Overall, the Samsung L73 is a well designed, easy-to-use camera for the casual photographer. With a reasonable price ($180 at the time of this writing) and a very nice feature set, this camera is a lot of "bang-for-the-buck".
The camera has a decent size LCD screen (2.5") which makes it easy to view photo details and compose your shot. The contrast ratio of the display is good - but in bright lighting it can be hard to view.
One of the unique features of the camera are the two rows smart buttons that adorn the bottom and right sides of the LCD display. 13 buttons in all, they provide quick access to most of the options that can be changed for a shot. Many in-shot photo functions, like changing the flash, adjusting color and exposure, focus settings, image resolution, and image mode can be accessed with one or two taps. Smart buttons are context sensitive, and they change their functions depending on the camera mode, and scene options.
The smart buttons also allow images to be deleted, cropped, panned and zoomed, and scrolled in the gallery or review modes. On the downside, panning and scrolling with the smart buttons is slow, and sometimes inaccurate - the touch-sensitivity of the buttons can't be changed, and for people with thicker fingers, it may be hard to always hit the right button.
In the lower right corner near the smart buttons is a small circular button which switches between Photo and Review modes. It is especially nice, in that you can quickly review the shot's you've just taken and discard any you don't like.
The L73, L74, and L77 also include optional face recognition technology, which detects people's faces as you are taking a shot and helps to ensure that everyone is in focus and well lit. Unfortunately, face recognition only works if the subjects is facing the camera shot directly - side or profile shots are note recognized.
The camera has 8 different photo modes including:
* Auto
* Manual
* ASR (Auto Shake Reduction)
* Special Effect
* Portrait
* Scene
* Movie
* Gallery
Other notable features include the optical zoom of 3x (5.8mm - 17.4mm), 20 different effects including color adjustments (e.g. Sepia, B&W, Negative), photo frames, image compositing, subject-focus, sharpness, metering, and focus.Most functions of the camera can be adjusted manually, including focus, shutter speed, color tone, and exposure.The camera supports image stabilization using Samsung's ASR (auto shake reduction) technology - which digitally stabilizes the image at the expense of some amount of resolution. The camera works well in both bright and low-light environments, with an ISO equivalent range of 100-1600.
The camera's power cable is also it's USB adapter - and the camera can charge either from your computer or from a wall outlet using the included adapter. Battery life is one of the big drawbacks of the L73. In daylight conditions (no flash) you can get about 150-200 shots off, depending on how much you zoom or power up/down the camera. With the flash - it's more like 70-120 shots. I've purchased a couple extra batteries which I carry around to swap in if I run out of juice. The car-charger attachment (sold separately) is a must have, especially if you use this camera on trips or away from a power outlet for extended periods of time.
The flash is awkwardly positioned and can be easily obscured by your finger if not careful. The flash is particularly slow and in low-light, high-speed scenarios you can often miss your shot because of its slow response.
It takes 5-7 seconds for the camera to start up when powered off.
If you're looking for an easy to use, feature rich, inexpensive camera -- you've found it. If you're looking for a higher-end, more professional camera - check out the NV-7 or GX-10 models.
