Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have waited a few weeks to post a review to use it a bit and see what I think. I tried and tried to get this camera for weeks: always "back ordered." Everywhere. I don't know if this was a Samsung issue or if the camera really was popular. But I LOVE it. I give it only 4 stars because as an "advanced hobbyist" I can see that any professional photographer will dismiss this as a toy and it is a bit gimmicky. But the photo quality is amazing. I did order the 9-27 mm lens kit with external flash accessory included. I did not ever need to use the external flash. I found the low light capabilities of this camera exceptional. I'm not sure that an external flash is really needed at all, especially if you use a tripod. This kit did come with a lens cover. I see that the 9mm only version does not come with a lens cover. But I have seen other reviews that indicate that you can buy one, perhaps at an excessive cost, from Samsung. I did appreciate the lens cover, The 9-27 mm lens does make the tiny camera a bit "front heavy" and the cover kept the lens protected. This camera is so small, even with the 9-27 mm lens, that it fit in a jacket pocket easily. (It probably won't fit well in a pants pocket.) I had a couple of jackets with me, one denim jacket with an inside pocket and this slipped in perfectly. I also had a linen "safari" jacket with front patch pockets and again, this fit fine. My camera arrived literally the day before a planned vacation to Paris. I didn't have much time to fiddle around with it before getting into it which made me somewhat nervous to even take it. But it is SO small, there really is no deterrent to packing it. What I learned very quickly is that this camera is VERY intuitive. Although there are no dials or even very many buttons, everything is there. The battery life is unbelievable. I was in Paris for about 10 days and took anywhere from 100 to 300 pictures per day, with a lot of "practicing" and manipulating the settings and the battery never once got even close to empty. I have never had this benefit in any camera before. It was most welcome. The camera does not come with a micro SD card (although I have seen some packages that include one). But for the price, I don't find this a deal breaker by any means. The "Mode" button brings up Auto, Smart (beauty, best face, continuous shooting, kids, landscape, macro, food, etc.), Program, Aperture priority, Shutter priority, manual, and the Wifi setting (email, group share, remote viewfinder, etc.). The touchscreen is wonderful, although small and perhaps a bit low in resolution. But for the tiny size of this camera, you have to sacrifice something. I use a Samsung smartphone (Note 3) and found the linkup to be easy and without issue. I did not get the chance to use the remote viewfinder on my trip or since. But given how easy it was to set up the link between my phone and camera, I can believe it is probably easy to set up and use. One issue I did have in the linkup process was for my first camera to phone transfers, I had not set up the transfer size and the photos were of very small resolution. Fortunately, the default setting was to only copy the photos, not cut and paste. So the originals were still on my camera. At about day 3, I figured this out and changed the transfer size to "original." The full 180 flip-up screen for selfies was nice. My expertise in selfies, however, is terrible so other than the convenience, I cannot comment. I very much liked the "pop up" tips in the camera. (You can turn this off in the settings.) It does have a bit of a lag so give it a few seconds, but for every selection you make, if you wait 2-3 seconds, a pop-up will appear and tell you what it the setting will do. This camera does shoot RAW. In fact, there are many options for the photo quality from normal to fine to superfine to RAW + fine, superfine, normal. The ISO ranges up to 25,600 with the extension on. You can also change the ISO step from 1/3 to full. There is a Picture Wizard setting that has several pre-sets (filters) for landscape, vivid, portrait, forest, retro, etc. There is also the Smart Filter mode which has beauty face, best face, kids, landscape, macro, food, etc. I have not used any video settings yet so I cannot comment. There is a "drive" setting so you can select for single, continuous, burst, timer, AF bracket, White Balance bracket (which I have never seen before on any camera), Picture Wizard bracket, depth bracket, etc. There are a few Dynamic Range settings as well. I was hoping to post some photo samples but I don't see an option for that with this post. I did add some to the product page so take a look. Overall, I really enjoy this camera and cannot wait to use it to its full potential.