Samsung NV9 in Digital cameras

Samsung is trying hard to warrant the attention with its compact-camera designs. Not satisfied with endowing the NV9 with a sleek, rounded and pocket-friendly finish, Samsung adds analogue dashboard-style full/empty dials to the top of the camera. A few seconds after power-on, these come to life to indicate battery life and storage space. You'll either love them or laugh.

The lens of the NV9 doesn't extend - switch it on and the lens cap snaps down, and all the zooming happens internally. The natural concern there is that the lens compromises on quality, but overall we were impressed. Everyday shots outdoors showed few vices: a good overall performance with natural colours and a decent amount of detail. Results at default settings are slightly over-sharpened, but that's correctable.

Take it indoors in low light and you won't be impressed, though, with the NV9 performing the worst of any camera this month.

The NV9 is a snappy performer, starting up in less than a second. Shot-to-shot times of around three seconds also give it a responsive feel. The 38mm wide setting of the lens means you miss out on true wide-angle shots, but the 5x zoom ensures you can get in impressively close at the telephoto end.

With fierce competition from the other manufacturers, the NV9 misses out on an award this month, but barring low-life peformance it's a good pocket snapper. If you can find it cheaper it's worth considering.

Author: David Fearon