Samsung's Duo Screen Digital Cameras: PL100 vs ST550HD

***July 13 2010 update: You can read my final impression/review of the Samsung PL100 camera here


This is just a really quick note about the two Samsung duo LCD screen digital cameras that are on the market.

I did a post earlier about the Samsung PL100 digital camera which you can buy here from Best Buy

Camera image taken from Best Buy website

The first PL100 camera I bought had a defected screen causing coloured lines to show up on pictures and in videos. I exchanged it right away at Best Buy without any problems. However, I was a bit disappointed that the microphone is rather poor at picking up sound compared to my old Casio Ex-ilm Ex-z280.

So I decided to check out the upgraded Samsung ST550 digital camera which is the only other camera on the market with two LCD screens (a screen on the front of the camera + the regular screen on the back of the camera).

Camera image taken from Best Buy Website

I ended up returning the higher end ST550 model. Main reason: The front LCD screen will not function in video mode.

A Samsung customer service rep told me lens quality is most important in higher end models. True. I like the wider Schneider-Kreuznach lens on the ST550 BUT the selling factor for this camera is the front LCD screen. That's what makes this camera unique. If I wanted a camera with a better lens, Canon has quite a few models I like which can be purchased for the same price or less. My question to Samsung: why remove this KEY FEATURE that is available in the lower end model??!! I would understand if this feature was missing on the lower end model, but why remove it for the higher end ST550?

Verdict: Since I like the front screen LCD I've sacrificed a bit of voice quality on the microphone and went back to the PL100.

What camera are you using at the moment? Do you like it? Or do you have some complaints about it?

***UPDATE (July 5th 2010): After using the Samsung PL100 on a couple of holidays, I've realized it is not a good camera. The video quality is horrendous - you can see lines going across the video and sometimes those lines are pink in colour (!). It simply cannot produce decent quality night time pictures. Even in night time shooting mode, the pictures come out so blurry. And having the flash on for night time shots distorts the picture in a bad way. So basically, the camera is only decent for bright daytime photos and it's just not enough for me. So I will be selling this camera shortly and getting a new one.