I'm glad my other camera got stolen, so I could buy this one
Written: Jul 03 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great lens, many useful features
Cons: Some confusing features, a bit pricey
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| danielbeck's Full Review: Samsung Evoca 140S 35mm Film Camera |
I bought the Samsung Evoca 140S as a mid-vacation replacement for another -- the Konica Z-up 120VP -- which is presumably floating somewhere around the Barcelona black market right about now. They're welcome to the Konica -- I like the Evoca mu-u-u-uch better.
I bought the Evoca because, well, the only store in town had only two non-APS cameras available, and the other one was a $900 Leica. I also overpaid a bit, spending the US equivalent of $300 -- but the camera is well worth it. The photo quality is extremely sharp, thanks to the high-quality lens, most of the controls are well-designed and fairly easy to use (with some exceptions, though -- see below), and all the necessary features -- as well as a few not-so-necessary but very nifty ones -- are included.
Film loading is automatic, but not flawless -- on a couple of rolls the film jammed while loading and I had to try again, losing a frame or two of film in the process. (Both times the remainder of the roll worked fine from there on out, however, so this is a minor complaint.) Film rewinds automatically at the end of a roll, or can be rewound at any time by pressing a tiny recessed button on the camera bottom with the tip of a pen.
The shutter and the two-button zoom control are well-placed; I had no trouble finding it (and differentiating it from the power switch) with the camera held in either position. Zoom ranges from 38mm to 140mm; a nice touch is that the current value is displayed in the LCD screen on top of the camera. The tripod mount is oddly off-center, and is on the side farthest from the shutter release -- which could be a bit wobbly unless you use steady hands (or the remote control) to take the shot.
There are two groups of controls: a wheel on the front, where you choose which general mode you want; and a row of four buttons on the top which control the flash, timer, focus, and datestamp.
There are also two unusual controls on the back of the camera. One is a wheel which adjusts the focus of the viewfinder -- very useful if you wear glasses but prefer to look through the lens without them. The other is a switch which puts the camera into "panorama" mode. This is cute, but a bit of a sham: all it does is cover up part of the negative (and the viewfinder) to change the frame shape to that of a panoramic photo; if you send in the film to be developed normally, you'll end up with a standard-shape photo with black bars at the top and bottom -- like a movie that's been letterboxed for TV. If you're willing to cut the print to the right shape yourself, though, or can find a printer who'll do it for you, it'll still be a better-quality panoramic print than you'd get with an APS camera.
I had some trouble understanding some of the controls, and still haven't figured all of them out. The caveat here, of course, is that the only manual I have is in Italian, which I don't speak; so take this as what I was able to figure out by just playing with the thing.
Starting with the "mode" wheel:
"A" (for "auto", presumably) is where you'll have it set 90% of the time. If there isn't enough available light, it won't let you take the picture (which is either annoying or helpful, depending on your mood.)
"B" (for "like A, but different") uses long exposure times, for shooting at night. You'll generally want a tripod, or at least a solid object to place the camera on. If there's too much light for this mode it won't let you take the shot.
(Note with both the above that the flash can be controlled independently of the mode, which controls only aperture and shutter-speed -- which can be confusing at first, but gives you a great deal more control over lighting than most point-and-shoot cameras do.)
"Sport" uses very short exposure times, for taking pictures of moving objects. As above, if there's not enough light, it won't let you take the shot.
"Step" causes the camera to take three photos at different zoom levels -- starting zoomed in as far as you've set it, and progressively widening 38mm with each shot. There is a 10 second delay before the first shot, and 2 seconds before each of the others. I'm not entirely certain why anyone would want this mode -- maybe for a timed photo of someone who's being rapidly inflated? -- but it's there if you want it.
Continuous (represented by a stack-of-pages icon) will keep taking pictures as fast as it can (about every half-second; longer if you use flash) for as long as you hold down the shutter.
Mystery mode (represented by a small face icon) serves no purpose I can discern, despite much time spent with an Italian-English dictionary and the manual. (The best translation I can come up with is "to use this way in order to maintain constant dimensions within the frame, even if the distance of the subject can vary.") If anyone has this camera or the english version of the manual and can tell me what this is for, I'd be very appreciative.
There is also a small button in the center of the wheel, usable with any mode, which forces focus at infinity -- this is the "shooting-through-a-window" mode, which prevents you ending up with a picture of a window smudge. (Remember to turn the flash off if you use this, or you'll end up with a picture of a flashbulb reflection.)
Now for the row of buttons at the top:
The Flash control contains all the usual options, despite some confusing iconography: always-on, always-off, red-eye reduction, and auto. One minor complaint: when you turn the camera off, this -- and all the top-button settings -- always reverts to "Auto".
The Timer control has several different options: Off (duh), 10-second delay, 10-second delay followed by two shots in quick succession, 2-second delay, and "Interval". Interval is a nice time-lapse feature -- you can set it to take pictures anywhere from every 10 seconds to every 60 minutes. The camera shuts itself off between frames to save the battery, and keeps going until you run out of film or turn it off. All timer modes, including "Interval", flash a red light and display a countdown in the LCD screen a few seconds before each shot, so you can tell when it's coming.
The Focus control switches between auto mode, spot-focus (focus locks on the center of the frame), and "Snap" mode. Snap mode appears to simply adjust the zoom to 38mm when selected; as above, if anyone can come up with a better translation than "to use this way in order to photograph subjects that are not firm as domestic children or animals (difficult to put to fire)", I'd love to hear it. (I'm guessing "fuoco" translates to "focus" as well as to "fire". Sure hope so, anyway.)
And last but not least, the Date control allows you to stamp the date, time, or one of several caption messages on the front of each photo. As far as I'm concerned, the best thing about this feature is that it can be turned off, but if you're into that sort of thing, the captions which can be selected are "I Love You!", "A Happy Birthday", "Thank You", "Congratulations", "A Happy New Year", "Merry X-Mas", and "Hello!".
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
danielbeck
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Member: Daniel Beck
Location: Savoy, MA
Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 2 members
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