The Samsung HZ15W  is a compact, ultra zoom camera that’s designed to compete with the likes of the Canon PowerShot SX200 and Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3. It features a 12 Megapixel CCD, a 24 – 240 mm lens, optical image stabilization, a 3-inch LCD, and HD movie recording. The camera also has the usual point-and-shoot features, plus a nice selection of manual controls.

The Samsung HZ15W has as little brother, known as the HZ10W ($279). That camera has a 10 Megapixel sensor, a smaller LCD, and no HDMI port.

While recent Samsung cameras have all been well designed, they’ve disappointed in the image quality department. Will the HZ15W change that trend? Find out now in our review!

The HZ15W is known as the WB550 in some countries.

The Samsung HZ15W digital camera has an average bundle. Inside the box, you’ll find the following:

* The 12.2 effective Megapixel HZ15W camera
* SLB-10A rechargeable lithium-ion battery
* Wrist strap
* USB-to-AC adapter
* USB cable
* A/V cable
* CD-ROM featuring Samsung Master software
* 17 page Quick Start manual (printed) + full manual on CD-ROM

Like most cameras these days, the Samsung HZ15W Camera has built-in memory, instead of having a memory card included in the box. Samsung put relatively little memory into the HZ15 (21MB to be exact), which holds just three photos at the highest quality setting. Thus, you’ll want to buy a memory card, and fast. The HZ15 supports SD, SDHC, and MMCplus cards, though I’d stick to the first two for best results. I’d recommend a 2GB or greater card for use with the HZ15, and it wouldn’t hurt if you spent a little extra on a high speed model.

The HZ15W uses the SLB-10A rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power. This battery has 3.8 Wh of energy, which is pretty typical for a compact camera.

The HZ15′s battery is charged inside the camera via the USB cable. You can connect it to a computer, or you can plug into a power outlet using an included USB-to-A/C adapter (which you can also use to power the camera instead of using a battery). It takes a rather lengthy three hours to fully charge the battery. While Samsung doesn’t sell an external charger, I found some third-party models available online.

Focusing speeds are in the average area as well, at least in good light. Expect wide-angle focus times of 0.3 – 0.5 seconds, with delays twice as long for telephoto shooting. The HZ15 struggled to focus in low light, despite its AF-assist lamp. Thus, it’s probably not an excellent choice for those taking a lot of photos in dim lighting conditions.

I didn’t find shutter lag to be a problem, even at the slower shutter speeds where it sometimes can crop up.

Shot-to-shot delays range from two seconds without the flash, to a sluggish four seconds with it.

You cannot delete a photo right after it’s taken — you must enter playback mode to do that.

The Samsung HZ15W has an attractive, easy to navigate menu system. You can use the rear command lever to move through the four tabs in the menu system, with the four-way controller handling everything else. Keeping in mind that not all of these options will be available in every shooting mode, here’s what you’ll find in the record menu:

* Recording options
o Command lever (EV, ISO, white balance) – what this button does
o Flash intensity (-1EV to +1EV, in 1/2EV increments)
o Quality (Super fine, fine, normal)
o ACB (on/off) – I have no idea what this stands for, but it essentially brightens shadows when your subject is backlit
o OIS (on/off) – you’ll want to turn the image stabilizer off while using a tripod
o Voice memo (on/off) – add a 10 sec sound clip to a photo
o Voice recording – record up to 10 hours of audio, saved in WAV format
* Sound options
o Volume (Off, low, medium, high)
o Start sound (Off, sound 1/2/3)
o Shutter sound (Off, sound 1/2/3)
o Beep sound (Off, sound 1/2/3)
o AF sound (on/off)
o Self portrait (on/off) – turn the audio feedback for this feature on or off
* Display options
o Language
o Grid line (2 x 2, 3 x 3, X, cross hairs)
o Date & time
o Start image (Off, logo, user image)
o Display brightness (Auto, dark, normal, bright)
o Quick view (Off, 0.5, 1, 3 secs)
o Display save (on/off) – whether the LCD turns off when camera is idle
* Setup options
o Format
o Reset
o Recycle bin (Off, on, recycle folder) – see below
o File name (Reset, series)
o Imprint (Off, date, date & time)
o Power off (Off, 1, 3, 5, 10 mins)
o Video output (NTSC, PAL)
o AF lamp (on/off)
o Anynet + (on/off) – allows you to control the camera with your Samsung TV remote, when connected via HDMI cable
o HDMI size (1080i, 720p, 480p, 576p)
o USB (Auto, computer, printer)

Believe it or not, I only want to discuss one of the options above. That option is the “recycle bin”, which is a good idea in theory, but not as useful as one would like in practice. When the feature is on, the camera uses 10MB of the internal memory to store recently deleted photos. So, if you dremove a photo accidentally, you can get it back. The catch is that 10MB of memory only holds about two images at the highest quality setting, so don’t expect to get back a photo that you took last week.

For the most part, the HZ15W scored average across the board in terms of performance. It takes about 1.5 seconds to start up, and focus speeds ranged from 0.three seconds at wide-angle to close to a full second at telephoto. The HZ15 struggled to focus in low light, and the fact that the LCD doesn’t brighten a whole lot doesn’t make things any easier. Shutter lag wasn’t a problem, and without the flash, shot to shot delays weren’t too bad. The HZ15′s flash is slow to charge, though, so be prepared to wait around 4 seconds between flash shots. The HZ15 has two continuous shooting modes: one is slow (0.7 fps) but lets you see what’s going on, while the other is twice as fast, but the LCD is blacked out the entire time (what’s the point?). Battery life was about average for this type of camera. Do note that the battery is charged internally (via a proprietary cable), which some folks may not like.

Photo quality has always been quite a weak spot on Samsung’s cameras, and that hasn’t changed here. On the good side, color and exposure were both good, though don’t be surprised if you see some highlight clipping here and there. Purple fringing was minimal as well, and redeye was well-controlled thanks to the camera’s digital removal system. The bad news is that images are quite soft and fuzzy, and fine or low contrast details appear mottled due to heavy noise reduction — even at the lowest ISO. The HZ15 doesn’t really compete with the best cameras in its class at higher ISOs, either. The small print crowd probably won’t notice, but if you’re making larger prints, viewing images on your computer screen at 100%, or planning on using high ISOs, you’ll probably want to consider another camera.

The only other things I wanted to mention relate to the bundle. The Samsung HZ15W Digital Camera doesn’t come with much in the line of internal memory, which not only restricts how many photos it can hold, but it also holds back the well-intentioned Recycle Bin feature. There’s also no Mac software included, though iPhoto is arguably better than what would’ve been supplied anyway. Finally, the full manual is only available in digital format on a CD-ROM, and its quality is quite lacking.

If you want a smallish camera with a great zoom range, large LCD, and useful set of features — and you’ll be taking photos in good light and not making large prints — then the Samsung HZ15W is certainly worth checking out. Those of you who want better image quality and low light performance will probably want to consider one of the HZ15′s competitors.