Customer Reviews

Samsung 12.2MP Dig Camera 4.6X Wide Ang Opt Zm Purple

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I highly recommend this camera! I've needed a new camera for awhile now and for the past few months, intensely researched all of the new models coming out for the Fall. To begin with, I had my heart set on either the Sony TX1 or the Canon 980IS (both new), but after initial reviews of those cameras, I got nervous and decided to look elsewhere. One day, I saw the commercial for the Samsung TL225 and immediately I was in love! After some research, I knew the TL225 was the camera for me.

I find the camera itself to be lightweight and easy to hold. It's a gorgeous looking camera, with a sleek black casing and a pretty purple stripe on the sides. From my experience so far (I've had the camera about two weeks now) the touch screen works really well. As soon as my finger hits the screen, the camera reacts. I've had issues in the past with shutter lag, but not with this camera! As soon as I hit the button to take a picture, the picture is taken immediately. I'm still getting the hang of all the different features, but one that I absolutely love is the front LCD screen! It's so simple to take a picture of yourself! The zoom is 4.6 and that's plenty for me as a college student who mostly takes travel photos and social pictures of myself and my friends. The "Smart Auto" mode is really useful (the camera adjusts on its own to suit the environment you're taking the photo in).

This camera is absolutely worth the $320+ I paid for it.

With roughly 3.8 gazillion arm's length self portraits posted on Facebook, it's amazing that Samsung is the only manufacturer to put a screen on the FRONT of the camera. Pure genius. They must have a rock-solid patent claim. If you want to eliminate the aiming guesswork and see yourself while taking an "armie" (as my GF so eloquently calls it), then the Samsung TL 220 & 225 are presently the only game in town.

Samsung takes it a step further by pre-programming cute little animations that you can play on the front screen to grab the attention of children, young and old. This works out quite nicely when trying to get a young child to actually look at the camera. Another stroke of genius.

In addition to its unique front screen, Samsung adds the best touch screen this side of an iPhone. The TL 225 steps up with a gorgeously high resolution 3.5" LCD that dominates the back of the camera. In fact it replaces nearly every button and control you expect to find on a digital camera. The only buttons are (of course) power, shutter, & zoom, plus a button to quickly toggle between shooting & playback--which is a joy with its 1.1 million pixel resolution.

Samsung takes a cue from Apple, adding gestures to the touch screen control. For example, to delete a picture you can swipe an "X" on the screen (don't worry, it asks you if you are sure before the picture erased.) They even do the iPhone interface one better with haptic feedback, i.e. you feel the virtual "buttons," thanks to a vibration as your finger touches each command. This also works nicely.

Thanks to the front screen and awesome touch screen, the camera is sure to become the talk of every party you bring it to. So where does this camera go wrong? Well for one, picture quality leaves a bit to be desired. In spite of 12.2 MP plus optical AND digital image stabilization, WAY WAY too many of the shots come out blurry. It may not be the camera's optics or electronics as much as the ridiculous length of time many photos require to snap. I don't know if its the "blink detection", "smile shot", or "face recognition" but many, if not most, photos seem to take forever to snap. It's so frustrating to tell an increasingly annoyed bunch of people, "ok, keep smiling, it will just be any second now...any second now...keep smiling...oh for the love of Pete...WTF...SNAP!...ugh..."

But that's not the main reason I was let down by this camera that just seemed absolutely perfect for my favorite shutterbug; its potentially greatest asset can quickly become its Achilles heel. After just 6 months of ownership, I pulled the camera out of my pocket to snap a picture...and was met with a dark screen and a nasty spider crack in the LCD. There was no warning, no incident, no drop, no fall. One minute the camera was taking photos fine, the next minute it was a $300 paper weight.

Since the touch screen performs nearly ever function, there's no way to effectively use the camera. There's not even a viewfinder to manually aim the camera. The camera still takes pictures. The touch screen still functions as the haptic feedback still registers. There's not even a perceptible flaw in the exterior glass. The crack appears to be only inside the camera.

