Samsung MV800

The Samsung MV800 ($279.99 list) is a compact camera that has been designed around one distinct feature: its flip-out touch-screen LCD. The slim shooter may be the perfect camera to capture the arm's length self-portraits that invariably find a home as a Facebook profile picture.?This isn't Samsung's first foray into this type of camera. The Dual View TL225 ($349.99, 4 stars), has a front-facing LCD and was good enough to earn our Editors' Choice award.?Sadly, the MV800 doesn't live up to its predecessor's pedigree. The tilting LCD isn't a bad thing?I love that feature on the Sony Alpha NEX-5N ($699.99, 4.5 stars). The problem is that the MV800 only manages photos with so-so sharpness and doesn't do well in lower light. Because of this, the Canon PowerShot Elph 310 HS ($259.99, 4 stars) remains our Editors' Choice for mid-range compacts, even though it lacks some of the bells and whistles found on the MV800.

Design and Features
The MV800 is a light and slim camera, one that can easily slide into your shirt pocket. It measures just 2.2 by 3.6 by 0.7 inches (HWD) and weighs about 4.3 ounces. It's actually smaller and lighter than the Canon Elph 310 HS, which measures 2.2 by 3.8 by 0.9 inches and weighs 4.9 ounces. Samsung advertises the camera as a 16-megapixel model, but by default the camera only captures 12-megapixel photos. The sensor is a 4:3 aspect ratio, but out of the box the camera is configured to shoot 16:9 images. To get the full resolution, you'll need to adjust the settings to capture 4:3 photos.

The 5x zoom lens? covers a 26-130mm (35mm equivalent) field of view. This is a pretty nice zoom range for the camera, especially on the short end, as a wider-than-normal lens is ideal for closer shots. It isn't as wide as the 21mm-equivalent fixed focal length lens found on the Casio Tryx ($249.99, 3.5 stars), another camera built around the self-photo concept.

There are few buttons to speak of, the camera's rear is dominated by the 3-inch LCD. The screen itself is bright and crisp, so you won't have any trouble using it outdoors on a sunny day. A Power button, shutter release, and zoom rocker are located up top, and the Home button and Image Playback button are located on the rear, to the right of the LCD. When you flip up the display, a second shutter release is revealed on the rear of the camera, allowing you to fire a shot when the lens and LCD are facing you. If you want to exercise any sort of manual control over the camera, you'll have to do it via the touch screen.?

Thankfully, the touch interface is pretty responsive. Although it doesn't support multi-touch input, you can swipe to scroll through photos. The camera utilizes it well for its menu system. Hitting the home button brings up an icon-based menu screen that grants access to all of the camera's shooting modes. The standard modes are there?Auto, Program, Movie, and Scene?as well as some that you won't find on every camera including 3D image capture, panoramas, and a Self Shot mode. Self Shot shows a flattering self-portrait of a model in the corner, so you'll be able to emulate one of 11 poses to create a similar shot. Other special shooting modes allow you to create a picture-in-picture effect, add an artistic frame to your photo, or apply funhouse mirror distortion to faces.

Performance and Conclusions
Not a particularly speedy camera, the MV800 takes about 2.3 seconds to start up and grab a shot, requires you to wait a full 1.6 seconds between photos, and records a 0.4-second shutter lag. Its performance is on par with the Panasonic Lumix DHC-FH27 ($229.99, 2.5 stars). That point-and-shoot starts in 2 seconds, requires 2.3 seconds to recycle between shots, and records a 0.4-second shutter lag.

I used the Imatest software suite to measure the sharpness and image noise in photos captured by the MV800. The camera recorded a center-weighted sharpness score of 1,475 lines per picture height, well shy of the 1,800 lines that denote a sharp image. Our Editors' Choice, the Canon PowerShot Elph 310 HS, did much better in tests. It was able to capture 1,857 lines, which is significantly sharper.

Equally lacking in low-light performance, the MV800 was only able to keep image noise below 1.5 percent through ISO 200, a setting which is really only good for use outdoors or in brightly lit interiors. When an image is composed of more than 1.5 percent noise, it becomes noticeably grainy. Another touch-screen camera, the Canon PowerShot Elph 500 HS fared much better, snapping clean images through ISO 800.

Video is captured in 720p30 format. The quality is nothing to write home about?details are not as crisp as they could be and colors are a bit flat. You can zoom while recording, but the camera has a hard time reacquiring focus after doing so, leaving you with out-of-focus footage. The MV800 can connect directly to your HDTV thanks to a micro HDMI port, and you get a standard micro USB port for PC connectivity. The camera uses microSD memory for recording, which can be a bit more expensive?and easier to lose?than the standard, larger SD cards.

Although it succeeds in packing a lot of filters and gimmicks into its svelte body, the MV800 fails in its ability to capture sharp images and suffers greatly in lower light. While the flip-out screen is a fun feature, the camera it is attached to is disappointing, especially when you consider the price. For $20 less, you can opt for our Editors' Choice, the very capable Canon PowerShot Elph 310 HS. You won't get the flipping LCD, but you will get an 8x zoom lens and top-notch speed and performance.? If a touch screen is a necessity, the Elph 500 HS makes a lot of sense, as it's a better performer, and is priced only $20 higher than the MV800. Its LCD won't flip to face you, so you'll just have to use some guesswork when you're trying to capture your own mug.

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