Product Reviews

Samsung's NV8 is such an impressive low-cost camera that nothing else has come close in recent months. However, we had high hopes for the NV30, which appears to be an NV8 with added optical image stabilisation. This helps avoid blur when shooting in low light and, if combined with the NV8's low noise levels, would be fantastic for indoor photography, the hardest challenge for most compacts.

The NV8's slim metal body has been swapped for a plastic one, but feels no less robust. The flash is no longer a pop-up design, although we'll gladly take the larger battery as a trade-off. A mode dial on the top- right corner presents the usual set of automatic, scene preset and video options, plus a manual exposure mode - a rarity at this price. Adjusting settings is fast and satisfying, thanks to the touch-sensitive strips of buttons that run along two edges of the screen.

A second dial labelled Photo Style applies various colour effects to photos. Normal is the default, but other options include Cool, Vivid and more exotic titles such as Forest and Classic. Colour presets are nothing

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new and we rarely give them much attention as colour processing is better done on a PC. The dedicated control encourages people to experiment, but it may also be rotated by accident.

Performance is excellent at around 1.8 seconds between shots, and focusing is fast and accurate. The face detection works well, and there's a self-portrait mode that communicates in beeps to inform you of successful detection.

Outdoor image-quality tests revealed balanced colours and sharp detail in line with the NV8, although corner focus wasn't as sharp. However, the biggest difference between the two cameras was revealed when shooting in lower light. The key to the NV8's success is its 1/1.76in sensor, which is much larger than the 1/2.5in sensors used by most 8-megapixel compact cameras. Sadly, the NV30 reverts to the usual 1/2.5in design. As a result, its image noise is higher at ISO 400 than the NV8's images at ISO 800, and heavy noise reduction trashes detail at ISO 800 and higher.

On the plus side, the NV30's stabilisation allows longer shutter speeds and lower ISO speeds to be used before blur sets in. This stabilisation worked well in our tests, keeping 80 per cent of shots sharp with a 1/30s shutter speed and 100mm focal length, and around half with a 1/15s shutter speed. It's also better suited to Samsung's automatic exposure settings, which tend to use low ISO speeds and long shutter speeds in low light. Even so, the NV8's lower noise will be useful more often, as it's better for moving subjects as well as low-light photography.

The NV30 is packed with great features, but it's not quite the camera we had hoped for. We recommend the cheaper NV8.