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Product Review: Page (1) of 2 - 02/09/07

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Samsung NV (envy) 7 digital camera

7.2 megapixel camera with a one of a kind interface

By John Virata

Digital cameras have become more mundane and me-too as camera manufacturers crank out a seemingly endless supply of new models. At CES, I happened upon a Chinese company showcasing a range of digital cameras, one of which had the exact same body as the camera I had in my backpack at the time.

With the influx of third tier Chinese camera manufacturers comes cheap plastic bodies and lenses, and boring menuing systems. Even some of the top camera manufacturers have fairly complicated menu systems that are more prone to confuse you than anything else.

Enter Samsung. The Korean consumer electronics giant has delivered the New Vision NV7 OPS, a digital camera that is not only unique in its construction (it is black in color, all metal and looks like a rangefinder), but also offers a unique touch sensitive menu system on the back of the camera that removes the guesswork in having to scroll through endless menus.

The company sent a new unit out and I was surprised how different it looked from all the other cameras that I've reviewed in the past.

The front of the camera houses the Schneider-Kreuznach Varioplan zoom lens (6.3-44.7mm), and a metal finger grip with a rubberized strip to improve the grip. The rear of the camera is where all the design magic comes into play. In addition to the 2.5-inch LCD display and the tele and wide angle control arm, there is the reverse L series of touch sensitive buttons. According to Samsung, this button layout came about when one of the 15 members of the design team was eating a chocolate bar and as she chewed a piece (as detailed by Samsung), she came up with the idea of turning the chocolate blocks into smaller blocks that wound serve as the direction keys to control the functions of the camera. Rather than have things buried in a sub menu, they are controlled via the 13 chocolate keys on the back of the camera, seven horizontally along the bottom of the LCD and six vertically, along the right side of the LCD.

Autofocus, Flash, image size, metering, and sharpness are located on the bottom and the adjustments to those are located along the side. For example, if you select the flash button and press down on it, the menu for auto, red eye, fill in, slow sync, and off appear in the LCD. As you touch your finger down the right side buttons, each of those functions will be highlighted individually on the LCD, and if you want to turn red eye on, simply press the button that corresponds to the red eye feature. If you know how to work an automatic teller machine, you can work the functions on the NV7.  The camera captures images to its 19MB internal memory or via Serial Digital (SD) cards. It captures images at 7.2 megapixels, 5 megapixels, 3 megapixels, and 1 megapixel.