The Samsung WB850F is a new long zoom camera that Samsung has dubbed a Smart Camera. At a glance, this camera looks like a real powerhouse with a 16.2 megapixel sensor, 21x optical zoom, Wi-Fi connectivity, and GPS. It can also record video in full HD. What’s amazing is that all of this is crammed into a compact package that is only a bit larger than your average point-and-shoot compact camera. The question is, can the WB850F’s excellent features produce photos that are just as amazing as its specs?
The last camera I looked at that was similar to the WB850F was the FujiFilm FinePix F770EXR. The dimensions of both cameras are quite similar with very similar features and specs. The main difference here is that the WB850F has both Wi-Fi network capabilities and GPS. Both are very good cameras, but the Samsung WB850F edges out the F770EXR in both features build quality. If you read the review on the F770EXR, you’ll know that I was pretty impressed with that camera and so was my wife which borrowed it from me quite a number of times. Out of all the compact cameras I’ve used, it was her favorite, until now that is. The Samsung WB850F just took at honor.
Body & Design
With the Samsung WB850F however, I was pleasantly surprised that the camera lived up to most of my initial impressions. For the 2 weeks that I’ve had it, it’s been a solid, strong camera that never felt like it was ever going to break on me. There is very little give with the camera when you flex it which again gives it a feeling of quality and durability. Even parts that normally feel really flimsy on other cameras like the popup flash mechanism feel really strong here, or at least stronger than other cameras I’ve seen.
One of the things about the FujiFilm F770EXR that felt a bit flimsy was the lens mechanism where when it was fully extended, if you were to hold it and wiggle it around a bit, it felt really wobbly and weak. With the Samsung, this is not the case. The lens mechanism does have a tiny bit of give but feels a lot more stable than the F770EXR. Fit and finish seems much better here. The lens also extends and retracts quite smoothly and quietly.
The only real issue I had with the WB850F is that depending on how I hold the camera, the palm of my hand would sometimes accidentally push down on the “delete” button on the bottom right corner of the camera. That button only functions in certain modes, but it still is a bit annoying if you’re trying to frame a shot and then accidentally tap the button with your palm where it’ll usually through you back into the home menu of the mode your in. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.
Other than that 1 issue, I was very satisfied with the overall build and quality of the Samsung WB850F and felt very comfortable and natural using it. I never had to really fumble through awkward button placements or do finger gymnastics to reach any crucial options. I do however wish that the faux function ring around the lens actually worked and did something.
Operations & Features
Now if all that sounds a bit complicated, but you still want to have some control, you can manually select scene types by going into SCN mode. There are 8 basic scene modes to choose from, most are pretty standard types like sunset, night time shooting, and portrait mode. I’ve seen more scene modes with other cameras however and these 8 are as basic as they get. I’ve never really found the preselected scene modes that useful and in my case, I never use them at all. I like to stick with using the P, A,S, & M modes and will occasionally use Auto selection modes when I’m feeling lazy.
The WB850F though does come with a few really cool artistic type features that I’ll list below.
- Panoramic mode on the WB850F is rather good and all you need to do is pan and sweep the camera over the area you want to shoot as a panoramic. It records the data and then stitches it all together. It’s very similar to what Sony does with their cameras.
- 3D photo mode – which I don’t really care for and all it lets you do is capture 3D photos so you can view them on a compatible TV.
- Magic frame – allows you to take photos with a variety of different framing effects. Split Shot mode allows you to take several photos and arrange them into several preset layouts. This is similar to apps like PicStitch that you see in the iOS App Store.
- Picture in Picture mode – allows you take a photo of a background and then overlay a video of photo on top of it.
- Artistic Brush mode – this mode has 3 different sub modes within it. You can make your photos look like ink paintings, cartoons, or pencil sketches. This mode is actually kind of neat and I’m sure a lot of people will make use of this mode.
- HDR mode – this mode seems pretty standard now with most cameras as I’m seeing more and more cameras including this as an in-camera option.
- Creative Movie Maker mode – allows you to edit and create a movie with a storyline. I honestly am not too sure how this mode works as recording video with photo cameras is not really that big of an interest to me. Yes I do sometimes take video with my cameras, but I’m not really that big on editing videos.
