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Samsung HZ15W Ratings,Reviews and Owners Manual

November 5th, 2009 • Filed Under•23 views

The Samsung HZ15W includes a world first 10x optical zoom and 24mm ultra wide angle Schneider lens and cements Samsung’s position as an innovator in the new and important High-zoom category – compact cameras equipped with the sort of advanced zoom lens technology traditionally seen only in SLR cameras.

Samsung HZ15W Digital Camera

Index of Samsung HZ15W Expert Reviews

DigitalCameraInfo—”Apart from the minor upgrades the HZ15W is one of the smallest ultra-zoom cameras available on the market. Competing with similar cameras from Panasonic and Canon the HZ15W offers 720p video recording, full manual controls and an impressive zoom range from 24mm wide angle up to 240mm telephoto. The zoom range isn’t as large as the 12x zoom offered by its competitors, but it is the widest angle lens on a camera in this class. We are a bit annoyed by the lack of thought put into the manual mode, however. Switching between aperture and shutter control is unintuitive. This is probably our biggest annoyance, and if you can live with it there’s a lot to like in the Samsung HZ15W.”
Digital Camera Resource—”The HZ15W won’t win any awards for its documentation. The only printed thing you’ll find in the box is a leaflet to get you up and running. For more details, you’ll want to open up the full manual, which is included in PDF form on a CD-ROM. The quality of the manuals themselves is typical of those from major consumer electronics manufacturers — average, at best. Documentation for the included software is installed onto your computer.”
cnet reviews—”The good: Good feature set; miniHDMI out; 24mm-equivalent wide-angle lens with 10x zoom. The bad: Subpar photo quality; menu system too spread out. The bottom line: The Samsung HZ15W has good parts and features, but ultimately disappoints on the whole.”

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There Are 3 Responses So Far. »

Comment by
D. Hentze (United States) on 5 November 2009:

Having owned a Panasonic TZ5 for over a year, when I received the HZ15W, physically they look like siblings. The HZ15W is loaded with features, that my TZ5 just doesn’t have though. Notably, manual controls, and a wider 24mm lens. The first negative thing I noticed about the HZ15W was apparent as soon as I opened the box. The included proprietary USB cable is no longer than maybe 2′. Since it’s needed to attach the camera to a computer, I found this ridiculous. When I was ready to load the pics from the camera to my desktop computer, the cable would not even reach my computer desk. I had to place the camera under my desk, on top of the computer to attach it. Enough about the cable though. After charging the battery, I set out and took about 100 pictures in all different conditions and modes. The battery started showing a low charge after about 100 pictures and a few minutes of video, which I consider fair at best. I found the camera very easy to use, and the controls well laid out. Settings were easy to find in the menus. After loading the pictures onto my computer, and printing a couple out, the results were mostly good, but there were some things I was disappointed in. Mainly in the “detail” of outdoor photos taken at ISO 80. There seemed to be a lot of blown detail, that shouldn’t happen at a low ISO. Apparently Samsung has squeezed too may MP into the HZ15W’s small sensor. I took several of the same pictures with my TZ5. the TZ5 was never known for “fine detail”, but IMO it had maintained more detail than the Samsung. This was very surprising and disappointing to me. One thing the Samsung excelled out was color. I thought the colors were among the best of any P&S camera I own. I took a few minutes of video, and it was “good” when viewed on my wide screen monitor. Sound was fair at best. About on par with the video of the Panasonic. All in all, the HZ15W is a good camera loaded with awesome features. I was slightly disappointed with the image detail, but it’s still a good choice for casual photography.

Pros:
Great 24mm wide angle 10x Schneider lens.
Manual controls.
Good 3″ screen.
Generally good results under all conditions. Great color.
Well built and designed.

Cons:
Short proprietary USB cable is a joke.
Battery life nothing special.
Pictures lack fine detail at low ISO.

[Reply]
Comment by
A. Johnston (TX) on 5 November 2009:

My previous multi-purpose camera was a Kodak with a 23mm wide-angle lens. I loved it, so in looking for a new camera, wide-angle was on the top of my must have features.

I must admit that the second or third thing on my list was HD Video recording (720p), though I know if you want incredible HD video, then you should buy an HD camera.

This is a great multi-purpose, point and shoot camera. But ultimately I ended up returning it.

Pros:
- The wide-angle lens is wonderful. You’ll never go back once you try a wide lens.
- After changing the settings from “normal” to “super-fine”, the pictures look great.

Cons:
- SOUND with video. The audio is REALLY low when recording video. I have to turn my media player and speakers up to 100% just to hear the audio normally. The microphones are on the sides of the camera, where you hands are. I’m not sure if this is why it doesn’t pick up sound well or not (I made sure not to cover them up). Why you wouldn’t put the mics on the front is beyond me. This was my ultimate reason for returning it. I contacted Samsung and even sent them a sample video, but never heard back.
- Colors with video. The color on photos is great. When taking video, the colors seem overly exaggerated and washed out (mostly when outside).
- Zoom. The zooming is not very responsive. Changing from zooming out to zooming in too quickly easily results in the zoom just not responding. You have to let go and wait a moment to continue zooming.
- Video quality. The video looks great, but you can pretty easily see the compression. But that’s to be expected since this is just a point and shoot camera that happens to do HD video too.

[Reply]
Comment by
J. White on 5 November 2009:

Have been testing out this camera for the last few days. The camera produces very good pictures indoors and out and exposure is right on in the vast majority of cases. The camera comes with 21 Mb of internal memory so it is possible to take a few pictures without an SD Card being inserted. I took about 250 photos over the weekend and the battery still had some charge left. Software is included for XP/Vista and it seemed to work fine. No software is included for Mac but I had no problem using the camera with OS 10.5.7. I tested out the ability to record HD movies and it worked great producing very satisfying video. The included wide angle lens is fabulous.

So what are the problems I found?

1). The camera does not have Aperture or Shutter Priority modes. The camera does however have a Manual Mode where Aperture and Shutter Speed can be selected.

2). The included Power Adapter cord is only about two feet long.

3). The battery can only be charged in the camera using the included Power Adapter. I could not find an optional battery charger on the Samsung website.

4.) The only available format is JPEG. No type of a RAW mode is provided.

5.) The User must purchase an optional HDMI cord to connect this camera to an HDTV. It will not work with a standard HDMI cable. A video cord is included for SD television.

6.) The audio level for video recording seems low.

The vast majority of the camera buying public will be satisfied with this camera. Serious photographers will miss the ability to use Aperture or Shutter Priority modes however.

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