Samsung SL600 Review

The Samsung SL600 features a 12.2 megapixel image sensor and a Samsung-branded 5x optical zoom lens. The SL600's lens offers a 27 - 135mm equivalent focal range, a useful wide angle to a moderate telephoto. As you'd expect for an entry-level model, the SL600's lens lacks true optical image stabilization, with only Digital Image Stabilization available. The Samsung SL600's DIS function combats blur using the camera's firmware, automatically raising the camera's ISO sensitivity (and noise levels) as needed. There's also no optical viewfinder, with images being framed on a 2.7" LCD display with 230,000 dot resolution, which equates to around a 320 x 240 pixel array with three dots per color.

The SL600 also includes face detection capability with both smile and blink detection functions, which can be used to automatically capture a photo when everyone's smiling, and then retake the image if anybody blinks. There's also a "Beauty Shot" mode which smooths skin tones on detected faces. The face detection is also used to offer a Red-Eye Fix function which automatically locates and corrects for this common image defect. The Samsung SL600 also has a selection of scene modes aimed at keeping things approachable for beginner photographers while still offering a degree of control over images, plus a Smart Auto mode which automatically selects a scene mode as appropriate. The Samsung SL600 also has the ability to record movies in AVI format, at a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 pixels, with a framerate of just 30 frames per second max. Power comes from a proprietary lithium-ion battery.

The Samsung SL600 ships from Spring 2010. Pricing information was not available at press time.