I didn’t really get to use the GPS features like I wanted to because it requires a map download through the desktop software which I just didn’t have time to do before I left on my trip. That means as much as I wanted to try out the mapping features, I just couldn’t.
Wi-Fi Image Sharing
For starters, it can do exactly what the FujiFilm XP170 did by downloading the available Samsung MobileLink app from the App Store (I’m using this on an iPhone). To use it, first activate MobileLink on the camera itself. It will turn the WB850F into a Wi-Fi access point. On your iPhone, go into settings > Wi-Fi and then connect to the Wi-Fi network created by the camera. Close settings and then start the Samsung MobileLink app on your device. The app will automatically link to the camera and display all images you set to share from the camera. You can either set it to all images or select images. This way, if you’re sharing photos with someone else, they won’t be able to see all the images on the camera if you only select a couple to share. Once you confirm which images you want to transfer to your device, just tap the transfer button and let it do its magic. Very simple process, just like on the XP170. Images will then show up in your Camera Roll album.
You also are not limited to social networks. The WB850F also gives you the option to upload it to Microsoft’s Skydrive, email photos to friends, or beam them to a compatible TV for viewing.
I really didn’t use any of these extra Wi-Fi features but I’m glad that Samsung included them as part of the feature set. I’d like to see an update in the future that allows for more options such as support for Flickr as well as Twitter and maybe even Dropbox support. In the mean time, the features included should satisfy most people one way or another.
Image Quality
Here’s the one area that is really most important to me when it comes to looking at cameras. Sure I want a camera that can do all the neat stuff like image filters, manual controls, Wi-Fi connectivity and a good zoom, but in the end, all of those things don’t matter if the image quality doesn’t deliver. Image quality is really the most important area I look for when looking for a camera so if it doesn’t deliver, it gets crossed off my list. Luckily, the WB850 isn’t one of those cameras. The image samples below have not been post processed, they’ve only been resized for web use.
Image quality from the WB850 is excellent. In most cases, the images were very sharp and full of detail with almost no noise at all. I had a chance to use it both indoors and outdoors and in both situations, image quality was excellent. Obviously shooting photos indoors yielded a tiny bit of noise, but that’s to be expected.
The WB850F also did a great job rendering rich colors that never looked blotchy or muddy looking.
What I really found impressive was the long-zoom capability and how well the in-camera image stabilization worked. The image above was taken at full zoom, or a moving vehicle from inside another moving vehicle. In instances like this, the image would have been a blurry mess, but the WB850F had no trouble capturing it.
Overall, you can see that the images are very good for a point and shoot. They are very comparable to the similar FujiFilm F770EXR but edges it out a bit which is no easy task considering how much more experience FujiFilm has in this game. You can check out more samples here in my samples gallery post.
Final Thoughts
What I’m most impressed with here is the the image quality and ease of use. Yes all the extra features and the ability to transfer images over Wi-Fi and the included GPS are great features to have, but in the end, what I’m looking for is a camera that takes good photos with a high amount of detail and because my wife likes to use some of my cameras, something simple to use where she doesn’t have to ask me a million questions in order to use it.
I let my wife use this camera for for part of the time I had it and she absolutely fell in love with it because of how easy it was to use, the long-zoom capabilities, and the plain fact that all the photos she took looked great. She really likes these cameras with the long zoom because she isn’t really the type that likes to get super close to her subjects in order to get the shot. She takes a lot of pictures of the kids and most of the time, they are running around on the playground or on the field playing a sport so she’s usually on the sidelines. This lets her get in close to the action without having to actually be close. She also really loved being able to upload directly to Facebook from the camera without first having to transfer them to a computer and then upload them to Facebook. This came in handy when we were on vacation and I didn’t bring my laptop with me. She was able to directly upload them to Facebook.
Overall, the the Samsung WB850F is a camera I would definitely go out and buy on my own. It has every feature I’d want in a camera and more. The only complaint I have about it is the lack of RAW shooting, but it’s not something that would keep me from buying this, especially since I wouldn’t be the primary user of the camera, my wife would be.
Shop Links
Samsung WB850F – Samsung WB850F 16 MP Smart Long Zoom Digital Camera