The Samsung L74W’s technical sheet is impressive:  3 inch tactile screen, 3.6x wide angle zoom (28-100 mm), 1600 ISO, face detection, video in 16/9 format... Only stabilization is missing.  So does this new compact a have what it takes to set a new standard in its category?

Handling

The Samsung L74W has a design that is sober, clean and relatively attractive.  Construction is very serious.  Also, we can see the effort to make this an aesthetically pleasing camera with its black matte coating and blue ring around the lens.  This pleasant aspect is reinforced by an interface that is reduced to a strict minimum (a few buttons and a zoom control).  But most of all Samsung’s biggest innovation is the 3 inch tactile screen through which you can set the camera’s parameters.  The manufacturer thus offers a new way to navigate through menus after having presented touch sensitive controls on the NV10 and NV15.  The only problem is that this original tactile screen quickly shows its limits in practice with a lack of reactivity. 
As for speed, although focus is fast (0.75 seconds), you will have to wait almost 1.9 seconds for startup.  For an equivalent price, the Casio EX S880 is at 1.05 seconds.  To compensate for this is a 3.6x optical zoom and very practical 28 mm wide angle.

Quality of images

We might as well tell you right off:  while we were seduced by this camera’s look, image quality was not up to Samsung’s claims.  The L74 Wide disappointed us by a lack of precision when the Canon Ixus 70 or even Olympus Mju 790 SW (also with 7 megapixels) do better.  In addition, the macro mode was limited.  As for noise control, sensitivity varies between 80 and 1600 and smoothing is already visible at 200 ISO and very apparent at 400 ISO.   Finally, the video mode is good in 640 x 480; however, fluidity suffers in 800 x 592 pixels (20 i/s).