Digital Cameras Ratings: Samsung TL34HD 14.7MP Digital Camera with 3.6x Schneider Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Silver) Review

Average Reviews:
3.9 out of 5 stars

(More customer reviews)I recently acquired this camera and it has received mixed reviews around the web and not so good reviews here on Amazon. But after having spent some time with this camera, I have a very positive impression of it. Instead of blowing up the picture to 500 percent and looking for purple fringing, I looked at it from the aspect of "how good is an 8 by 10 printout? And, "How good does it look on a TV or a computer screen? Real issues and not the technical aspects of the output.

And to me, the photos it takes are excellent. Crisp and clean, with good color representation - not extreme or unnatural. The pictures have a decent amount of blowup range before becoming pixelated. Slightly ;less than a decent SLR, but still good. The flash is a bit underpowered, but still is sufficient for most needs. The touch screen is a superb idea. Most people won't bother with the manual comtrols of a point and shoot becasue they are usually buried in menus and difficult to get to. But the on screen system used here makes it very easy (and quick) to get to common manual controls. This is the first point and shoot camera that I felt like even bothering with the manual controls.

The video also seems to work and look fine. The 320 by 240, 60 frames per second output doesn't look much different than the 640 by 480 30 frames per second movie, other than the obvious resolution difference. But the 640 resolution looks sharp and with good color and is playable on most decently powered computers.

The camera also has a 1280 by 720 High Defintion (720p) resolution. It plays well on the camera, but you need a fairly powerful PC or Mac to play it on, and even then it's a bit jerky. But that's the fault with HD on a computer and not a camera problem. But the camera does not include an HD cable for connection to a TV (just RCA and USB cables are included) and that's a major downpoint since you must buy a fairly expensive dock to do that. A very bad call on Samsung's part. I also did not experience any lockups of strange problems that someone in Amazon have reported. Maybe a newer firmware?

But overall, this is a good, durable (metal body) camera to take with you when an SLR is just too inconvenient.

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Product Description:
The new Samsung TL34HD is a powerful, sleek and compact digital camera featuring high-definition video capability. TL34HD boasts an impressive resolution of 14.7 megapixels and renowned Schneider lens yielding a 28mm wide-angle focal length with 3.6x optical zoom. The most advanced point and-shoot digital camera in Samsung's history, the TL34HD builds upon the success of its predecessor, the NV24HD, taking many of that camera's advanced features to a whole new level. Featuring an all-metal build, the TL34HD is pocket-sized but features a large, 3-inch touch-screen LCD screen that dominates the back of the camera and is sure to turn heads no matter where the TL34HD may be used. The TL34HD can also record video in 720p high-definition resolution, at a maximum frame rate of 30fps. Shooters can also take advantage of a movie stabilizer and optical zoom while recording video, as well as Samsung's Successive Recording mode, which allows the user to pause and then resume filming without having to save the clips as individual files. Additionally, the TL34HD utilizes H.264 compression, a codec for high-definition video that yields three times the recording length of MPEG4.