A stunning 13 Megapixel sensor, a wide angle lens and 2.7'' LCD screen: these are three main attractions of Samsung's new L310W.

Handling

This camera feels solid, with a well thought-out case and your choice of colors from chocolate brown, silver and electric pink.  The back of the camera has a top quality 2.7'' screen, even though the vertical viewing angles are a little narrow.  It has a 230 000 pixel resolution and the interface is very basic with a very simple set of controls.

Navigating through the menus is very simple, with a scroll wheel allowing you to quickly change modes (video, automatic, playback ...)  Basic settings like film speed and ISO are controlled directly via theFn key, a good idea that it seems Samsung has borrowed from Fujifilm's F button.


In general, the camera is fast enough, even though there are one or two points where it goes too slowly, especially the time you have to wait while one photo is savingbefore you can take the next. 

Focusing is very quick, though, and autofocus is almost instantaneous in good daylight.  At maximum zoom, it takes 0.8 seconds.  Powering the camera up takes 1.3 seconds, which is perfectlyacceptable.

Of course, the 13 Megapixel resolution makes burst mode pretty slow--just 0.8 fps.  There is a fast burst mode, though, with a much lower resolution of 640 x 480 pixels producing bursts of up to 6 fps.

Image Quality

Samsung is not the first manufacturer to go for 13 Megapixels (or even more) in a digital compact camera: the Sony DSC-300W, the Canon Ixus 980 IS, the Nikon Coolpix S710 and the Panasonic DMC-FX150 all match the sensor on the Samsung L310W, to name just a few.

Such big sensors generally give good results, even though Samsung's lens sometimes struggles to provide enough detail, especially around the edge of the frame.  It's still possible to make perfectlyusable A4 prints, and there are no particularly noticeable problems.  The flash in particular gives great results, on both landscape scenes and portraits.

With a 13 Megapixel sensor, the handling of electronic noise that can creep in is a major concern.  Up to 200 ISO, the L310W produces sharp, accurate images with little blurriness.  Beyond that, though,Samsung's image handling is a little too powerful and details rapidly disappear.

One strong point is the inclusion of a double stabilization system, which adds some punch, and the macro mode is there too, working at distances of up to 5 cm.


White balancing is neutral enough up to 400 ISO, but beyond that, at 800 and 1600 ISO it becomes a little too warm.  At 3200 ISO, the camera drops down to 3Megapixels.


Video Quality

Video mode produces acceptable results, with Samsung also adding a 800 x 590 video mode at 20 fps alongside the usual 640 x 480.  Although slightly more detailed, the picture is, of course, less fluid. 

You can use the optical zoom while recording video, but the autofocus doesn't work too well, and you'll need to wait a few moments before you get a sharp picture.