Evaluation:  
Conclusion: Camera is Underated
Review: I recently acquired this camera and it has received mixed reviews around the web and not so good reviews here on Amazon. But after having spent some time with this camera, I have a very positive impression of it. Instead of blowing up the picture to 500 percent and looking for purple fringing, I looked at it from the aspect of "how good is an 8 by 10 printout? And, "How good does it look on a TV or a computer screen? Real issues and not the technical aspects of the output.
And to me, the photos it takes are excellent. Crisp and clean, with good color representation - not extreme or unnatural. The pictures have a decent amount of blowup range before becoming pixelated. Slightly ;less than a decent SLR, but still good. The flash is a bit underpowered, but still is sufficient for most needs. The touch screen is a superb idea. Most people won't bother with the manual comtrols of a point and shoot becasue they are usually buried in menus and difficult to get to. But the on screen system used here makes it very easy (and quick) to get to common manual controls. This is the first point and shoot camera that I felt like even bothering with the manual controls.
The video also seems to work and look fine. The 320 by 240, 60 frames per second output doesn't look much different than the 640 by 480 30 frames per second movie, other than the obvious resolution difference. But the 640 resolution looks sharp and with good color and is playable on most decently powered computers.
The camera also has a 1280 by 720 High Defintion (720p) resolution. It plays well on the camera, but you need a fairly powerful PC or Mac to play it on, and even then it's a bit jerky. But that's the fault with HD on a computer and not a camera problem. But the camera does not include an HD cable for connection to a TV (just RCA and USB cables are included) and that's a major downpoint since you must buy a fairly expensive dock to do that. A very bad call on Samsung's part. I also did not experience any lockups of strange problems that someone in Amazon have reported. Maybe a newer firmware?
But overall, this is a good, durable (metal body) camera to take with you when an SLR is just too inconvenient.
Evaluation:
Conclusion: Samsung Failure
Review: I am hoping to return this camera as the video playback is terrible. It is next to impossible to find a media player that will recoginize the format for which it records(MPG4). Picture quality is good however, if your looking for quality video, do not buy.
Evaluation:
Conclusion: Not ready for prime time
Review: Cons (see details below):
1) Freezing intermittently (requiring the battery to be removed)
2) Power wasting design (exposed button powers up camera)
3) Strap missing cinch
4) HDMI Cradle not available
5) Remote not available
6) Touch screen balky sometimes
7) Very poor support from Samsung
Pros:
1) Good photos and video
2) Small dimensions
3) Remote possible
I bought the TL34HD since I needed a small small point and shoot type camera with a remote. The camera works reasonable well but it has significant problems that you should be aware of. It's sad that Samsung would release a camera with such good specs, a new touch interface and then give such poor attention to the user experience.
The biggest problem is that the are two power on buttons - the most exposed button on the camera is one and the recessed power button is the other, but only the recessed button powers it down - I know its wacky. It makes me wonder if they did any user testing at all.
For some reason the "Payback Button", located on the back in the lower right hand corner, powers up the camera. So every time you put the camera in a case - even a loose fitting case or you pocket - the camera powers up!!! Its virtually a show stopper since the battery has such a short life as it is. Only the recessed "power button' or a timeout will power the camera down.
The next problem I found was that the TL34HD camera freezes up intermittently when taking pics with the word "Processing" displayed. When its frozen even the power button doesn't work. Removing the battery is the only way to get the camera to work again. This occurs on the second pic when using the two pic self timer in the Night or Beauty modes but it may also occur other times, its just that I was so discussed with Samsung support that I sent the camera back before dong more tests.
I called Samsung support in regards to these problems. Samsung support was intolerable. I needed to re-dial and go through the whole menu/operator thing many times because their phone system would hangup on me with the pleasant message of "The phone system had a problem - goodbye." when they were transferring the call.
Samsung's fist level support reps never even wanted to know the slightest bit about the problems, all they could say was "return the camera for repair". I tried very hard to talk to someone and at least report the serious nature of the problems, but alas it seemed impossible. The first "second level" support tech I talked to said that he can't enter ANY cameras into his computer thus he can't help but that he did support cameras. So after calling a few more times and trying to talk to a manager, I got through to one, oh but the camera techs have gone home, sorry well take you info - of course she could not even understand why the power button did not work, or what freezing meant so whatever she reported I'm sure was scrambled junk.
The camera does take photos.
Ok, so you still want this camera? Here are the other things I found: The strap that comes with the camera does not have a cinch so the camera will very easly fall off your wrist. Again, Samsung did no user testing. Then theres the HDMI Cradle that allows you to connect the camera to a HDTV, not available, sorry. The remote, not available, sorry. The touch screen is balky sometimes, seems to work then all of a sudden something sets it off and no amout of touching will help. The thing is sensing the touch since the menu pic text comes up but the menu item does not open. Frustrating as hell. The camera has too many design flaws for me. Samsung, are you listening?
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