As I said there was no accident to speak of. The crack occurred while inside my pocket, which has served without fail as the home of iPhones 2G, 3G, 3GS, as well as numerous digicams, calculators, etc. I can only assume the design of the TL225's body is insufficient to safely support its large LCD. Clearly its body too easily flexes beyond the LCD's structural limits.

And now I'm saddled with a $300 paperweight until I hear back from Samsung service. They say the repair will be $91 if they determine that abuse negates the warranty. I'm guessing they will pass the buck faster than Toyota. My concern is that I'll still have a poorly designed camera that must always be handled with kid gloves, not to mention the nearly $400 invested for a compact digicam that actually doesn't take pictures any better than a basic $150-200 model.

My recommendation is to stick with the companies whose reputation lives and dies with cameras, such as Canon, Olympus, Nikon. Come to think of it maybe they knew better than squeeze two screens, one almost as big as the camera itself, into a compact plastic digicam. The front screen is cool, but not worth the headache of a weak design--or the $100 premium--over a comparable camera.

This is a great little camera with a ton of options. The camera has a GREAT touch screen that makes the photos come alive. I will give you a simple breakdown with the PROS and CONS.

PROS
- Great touch screen
- 2nd display screen
- Beauty mode for clearer pictures
- 12 megapixels
- Solid value
- Top notch face recognition mode

CONS
- Only a 5x zoom

The camera does everything it promises to do. I took a lot of time to research different point and shoot cameras and this one meets just about all my needs. It comes with a detailed instruction disk that should definitely be read. The camera has so many features that it is hard to keep track of. The good thing is that you don't have to remember them all to take great photos. If you are able to spend some time with it, you will want to know more and test out all the features. If you want a small feature packed camera at a decent price then this may be the one for you. The average zoom is my only real complaint but it is not a deal breaker. I have a family member and co-worker getting this camera now.

I have been on a marathon search for a new camera for 5 months now. I read endless reviews and actually purchased two cameras which I returned.

Then arrived this great camera! I immediately fell in love with it. The touch screen is amazing, and once I read the manual on the disc, I learned how to use the menus quickly and efficiently. The camera is very lightweight (good to use the attached lanyard) and it is great looking. The self-portrait feature is really fun.

But, what I like the most about it is the fast response, and the STUNNING quality of the photos it takes. The smart auto mode really is smart, unlike the other two cameras I tried. I am still playing with all the different modes, and am anxious to get outside when it stops raining for a moment :) But, inside shots, even in low light, turn out amazingly clear.

Everything about this camera just feels "right", and I highly recommend it!

We got this camera for Christmas and have used it for a couple of weeks now. The big touch screen is excellent. But since the entire back is touch screen, you can't help but make accidental touches and change some random setting. I agree with some of the reviews that the picture quality is so-so. In bright light or flash, it's good. But medium-light shots that you think would not require flash come out grainy and splotchy.

We absolutely love the front LCD. Our 18 month daughter never wants to pose for a shot because she wants to always see the screen. Now she's happy looking at the screen in front! We've also used the timer feature and the countdown on the front screen is great. The movie quality is good too, maybe better than still photo quality. Despite the great features, a 12MP camera should take good pictures hence the 3-star rating.

I really wanted to get this camera because of the dual view. While this is a nice feature, it is not worth losing the quality of the picture. Although you can get everyone's face in the shot, it is rarely centered. The view screen on the front does not align exactly with the screen on the back, which is actually taking the picture. So, most times, you get a bunch of extra background on one side (or another, if you over-correct) that you did not intend to be in the picture. But, it is definitely better than not having the screen at all. It just could have been aligned better by Samsung.

