My New Christmas Toy: Samsung WB150F

This past year my nearly 7 yr old Canon Rebel, which I love dearly, started giving me issues. Then it was knocked off the chair arm and the lens wouldn’t slide in and out for the telescopic view.

My dad heard me mention it and just before Christmas he asked me about my camera. I told him it was pretty much dead in the water. I could still use it but the battery lasted about 30 pictures, the lens wasn’t working and the quality of photo meant the camera desperately needed to be cleaned.

So, the first present I opened this year for Christmas was from my dad. lol I could tell he was like a kid in a candy shop waiting for me to open his present! Before I had even taken it OUT of the box, he was telling me that the camera was a wi-fi camera! I could send my photos immediately to Facebook, by email, to Picasa, etc. It was SO cool! Only bummer, I can’t tweet out the pictures from the camera and with Twitter being so big in the Social Media world, that was disappointing.

I wonder if they’ll do updates or if that’s even possible. Maybe they could add Twitter and Instagram to the uploading options! Everything would be complete for me at that point. =)

Oil Painting my girls!

He got it for me BECAUSE of my blog. That’s how cool my dad is!

So, I started playing around and woo boy, he didn’t realize ALL of the cool features it has. I became the kid in the candy shop. I was clicking through all of the settings and each one I came to, I’d eventually end up say, “oh my gosh, dad, look at what ELSE it can do!”

After reading a couple of Liz’s posts about her camera, I longed for it because who wouldn’t want to do fun things with their camera? Of course, I never expected to actually be able to have a camera like that one! Thankfully my new Samsung as many of the same features.

They’ve been Cross Filtered.

Ok, so what the heck am I talking about…

First, I can change the look of the photo before I take it with  the “Scenes”. I can pick backlight, text, dawn, sunset, etc. With the display screen, I see it change as I’m looking at it.

That’s cool and all, but here’s my FAVORITE part! There’s one button that gives me 8 options:

1. Live Panorama
2. Magic Frame
3. Split Shot
4. Picture in Picture
5. Artistic Brush
6. Photo Filter
7. Movie Filter
8. Photo Editor

With the Magic Frame I can choose from fun, funky backgrounds that will surround the picture like a classic tv setting, a holiday card, a city scene billboard, a concrete wall with a mural, etc. Pretty nifty.

I can also do a split shot like this of the puppies. I have 4 different designs to choose from. And when I click the down button, my camera explains to me what I can do with each option. Bad example, but I just started snapping random photos Christmas day just to play around. So, that’s Cappy on the left and old man Sam on the right in two different shots.

Then you can do PiP. I can move the little picture around the screen until I want it right where I like it.

In Artistic Brush I can choose from Ink Painting, Cartoon or Sketch.

And my favorite part of this camera’s fun extras is the Photo Filter. I can choose from 14 options, which include the 3 from Artistic Brush. Here are a couple that again, I was just playing around and trying not to drive my family crazy. I actually wanted to try out each setting for each shot. My poor kids would still be sitting in their Christmas sweaters if I had!

My girls have been sketched!

Now they’ve been Old Filmed!

So many fun options. And these same options can be done in the Movie Filter! I can’t wait to play around with it more!

I’m also SO glad I can edit my photos before I even send them to my computer or somewhere online! Glad to know it can be cropped or I can fix my face. =)

Now, I know there are a lot of technical details about this camera that my dad would rather talk about like the 18x optical zoom and ISO 3200 blah blah blah stuff. As long as it takes a crisp, clear picture, I’m happy to leave the numbers to him!

Thanks Dad for the Christmas present!!

*No compensation for this post…hooray!