The Samsung WB700 digital camera has been out for a few weeks now, and while many of the features are nice, it does not perform as well as the HZ30W and HZ35W.

I can only give it an “OK” rating. Compared to the HZ30W and HZ35W the pictures are not as vibrant and the colors are not as true to life.  I have to also say that the same is true compared to the TL34HD. Photos are plenty clear, and certainly the zoom function is good, but the colors just don’t look life-like, unlike the HZs and the TL34HD.  The better parts are, of course, the 18x opitcal zoom and some other little improvements in the camera. The zoom on the WB700 works well and the camera itself feels a bit more compact and solid than the HZ30W/HZ35W.

One thing that it is also missing one function I liked on the HZ30W/35W (and TL34HD) and that is the “vivid” mode. I believe all the other modes are all still there, but not “vivid.” Seems like a strange thing to leave out and it would be helpful in order to get the camera to record the colors closer to what the eye sees, since the Samsung WB700 isn’t doing that on its own.

In general, the camera is an okay upgrade to the HZ30W. Personally though I would keep my HZ30W and wait until the next upgrade before buying. Hopefully Samsung will realize that the vivid mode is handy and add it back in.