot
when used within apps, which isn't the end of the world.
Unlike the previous Galaxy Camera, there's no 3G or
4G model, so if you're out of range of a hotspot you'll need to
pair it with your smartphone. If you have an NFC-equipped phone
pairing is ridiculously easy. If you don't you'll need to select the
camera's SSID manually.
 |
|
The Remote Capture feature lets you use your smartphone to control
the GC2. Unfortunately the preview quality is poor and controls are
limited.
|
Once connected you can do the usual Wi-Fi things, such
as remotely control the camera or transfer photos. The remote control feature
is pretty basic - you can choose the image size and set the flash or self-timer
setting. The live preview is surprisingly low resolution (and a bit laggy
at times), and the ability to zoom disappeared after a few minutes.
Transferring photos worked great, with NFC again being the easiest way to
do it.
One very cool Wi-Fi-related feature is buddy share.
Anytime you take a photo you can tag a detected face with a contact that's in
your phone (you can add them if they're not). If you turn on buddy
shot and the camera recognizes someone, it will ask if you want to e-mail
the photo to them.
Performance
If the Galaxy Camera 2 is completely off, it'll take a
while to boot up, as is the case with your smartphone. At least Samsung puts in
an animation of a child looking through a telescope to keep you busy. When the
camera is 'sleeping' it'll wake up in about two seconds. The overall interface
is very responsive, which I'd expect given its amount of processing
power.
Focus speeds are about average in good light, and the
GC2 did surprisingly well in low light. There's not much of a delay. The zoom
moves smoothly and silently, which is most important for recording video.
Something that drove me nuts was how the current zoom setting is
displayed in huge type right over the live preview.
The Galaxy Camera 2 can shoot continuously at 4.1
frames per second until its memory card fills up, which is quite
impressive for a compact camera. You can turn on burst mode in either
the standard menu (in P/A/S/M modes) or by selecting the 'continuous
shot' scene mode.
Battery Life
One big disappointment on the Galaxy Camera 2 is
battery life. While Samsung's tests - using the CIPA standard - says that the
GC2 can take 400 shots per charge, that's presumably with Wi-Fi turned off
and no use of Android. In our time with the Galaxy Camera 2, which
combined both shooting and some mild Android use, we couldn't get through the
day without having to recharge (which is done over USB, by the way). On
one day in particular the battery dropped below 50% in less than 6 hours.
To squeeze as much juice as possible from the battery,
turning background processes and Wi-Fi off is your best bet.
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Body type
|
|
|
Body type
|
Compact
|
|
Sensor
|
|
|
Max
resolution
|
4608 x
3456
|
|
Other
resolutions
|
4608 x
3072, 4608 x 2592, 3648 x 2736, 2592 x 1944, 1984 x 1488, 1920 x 1080, 1024 x
768
|
|
Image
ratio w:h
|
4:3, 3:2,
16:9
|
|
Effective
pixels
|
16 megapixels
|
|
Sensor
photo detectors
|
17 megapixels
|
|
Sensor
size
|
1/2.3"
(6.17 x 4.55 mm)
|
|
Sensor
type
|
BSI-CMOS
|
|
Processor
|
1.6GHz
Quad-Core Exynos
|
|
Color
space
|
sRGB
|
|
Color
filter array
|
Primary
color filter
|
|
Image
|
|
|
ISO
|
Auto, 100,
200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200
|
|
White
balance presets
|
6
|
|
Custom
white balance
|
Yes
|
|
Image
stabilization
|
Optical
|
|
Uncompressed
format
|
No
|
|
File
format
|
·
JPEG
|
|
Image
parameters
|
·
Brightness
·
Contrast
·
Color
|
|
Optics & Focus
|
|
|
Focal
length (equiv.)
|
23–483 mm
|
|
Optical
zoom
|
21×
|
|
Maximum
aperture
|
F2.8–5.9
|
|
Autofocus
|
·
Contrast Detect (sensor)
·
Multi-area
·
Center
·
Touch
·
Face Detection
|
|
Autofocus
assist lamp
|
Yes
|
|
Manual
focus
|
Yes
|
|
Normal
focus range
|
80 cm (31.5″)
|
|
Macro
focus range
|
10 cm (3.94″)
|
|
Screen / viewfinder
|
|
|
Articulated
LCD
|
Fixed
|
|
Screen
size
|
4.8″
|
|
Screen
dots
|
1,036,800
|
|
Touch
screen
|
Yes (Touch AF, Touch
Shutter)
|
|
Screen
type
|
HD Super Clear Touch Display
|
|
Live view
|
Yes
|
|
Viewfinder
type
|
None
|
|
Photography features
|
|
|
Minimum
shutter speed
|
16 sec
|
|
Maximum
shutter speed
|
1/2000 sec
|
|
Exposure
modes
|
·
Auto
·
Smart
·
Expert
(P/A/S/M/User)
·
My Modes
|
|
Scene
modes
|
·
Smart mode
suggest, Beauty face, Best Photo, Selfie Alarm, Continuous shot, Best face,
Color bracket, Kids shot, Landscape, Dawn, Snow, Macro, Food, Party/Indoor,
Action freeze, Rich tone (HDR), Panorama, Waterfall, Animated photo, Drama,
Eraser, Sound & Shot, Interval, Silhouette, Sunset, Night, Fireworks,
Light trace
|
|
Built-in
flash
|
Yes (Xenon)
|
|
Flash
range
|
3.80 m
|
|
External
flash
|
No
|
|
Flash
modes
|
Auto, auto w/redeye reduction, fill-in, slow sync, flash off, redeye fix
|
|
Self-timer
|
Yes (2,
5, or 10 sec)
|
|
Metering
modes
|
·
Multi
·
Center-weighted
·
Spot
|
|
Exposure
compensation
|
±2 (at 1/3
EV steps)
|
|
Videography features
|
|
|
Format
|
MPEG-4,
H.264
|
|
Videography
notes
|
1920 x
1080 (30 fps), 1280 x 720 (30 fps), 640 x 480 (30 or 60 fps), 320 x 240 (30
fps)
|
|
Microphone
|
Stereo
|
|
Speaker
|
Mono
|
|
Storage
|
|
|
Storage
types
|
microSD/microSDHC/microSDXC
|
|
Storage
included
|
8GB (2.8GB
available)
|
|
Connectivity
|
|
|
USB
|
USB 2.0 (480 Mbit/sec)
|
|
HDMI
|
Yes
|
|
Wireless
|
Built-In
|
|
Wireless
notes
|
802.11a/b/g/n + Bluetooth 4.0
|
|
Physical
|
|
|
Environmentally
sealed
|
No
|
|
Battery
|
Battery
Pack
|
|
Battery
description
|
Built-in
2000 mAh battery
|
|
Battery
Life (CIPA)
|
400
|
|
Weight
(inc. batteries)
|
283 g (0.62 lb / 9.98 oz)
|
|
Dimensions
|
133 x 71 x
19 mm (5.24 x 2.8 x 0.75″)
|
|
Other features
|
|
|
Orientation
sensor
|
Yes
|
|
Timelapse
recording
|
No
|
|
GPS
|
Built-in
|
|
GPS notes
|
A-GPS,
GLONASS
|
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