Samsung L73 Review

The Samsung L73 combines a seven megapixel CCD imager and a Samsung NV-branded 3x optical zoom lens with a fairly standard 35 - 105mm equivalent focal range. For framing images, the L73 forgoes any form of optical viewfinder - increasingly rare on digicams these days - in favor of a large, high resolution 2.5" LCD display with 230,000 pixels. The lack of an optical viewfinder, while not unusual, is a shame since they add a good degree of versatility - letting you get the shot when you can't make out the LCD in bright sunlight, or save battery life by disabling the LCD when accurate framing isn't vital.

The Samsung L73 has eleven scene modes to help beginners achieve the results they're looking for without the need to comprehend shutter speeds, apertures and the like. The L73 determines exposures with multi, center-weighted or spot metering, and offers 2.0EV of exposure compensation in 1/3EV increments. Seven white balance settings are available including an auto mode, five presets and the ability to measure a custom white balance. ISO sensitivity is controlled automatically or manually, ranging from 50 to 1600. The Samsung L73 also offers a movie mode, capturing clips at up to 800 x 592 pixel resolution with audio, using MPEG-4 compression.

Images are stored on Secure Digital / MultiMediaCards, or in 19MB of internal memory. Power for the L73 comes from a proprietary Lithium Ion battery, and the L73 comes bunded with Digimax Master software.

The Samsung L73 will ship this Spring, at a suggested price of US$299.99.