If you have a young child, you may want to reconsider purchasing this camera. I bought this camera to take pictures of my 19 month old son. When taking a picture inside with the flash, his eyes are closed/ half closed in almost every picture. I am very disappointed about this, as this is my main purpose for this camera! You probably get one really nice picture for every 25-35 that you take. When you turn the flash off, the picture is terrible. Since a small child is a moving target, the picture comes out all blurry. When outside, the pictures turn out fine. So, it is just not a good camera if you plan on taking pictures of a child. That being said, it is a decent camera for a teen/ young adult who would only be taking pictures of other teens/ young adults.

The only other thing that I am disappointed with is the clarity of the picture. I went from a 10 MP Canon to this 12 MP Samsung. I thought that the picture would be better on the Samsung. But, I don't believe it is. I have not yet downloaded my pictures from the camera to the computer. Unless the clarity changes from the camera screen to the computer screen, the pictures on my 10 MP Canon were noticeably better. It was also much nicer for taking pictures of my son. It broke, which is why I needed a new one.

I do a lot of shopping online, so I know how helpful customer reviews can be to the online shopper trying to find the best item for the best price. The price from Amazon was not the best. But, it was the best price for the best service, I believe. I did find this camera about $30 cheaper at Abe's of Maine. However, the customer reviews on Abe's of Maine were pretty bad. Not only do they supposedly call and pester you to buy more things, but some customers said that the shipping time could take up to a month. I needed this camera for a vacation in Florida. So, I spent a little extra for the Amazon service. It was worth it to me to know that the camera would get here on time. I did not listen to other customers who said a lot of the same things that I am saying. I thought that the dual view was worth losing a little bit of clarity, which may have been true if I didn't have these issues taking pictures of my son. It is not a terrible picture, just not as crisp as the pictures from my Canon.

All in all, I probably would have loved this camera before I had my son. Knowing that there are better cameras out there that would better suit my needs, I probably would not purchase this camera again. Like I said previously, it is a good camera for teens/ young adults. The only worthwhile reason to purchase this camera it the dual view. If you want to take pictures of small children or if you want a crisper picture, go for a Canon. There may be other brands out there that are also good. But, I can only speak for what I have used. I hope this helps someone!

I got this for my daughter, as she wanted a camera with a front screen. This was the only one we could find with this feature. Luckily, it turns out this is a very nice camera. It works as advertised. Does not seem to include the cable needed for jacking into the TV. Pic and Video quality are great. For a handy sized point and click camera this one's hard to beat.

Forget that Jeff guy who broke his in his pocket and blamed it on build quality issues and all those negative comments. This camera works flawlessly. If people are complaining about blurry pictures, obviously the image stabilization is off. Leaving the camera in Automatic or SmartAuto is a no brainer to take perfect pics every time. This camera was first tested out in nearly pitch black darkness. We planned a surprise party, the only light was one birthday candle in a cake and i said "ah what the hell lets try it" thinking itd be a terrible quality photo from lack of light, i took 3 pictures in the darkness, all three were perfect quality well lit pictures we posted that very night. i was hooked from then. touch screen works great, definitely an attention grabber. and i got it fairly cheap from BigValue Inc on here for 200. DO RECOMMEND!

Pros:
Picture Quality
Auto/SmartAuto does the work for you
Good video quality
Price
Dual LCD really helps out

Cons:
Wish it was cheaper still
SLIGHT delay in pressing shutter to actual snap of picture

Love the dual screen and beauty shoot features, the image quality is better than Canon sd980 I bought before, the touch screen is nice. The beauty shoots get me addict to it, I can't take a picture with other cameras any more:).I called it a Photoshop camera. All my girlfriends wanted to go for it!

The big complain about this camera: Freeze a lot, slow. But after you got beautiful shoots, those can't be ignored:)

Overall, love it, can't live without it! Very impressed about Samsung's unique technologies!

Although the price might be a bit high. This camera is great. I love the front LCD since this is the first camera to implement it. It is a great idea. It takes great pictures and the shutter speed is quite fast. I often try and take pictures of my dogs and they look away quick so you have to be quick on the draw for pictures. This camera is perfect. I am still figuring out all the little settings and tweaks you can make but overall picture quality is fantastic.