The growth of the digital SLR market has surely been astounding in the past few years, but it has not stopped the growth of advanced compact “point&shoot” cameras that allow for good photos without the bulk of an SLR system. The Limux LX3 is one perfect example, along with others that came after it like the Canon Powershot S90 and the G11, the Olympus E–P1 and E–P2, and the Leica X1.
Now Samsung has also joined the advanced compact camera market with their new offering, the Samsung EX1, also know as the TL500. Just like the LX3, it comes with a fast zoom lens, this one being an f/1.8-2.4 wide angle 3x (24-72mm equivalent) image stabilized zoom lens, a range that should be very useful to the type of shooters the camera is for. With the fast aperture available throughout the range, this camera will likely be a good low–light shooter.
The sensor used is a 1/1.7″ 10MP CCD, paired with a 3.0″ multi-angle AMOLED display. Full manual controls along with RAW output option puts this camera right up there with the LX3 and similar cameras, except for one—video recording will only be in VGA, utilising H.264 encoding. Still, I think this will be a very interesting camera.