Samsung Digimax NV3 digital camera

Posted by T3 Online on Tue 30 Oct 2007

Do-it-all snapper is converging on the ridiculous

It's been a long time since cameras only took photos, but few snappers do - or at least try to do - as much as this. Alongside a seven-meg camera you get not only the traditional video capture, but MP3 playback via loudspeakers and even basic PMP and e-book functionality.

Samsung has upped its design game in recent years and this is another shining example. Well, it's not shining; it's got a matt finish, but you get the idea. Metal controls are solid and responsive, and what the 2.5-inch screen lacks in size, it makes up for in sharpness and colour.

sPhotographic functions are weak, however. Alow, 3x zoom, scene modes and focus or metering tweaks are your lot; you can't adjust settings like ISO. Images are as fun and sparky - all eye-candy primary colours. Shake reduction is pretty poor, so hold it steady.

MPEG4 video capture is in DVD-alike 720x480-pixel widescreen. It can only play modified MPEG4 and MP3 files - transcoding software is supplied to rip (in near real-time) any video format Windows Media Player can handle. Obviously, there's no PMP-style facility to record from TV or set-top box.

For music, simply drag and drop MP3 files onto your memory card. Electro-goths Noir Désir sound tinny through the stereo speakers, but fine with earbuds - shame that not being able to use playlists or fast-forward makes it virtually useless as a music player. The e-book reader is just a plain-text viewer with a nasty, retro-PC display and shuddery auto-scrolling.

Ultimately this can't match similarly-priced cameras, is laughable compared to even an iPod shuffle when it comes to music playback and lacks the capacity or capability to threaten genuine PMPs.