Samsung WB150 review

Compact cameras with big zooms normally cost a lot more than £150. Samsung is no stranger to this end of the market, but whereas previous models have looked distinctly cheap, the WB150 looks smart and business-like. At this price, there some concessions, such as its plastic case, no HDMI output and video recording limited to 720p rather than the more common 1080p. There are fewer fancy shooting modes than its pricier rivals have, but it does include various creative effects and you can capture a panoramic photo simply by rotating with the camera.

The WB150 is well equipped for manual photographic control, too. It includes priority and manual exposure modes, sharpness, contrast and saturation controls, manual focus and the ability to move the autofocus point anywhere in the frame.

Unfortunately, the controls aren't ideal for those who like to tinker with manual settings. Adjusting the shutter speed without the help of a wheel is a chore, and key functions, such as exposure compensation, ISO speed and white balance, are only available via the main menu. Still, the menu is well organised with these functions at the top of the list. After selecting the relevant mode in the menu, moving the autofocus point is a simple matter of hitting the OK button followed by the navigation pad. Keen tinkerers are unlikely to be impressed by the WB150's performance, with it taking 2.5 seconds between shots. Continuous mode was barely faster, and trundled along at 0.6fps in our tests.

The WB150 has a 16-megapixel sensor, but only uses 14 of those megapixels to capture images. It's a fairly common trick to get a big zoom range from a small camera, but the downside is that it gives the high noise levels of a 16 megapixel sensor without the extra detail.