Received my new Samsung Wb500 / HZ10W last Friday and I'm LO

[Transit29]

Thanks again for your help. I downloaded the files. The zoomseems a tad jerkier than my current Canon S1 , but it is a world better than the Kodak Z1280 I got last year that I thought would answer my compact hopes but failed.

The Zoom noise is OK, not great, but again much better than the Lumix which sounds like a heavy zipper! Much of what I'm filming will be in noisy environments anyway, so it may well be obscured.

One thing that did like was that my PC seemed to do OK playing these HD Files with only modest stilting. The MOV files the Kodak gave me were extremely stilted, though it may be since I had faster movement in my subject matter.

*EDIT: Upon playing the clips in Media Player instead of the Zune shell, they look a great deal better and smoother. OK, you made up my mind - now if only Amazon or B&H will get their order in, I can put mine in!

Cheers!

[PalmBeer]

Transit29 wrote:

Thanks again for your help. I downloaded the files. The zoomseems a tad jerkier than my current Canon S1 , but it is a world better than the Kodak Z1280 I got last year that I thought would answer my compact hopes but failed.

The Zoom noise is OK, not great, but again much better than the Lumix which sounds like a heavy zipper! Much of what I'm filming will be in noisy environments anyway, so it may well be obscured.

One thing that did like was that my PC seemed to do OK playing these HD Files with only modest stilting. The MOV files the Kodak gave me were extremely stilted, though it may be since I had faster movement in my subject matter.

*EDIT: Upon playing the clips in Media Player instead of the Zune shell, they look a great deal better and smoother. OK, you made up my mind - now if only Amazon or B&H will get their order in, I can put mine in!

Cheers!

Keep in mind that with all the movies and pictures I've taken thusfar, I've shot from from my hand. I haven't used a tripod for anything yet so that might contribute to the "jerkiness" of the movies.

Yesterday I bought a Gorillapod for my WB500 (Information: http://joby.com/products/gorillapod/original/and gallery : http://joby.com/gallery/gorillapod/original) which I'm looking forward to test soon. I already have a proper tripod at home but that's WAY to big to carry around with me, this fits nicely in my pocket and as you can see from the gallery opens up a world of possibilities

Regarding availability, I checked but I'm affraid http://www.conrad.nl (which has plentyin stock still) where I ordered mine doesn't send to countries other then the Netherlands. The local stores here in the Netherlands won't recieve the WB500 before end of february either.

As for the movies, try using the freeware player known as BSPlayer
http://www.bsplayer.org/en/bs.player.../?cmd=showfree
I use this for playing the movies on my "aged" 1.5GHZ with 512MB ram and 64MB videocard computer at home as well and it plays them perfectly.

[Transit29]

Somewhere, I had read a Feb 12th release date for the HZ10W, but I don't know where that was (might have been a thread on here). In any event, it seems that places are ramping up to be ready to sell them. I can pre-order a grey one Amazon (though I'd prefer black) while B&H lists it but won't allow orders for it.

I'll admit, I've tried convincing myself I should go for other options, from settling for the no-control fritzy-focus TZ5 to the range of perfectly good (although bulky) but HD free Canon Powershots from S3 to SX10 only to have second thoughts. I know the Sammy won't be perfect, but it will be about the best option - just have to be patient.

I did even contemplate getting the paternal twin WB500, but I can't seem to find a good place to ship internationally, so I'll wait it out - now if February rolls past and the camera's not out, I will be getting panicky.

[Transit29]

I went ahead and placed my pre-order with Amazon.com here in the states. Hopefully it ships this week upcoming.

I did see the WB500 at plenty of UK merchants at reasonable prices, but none delivers abroad.

[PalmBeer]

Transit29 wrote:

I went ahead and placed my pre-order with Amazon.com here in the states. Hopefully it ships this week upcoming.

I did see the WB500 at plenty of UK merchants at reasonable prices, but none delivers abroad.

I know, I saw those UK merchants too a few days before I could order mine here in the Netherlands as well.

I'll be posting new images and videos tonight or tomorrow. I went to a hockey gamethis weekend and took a lot of pictures and some videos. The video's are awesome, sound is crystal clear and you don't hear the zoom noise anymore. The pictures were a LOT more difficult to take. I was messing around with the manual setting to get clearer action shots but couldn't really find a suitable setting most of the time.

I got some nice shots though

Anyone perhaps have an idea how to shoot sharp fully zoomed action shots of something as fast as a hockey game? When I set the shutter speed to 1/125 or higher the screen went dark because the aperture was set higher due to the optical zoom (logically ofcourse). Any suggestions for a good setting for these kind of situations perhaps? This saturday is another game so I can give it another go then

[Transit29]

Admittedly, the situation you refer to is probably best handled by an SLR camera or a camera with a particularly fast (low maximium aperture like f 2.0) lens.

With the Sammy, your only possible recourse will be to bump the ISO up to 400 or 800 and see what you get. This tends to be a weakness of more reasonably priced digital cameras, as your shots may be quite noisy, but you won't know til ya try!

[jacko1970s]

hi can you please take and post some low lighting photos both indoor and outside please

[PalmBeer]

Transit29 wrote:

Admittedly, the situation you refer to is probably best handled by an SLR camera or a camera with a particularly fast (low maximium aperture like f 2.0) lens.

With the Sammy, your only possible recourse will be to bump the ISO up to 400 or 800 and see what you get. This tends to be a weakness of more reasonably priced digital cameras, as your shots may be quite noisy, but you won't know til ya try!

Thanks, I'll give it a try this weekend then and post the results

I uploaded a movie ofan Icehockey Match I shot last weekend so you can see what the movie quality is like and the ammount of noise the camera records while zooming. Keep in mind though that I shot it from behind the protective boarding, but it does show the rather good auto focus mode in a fast situation and I was zooming in and out constantly.

http://www.megaupload.com/nl/?d=HP32CIA1

[PalmBeer]

jacko1970s wrote:

hi can you please take and post some low lighting photos both indoor and outside please

I don't have that many shots like that without the flash yet, but I will do that some more this week and I'll post them here.

For now I added 2 photo's shot in low light I did have. One is shot at dawn where the sun wasn't up yet, and another shot at about 7 AM outside under the streetlights. Both not edited with any software yet and straight from the camera using the Auto shot mode.

http://www.megaupload.com/nl/?d=9DL6OM3L

[jacko1970s]

thankyou the first pic is quite noisey in the black areas