Samsung L310W Review

The Samsung L310W is a 13.6 megapixel digital camera with a 3.6x wide angle zoom lens. It has more features than I am used to seeing within this price range. These include image stabilisation, a 2.7 inch LCD screen and a manual exposure mode. There are also some less common features such as a beauty mode for portraits.

Samsung has certainly packed in an array of features for the price. This is one of the cheapest cameras you will find with a manual exposure mode.

Outdoor 1 (Medium Zoom)
My initial impression is that the L310W has struggled with sharpness in this photo. 13 megapixels may give the idea that you should be able to make super sized prints, but the moment you print above snapshot size picture quality is not all it could be.

Outdoor 2 (No Zoom)
This is not a bad effort, but as parts of the scene get more distant focusing falls away quickly. I'm getting the impression Samsung may have been overambitious with the wide angle lens.

Outdoor 3 (Maximum Zoom)
With the lens zoomed in overall sharpness improves, but the right hand side of the picture is still somewhat softer than I am used to seeing. Up to this point I like the colours the camera has produced.

Outdoor 4 (Building)
The centre area of the shot is sharp enough, but again sharpness slips away. I would only give the L310W six out of ten for focusing.

Outdoor Portrait
A portrait shot in good lighting is probably the easiest test I carry out for the camera. The L310W does much better here. The photo has a warm glow and sharpness is a step up on my more distant scenic photos.

Indoor Portrait with Flash
Once again I have produced a disappointing shot. Out of a number of cameras I tested at the same time the L310W is the only one to have struggled with focus in this test.

Indoor Portrait without Flash
I guess I could make the same comment about my test without flash as the one with flash. This camera is just not working for me.

Colours
When it comes to the colours of the photos I have no complaints. Compared to other cameras the power of the colours is mid range in terms of strength.

Macro
This is not a bad effort when taking my other test shots into consideration. It's not pin sharp, but you should be able to produce the occasional close up snapshot.

ISO 400 and ISO 1600
Ironically the L310W does quite well at higher ISO setting compared to other similar digital cameras. There is still noise showing in my tests, but overall there is a little more definition than I am used to seeing.

Overall
Over time I have tested a number of Samsung digital cameras and felt that as a brand Samsung is a little underrated. The L310W has been disappointing though.

Shutter lag times without flash were a shade faster than I usually see. A single photo took 0.28 seconds. Five photos timed 14.98 seconds. A single shot with flash was a quick 0.49 seconds, while five timed a more standard 17.58 seconds.

The L310W took 2.62 seconds to turn on and take a picture. That's about average.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

This camera looks neat enough without really reaching out and grabbing you. It's a fairly typical rectangular shape with rounded corners. There is a choice of pink, brown, silver and black.

91.6 x 61 x 27mm

138g

Lithium ion (SLB-10A). Samsung supplies a battery and charger.

Samsung have built around 30mb of storage into the L310W. This is enough for around 11 photos. The camera is compatible with SD and SDHC memory cards.

Click here to save money on SD cards..

Average. I found the text used for the menu system to be pretty small. It may be o.k. for anyone with 20/20 vision, but otherwise you have to look closely to see what setting you are changing.

Photo help guide - features for the price.

Lack of sharpness - small menu text

It is hard to come up with a true alternative owing to the number of features Samsung have added in. The nearest I can come up with in terms of price is the Nikon Coolpix P60 The Coolpix P60 does not have the wide angle lens, but gives the L310W more than a run for its money when it comes to picture quality.

The idea of packing this range of features into a camera with a low price tag is very good in theory. I just wonder if too many compromises had to be made and from time to time picture quality suffers. My biggest question is has Samsung packed too many pixels onto the sensor? There are worse digital cameras than the Samsung L310W, but I wouldn't be in a hurry to buy this camera.

Front View

Back View

Top View

Sample Menu

Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Samsung L310W