Amazing quality at a bargain price!
Written: Jul 02 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: small buttons, plastic body
Cons: superb lens, great price
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| roadcat1's Full Review: Samsung Evoca 140S 35mm Film Camera |
With 40 years of photo experience (and many years of darkroom work) I am very picky about quality. I use Leica and Nikon equipment with dozens of cameras in my arsenal. I was looking for a "point and shoot" zoom camera to take on an exotic vacation to Russia and needed something that did not look conspicuous. I certainly did not want to sacrifice the quality of my photos and chose the cameras that I did by reputation of the lenses. I narrowed my search down to 2 cameras; The Leica Minilux Zoom and the Samsung Evoca 140S. This particular Samsung model has a Schneider lens and is extremely sharp. Both cameras that I was testing appeared to be made of metal, but in fact the Samsung has a metallic painted finish on plastic. (Of course the zoom range between the 2 cameras are different with the Samsung extending to 140mm and the Leica only going to 70mm) Most of the other Samsung models do NOT have this lens and instead have a plastic lens typical of most point and shoot cameras. I purchased both cameras with the agreement that I could return either one within a week's time. I ran a couple of rolls of film through both of the cameras and attempted to take the identical shot on each camera. I carried both cameras with me and as soon as I would take a shot with one camera, I would take the same shot with the other. As a test, this was a real eye opener for me!
I was careful to try to duplicate everything in this test. I used the same type of film, shot both exposures-one after the other without changing my position, got the film processed at the same time/same store, etc... And here are the results:
Both cameras produced razor sharp images and this is quite a statement considering that the Leica camera is $900 and the Samsung was around $180. The differences were more apparent in the metering system. In scenes where there was a sharp difference in lighting from the outside corners to the center, the Leica was more accurate at "spot" metering. The Leica "nailed" the correct exposure for the middle of the picture and was not "fooled" by the difference in light. The Samsung tried to expose for the entire frame and consequently overexposed the center. The shot that I am referring to was a scene that I captured looking through a "frame" of tree branches and foliage with a beautiful river view in the center.
The autofocus on both cameras worked well and got it right almost all the time. Both cameras misfocused once on each roll of film. What amazed me was the fact that it was a different picture for each camera that fooled the autofocus.
The negatives for the Samsung have to do with the ergonomics and construction of the camera. At this price point I realize that you can not get everything. The Leica is expensive not only because of it's "world class" lens, but because of it's titanium body (and it's NAME). The Samsung is a very light weight plastic body. It has very small-rubberized buttons for the controls and I found that I had to use my fingernail to press them. The viewfinder, while having a diopter control, has distortion. The very top of the image will not be sharp in the viewfinder even after turning the diopter control to achieve sharpness in the middle. (cheap plastic viewfinder window)
So...in conclusion, what do you get for around $180 is a point and shoot camera with an amazingly sharp lens that is capable of giving you super quality photos.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
roadcat1
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 2 members
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