Samsung's new TL500 compact comes with a fast, wide zoom lens, and goes straight for the throat of Canon's G11.
The lens has a fairly pedestrian 24-70mm range (35mm equivalent), but the maximum aperture runs from ƒ1.8 to ƒ2.4. That means, at its fully-zoomed, dullest position, the lens lets in more light than the G11 with an ƒ2.8-4.5 range (itself not bad for a compact).
The similarities continue with RAW capture, a hot-shoe, a flip-out LCD (3-inch AMOLED vs. the Canon's 2.8-inch LCD), a CCD sensor and a top ISO sensitivity of 3,200. Amazingly enough, Samsung also mimics the G11's terrible 640 x 480 movie mode, with no HD video available. The TL500 also matches the G11 for megapixels, packing 10MP.
Judging from the pictures, it seems that Samsung has also, thankfully, included lots of manual controls in the form of knobs and dials. If the camera handles as well as the Canon, Samsung could have a winner: That lens alone beats the G11 into the ground.
Samsung Launches the TL500 [Samsung]
