Samsung WB550

Samsung’s WB550 camera includes a 10x optical zoom lens (the equivalent of 24-240mm on a film camera) in this 12-megapixel pocket compact.

Unlike on some cameras the full extent of the zoom is usable when shooting either photos or video.

There is no optical viewfinder so shots have to be composed using the rear 3in screen. It can record 720p high-definition movies in stereo and, unusually, there is a side-mounted HDMI port so that the camera can be directly connected to a flat-panel television screen to watch the films.

A light sensitivity range from ISO80 to ISO3200 is broader than most competitors, allowing for good results in both bright light and darker situations.

With a weight of 225g and an exterior that mixes plastic with polished metal, the WB550 feels reassuringly solid, making camera shake less of a problem than with svelte fashion-conscious cameras.

There is little shutter lag and it took two seconds for a full-resolution JPEG image to be saved to the SDHC memory card (there’s 21MB of internal memory, enough for a few snaps).

The WB550 is equipped with a Smart Auto function that lets beginners just point and shoot, the camera automatically choosing the best from 11 possible settings for a given scene or subject.

Although it has face detection, blink detection, and smile modes (in which it picks out shots when people are smiling) for happy snapping, there is manual control too.

Users can change the area the camera focuses on, metering, light sensitivity and white balance settings, as well as tweaking shutter speed and aperture on screen using a lever, although this control felt unnecessarily narrow and fiddly.

More positively, images from the WB550 were warm and richly coloured. At times this can look a little unnatural but it was flattering for portraits and there was little processing to do on the computer.

At maximum wide angle there was some barrel distortion – slight curvature of the image edges while with plenty of light the extreme zoom was sharply focused.

With the WB550 available online as low as £230 it’s a steal: a pocket compact with plenty of punch.