Quality Of A Korean Product "Exposed"

Previously I blogged about the "Korean invasion" of Singapore.

Almost 2 years ago, I bought a brand new Samsung Digimax L50 camera from a fellow Renault Car Club forum member. He had just won it in a company dinner lucky draw. At that time, the camera's recommended retail price (RRP) was S$499. (However, as is usually the case, most camera shops charge some 20 percent less than the RRP. One shop in Sim Lim Square was selling the camera for S$415.) In comparison, a similar made-in-Japan camera was selling at about S$600 then.

Most of the photos in this blog were taken with the Samsung camera. The quality of the images taken by the camera was passable, though not terribly impressive. (Ahem, of course a good photographer can make photos taken with an average camera look better.)

Then about one year ago, the camera suddenly broke down. All photos taken with it looked grossly over... well, exposed, like this:


As the camera was still under warranty, I brought it in to the Service Centre and they repaired it without any charge. They told me that the lens barrel was replaced and it would have cost me more than $100 if the camera was not under warranty!

After the repair, the camera worked fine... until last Friday, that is. Perhaps, I would find it easier to accept if another defect had surfaced, especially since the camera was heavily used for almost 2 years now. But dammit, it was the same old problem!!!

I decided not to repair the camera this time as the warranty period had expired. It was just not worth spending so much money for repairs, especially when my experience was that the defect could very likely recur not long after. I intended to shop for another camera.

Last Saturday, I was browsing at Best superstore in Century Square when I saw the 7-mp Lumix FX12 selling at S$369. In contrast, the lower-end 6-mp FX10 was selling at S$409. What an anomaly! I thought that the price tags were inadvertently switched. Honest as I am, I confirmed with the salesman that it was not a mistake in pricing. He clarified that there was no mistake - the FX12 was on offer. It was a very good buy as he would include the following freebies with the deal:

1. Extra original battery (worth S$75);

2. 2GB Sandisk SD card (worth S$37); and

3. 1GB Toshiba SD card (worth S$19)

With the above giveaways, it was like charging me only about S$238 for the camera alone! My resistance simply crumbled. "Okay I will take one", I said without much hesitation.

So this is my new camera:


And here are the some photos taken with it: