All of these samples are full 10MPix and have not been edited in any way – except changing the filenames. Just click the picture to see the full size! The Exif info should give you all info on the picture. All of the pictures have used the Program mode – P mode – with everything else set to automatic – but flash off. (If you have not tried the IrfanView free software for viewing pictures, some image processing, etc – please do! It is quite good and very easy to use! Also has lossless jpg rotation!)
Afternoon light. Standing in the shade from the trees taking the picture upwards towards the small clouds. Focus is on the cloud in the middle.
Settings: Multi segment exposure metering. Auto white balance. Contrast normal. Sharpness normal. Saturation normal. Wide angle 24 mm used. P mode used. Set for auto ISO – which selected ISO 100. Shutter time 1/1500 and f-stop 4.0.
Result: Good exposure, good saturation and good white balance! Sharpness is quite good! Very little noise. Note! The sky is darker on the right hand side! It is not vingetting!
One thing to brood over is why the camera chose 1/1500 and f 4.0? It is such an extreme selection! Why choose such a short time? Why not stop down just a little? Or a lot? Chosing a shutter time around 1/250 – 1/500 would have been short enough – with a suitable aperture! Or settling for an f-stop of 8-11 with the suitable shutter time! With this camera you can get this if you just set it for S or A mode – pick your own shutter time or aperture or both with the M mode! The result turned out well enough anyhow in P mode – but it does not seem like it picked the best compromise between shutter time and f-stop.
Afternoon light. Standing in the shade of the trees and taking the picture out towards the open area that lays in a mix of shade and a little sunlight.
Settings: Multi segment exposure metering. Auto white balance. Contrast normal. Sharpness normal. Saturation normal. Wide angle 24 mm used. P mode used. Set for auto ISO – which selected ISO 100. Shutter time 1/45 and f-stop 3.1.
Result: Good exposure, saturation is a little low and white balance is a little too blueish! Sharpness is quite good! Very little noise.
In the 24 mm wide-angle setting 1/45 sec is just alright to prevent blur from shaking so why stop down to 3.1? Why not open up a little here and get a little shorter shutter time? It has a very good 2.4 lens! It used 4.0 to get 1/1500 in the very well-lit picture of the sky above! Or why not up the ISO a little? Maybe shorten the time a little …? Well due to my superb ability to hold the camera quite still this picture turned out alright – not super but OK! I would have prefered a warmer picture with a little more saturation. But it is not further off then this is easily fixable in IrfanView – or your favorite image processing software.
Afternoon light again. Taken with the sun behind the leaf in the middle. Exposure taken from that middle leaf where also focus lay.
Settings: Multi segment exposure metering. Auto white balance. Contrast normal. Sharpness normal. Saturation normal. Wide angle 24 mm used. P mode used. Set for auto ISO – which selected ISO 100. Shutter time 1/750 and f-stop 4.0.
Result: Good exposure, good saturation and good white balance! Sharpness is really good! Very little noise. 
This turned out a VERY good picture with really dynamic colors and a perfect exposure. Contrast is really super! Be impressed by the sharpness in the small 100% crop on the right hand side! This can be sharpened a little in your favorite software for even more astounding result! But you do not really need to!
Once again the selected exposure time and aperture in P mode really mystifies me! Why select such a very short time and such a big aperture? Why not stop down a little? 1/250 sec would be short enough and then we would get a few steps smaller aperture – which whould give us a little extra depth of field … Now this still turned out a very good picture so… I remain mystified – but impressed!
Soft late afternoon light. Flowers standing in the shade.
Settings: Multi segment exposure metering. Auto white balance. Contrast normal. Sharpness normal. Saturation normal. Wide angle 24 mm used. P mode used. Set for auto ISO – which selected ISO 160. Shutter time 1/30 and f-stop 2.8.
Result: Good exposure, saturation is a little low and white balance is a little too blueish! Sharpness is quite good! A little noise appearing. The picture has a “frosty” wintry look to it – should really be a little warmer. The AWB does not really handle this shady/cloudy light well – as does few cameras – you usually have to intervene by changing white balance to shady or cloudy! I have a feel though that the WB2000 gives one of the “frostiest” pictures of cameras I have used. I have several more pictures taken in the shade – and they all look like this picture – it is quite representative!
In this picture the camera chose reasonable compromise of ISO, shutter-time and aperture – I think. Just a slight increase in ISO to 160 to get the shutter time down to 1/30 sec – with almost fully open aperture at 2.8. Why not use that last bit of aperture though – could have brought down the ISO a little. This picture shapes up pretty well with a little treatment in IrfanView! (I seldom bother to start-up Photoshop for these small adjustments…)
Late afternoon light from a window facing from the sun so a lot of cold blue light is reflecting from the sky.
Settings: Multi segment exposure metering. Auto white balance. Contrast normal. Sharpness normal. Saturation normal. Wide angle 24 mm used. P mode used. Set for auto ISO – which selected ISO 100. Shutter time 1/60 and f-stop 3.3.
Result: Good exposure, quite OK saturation and good white balance! Sharpness is good! Noise is quite low – especially in the lighter and sharp areas – but a little noise can be seen in the unsharp and darker areas. In general one more good picture from the WB2000. Admittedly it can be improved further with upping the contrast and saturation and then it turns really super – but it is quite alright just straight out of the camera! Probably the colour of the glass balls help mask the frostiness that the WB2000 seems to want to give in the shade. Well – again a good picture!
Late afternoon. Mixed light – a little sun, a little sky and one distant tungsten light.
Settings: Multi segment exposure metering. Auto white balance. Contrast normal. Sharpness normal. Saturation normal. Wide angle 24 mm used. P mode used. Set for auto ISO – which selected ISO 400. Shutter time 1/30 and f-stop 2.6.
Result: Good exposure, quite good saturation and very good white balance – especially considering the mixed light! Sharpness is quite good! Noise is quite low – considering this is ISO 400! Noise can be seen in the unsharp and darker areas but it is not very disturbing. It turned out a good picture!
In this picture the camera chose reasonable compromise of ISO, shutter time and aperture – with almost fully open aperture at 2.6. But why not use that last bit though?
Conclusion:
The GOOD: The Samsung WB2000 does really well in sunshine with good colours, saturation and contrast. Also handles mixed light indoors very well and gives very pleasing pictures in that difficult(?) light. It gives really good results with ISO up to 400, with noise ramping up in ISO 800 (still quite usable) but you have to lower your requirements at ISO:s higher than that! The lens is also a good one with good sharpness and good contrast and very little optical problems – it is not perfect (that is not to be expected either) but is well-chosen and well suited for this camera!
The BAD is – as you can see – pictures taken in the shade will have too low saturation and too blue white balance! It seldom produces pictures to my liking in the shade or when the clouds come out to play! (Is this just my specific sample of camera that gives these results…?) You might like them or you might not care…
The “frosty” pictures in the shade can be fixed either afterwards in you favorite image software (at least as long as there is some colour in the picture) or beforehand with the settings available in the camera! But you will have to reset them when the sun comes out again! 😉
This will have to do for today! More in a day or two!
/Photoman
Photoman Camera Reviews 
#1 by hamilton on October 2, 2010 - 08:19
Nice sample shots and good review!
#2 by sfennl on October 2, 2010 - 18:54
Thanks! 🙂
#3 by coturnix on May 6, 2012 - 04:13
Opening up aperture and shortening shutter time actually makes alot of sense for a compact camera. In compact cameras, if lens is good, diffraction can be noticeably devastating on quality already at f/8, so IF lens is good, it is better to shoot with an aperture as open as possible.
#4 by sfennl on May 6, 2012 - 20:10
Hi coturnix,
Thanks for pointing out the diffraction issue. I rechecked all my WB2000 pictures and found not a single one (in wide-angle setting) that used a smaller apperture than f4.0 – leading me to believe that it either does not have a smaller apperture to choose from or is programmed to avoid your mentioned diffraction issue. Either way – this easily explains the selections the camera made in good lighting! It had to choose a shorter shutter time – it was its only alternative!
The WB2000 still baffles me with its selection in low-light situations. With its very sharp f2.4 lens I would have prefered that it used the full opening much more often – instead of turning up the ISO-value and producing under saturated pictures or using longer shutter times. (I could do this by selecting another setting – for example “A” – but that is not the “P” that I was testing!)
I have since I tested the WB2000 tested a few other compact cameras and they all to some extent suffer from the same under saturated colours in high ISO settings.
Photoman
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