Product Reviews

This is the fifth camera we've seen from Samsung's NV range, which has consistently impressed us with its smart designs, innovative controls and great image quality. The NV8 doesn't have the extended zoom range, double-figure megapixel rating or MP3-playback capabilities of the other models we've seen, but it shares various other desirable features with its predecessors and costs remarkably little.

The design is extremely compact at 19mm thick and 152g, but its styling is aimed more at photography enthusiasts than gadget lovers. This is reinforced by the inclusion of a well-implemented manual exposure mode, which is a rare treat on an ultra-compact camera, although the lack of priority modes and manual focus take the shine off. As with most models in the NV range, the NV8 eschews the usual four-way navigation pad in favour of 13 function buttons along the edge of the 2in screen that line up with onscreen icons. This puts all the key controls in plain view and keeps menu delving to a minimum, but people with large fingers may find the tightly packed buttons a little fiddly.

Performance is a marked improvement over that of previous NV cameras. The NV8 takes just two seconds to switch on and capture a photo, and 1.7 seconds between subsequent shots. The auto-focus is quick if a little unreliable, but the great screen made it obvious when another attempt at focusing was required. Flash recycling times are quick, but the 0.8fps continuous mode is disappointing, as is the 240-shot battery life. We welcome the versatility of being able to charge the battery through USB or the mains adaptor, although both wires

Our image tests revealed some of the sharpest detail we've ever seen from a compact digital camera. Its ability to capture fine textures such as skin and hair was as good as - and often surpassed - the best 10- and 12-megapixel compact cameras, including the more expensive NV11, a camera we praised for its sharp detail in our labs test.

Noise levels were even more impressive, with barely a hint of noise at ISO 800 except in areas of solid dark colour. Detail in fine textures was preserved extremely well, though, which indicates that the NV8 doesn't rely on heavy noise reduction processing to keep noise at bay. Results were still perfectly usable at ISO 1600, and even ISO 3200 photos were good enough for viewing onscreen and small prints - something we have never been able to say about a non-SLR camera before. The key to the camera's success is its generous 1/1.7in sensor size and relatively modest 8-megapixel rating - this means that each pixel on the sensor is physically larger than those in most compact cameras, allowing it to capture more light and measure it more accurately.

Colours left little room for criticism, with vibrant, accurate hues indoors and out, and warm, superbly exposed skin tones under the flash. However, the automatic mode used ISO speeds of only 100 or 200, which resulted in blur from the long shutter speeds when shooting in low light without the flash. This was easily remedied by switching to Program mode and adjusting the ISO speed manually, but a more versatile automatic mode or a high-sensitivity scene preset would be better. Instead, Samsung offers an Advanced Shake Reduction (ASR) mode, which uses some clever digital processing to reduce blur, but it can't be used in conjunction with the manual ISO speed control. In our indoor tests we achieved better results by shooting at ISO 800 than by using ASR.

This is the only significant flaw in what is otherwise one of the best compact digital cameras we have ever seen - and certainly the best for less than £150. If you're prepared to adjust the ISO speed manually in low light, it's an unbeatable buy.