This is a Samsung Evoca 70 Neo, a 35mm point and shoot camera made in 2002 by Samsung Techwin in South Korea. This is the North American version of the Samsung Vega 700 which is what it was called in other markets. The Samsung Evoca 70 Neo is a rather ordinary point and shoot camera from the early 21st century but features a high quality Schneider-Kreuznach macro zoom lens and a cleanly designed plastic body with an upscale finish. The camera is automatic everything, but adds a few uncommon features like a Bulb mode for shutter speeds up to 60 seconds, a panoramic mode, and a data back with the option of imprinting gimmicky phrases into the film such as “I Love You” and “Happy Birthday”.
Film Type: 135 (35mm)
Lens: 35 – 70mm f/4.5 – 8.5 Schneider-Kreuznach Varioplan Auto Macro coated 6-elements in 6-groups
Focus: 3.28 feet / 1 meter to Infinity, Macro Mode 1.8 feet – 3.28 feet, Auto Focus
Viewfinder: Kepler Optical Viewfinder with AF Square and Parallax Correction Mark, 83% Field of View, 0.37 – 0.66x Magnification
Shutter: Electronic Shutter
Speeds: Bulb Mode from 0.5 – 60 seconds, 1/3 – 1/400 seconds, Stepless
Exposure Meter: Programed Auto Exposure EV 5.9 – 17.6
Battery: 3v CR2 Lithium Battery
Flash Mount: In Body Electronic Flash
Weight: 198 grams
Manual: https://www.manualslib.com/manual/317054/Samsung-Vega-700.html#product-EVOCA%2070%20NEO
The late 1990s and early 2000s saw the final wave of consumer point and shoot film cameras, just before digital cameras overtook the market. By this time, camera makers had a good two decades worth of experience making compact and easy to use cameras. Ever since the Konica C35AF from 1977, consumers could purchase an electronic camera, load in some batteries and film, turn the camera on and forget about anything else. Automatic everything cameras were extremely popular in the 1980s and as the technology matured throughout the 1990s, the exposure and focus systems got better, the cameras continued to decrease in size, and less and less people had any interest in manual control of anything.
In the late 1990s, point and shoot cameras were available from all the usual camera makers. Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Minolta, Pentax, Fuji, and many others produced models, but over on the Korean peninsula a new name was entering the worldwide technology space. Samsung Techwin was the consumer electronics arm of a larger Samsung company who had been around since the late 1930s.
Today, Samsung is an electronics powerhouse, making everything from smartphones to refrigerators, but in the late 1990s they were relatively unknown to western consumers. Samsung was smart though, in order to gain a foothold in the camera market, in 1996 they entered into a licensing agreement with Schneider-Kreuznach who at one time was a top tier German optics company, up there with Carl Zeiss. By using Schneider lenses and including their name in the marketing for their products, people took notice of the brand, not unlike how Kyocera and Yashica leveraged the Carl Zeiss brand in the 1980s.
Using their Schneider connection. Samsung produced a large number of simple point and shoot cameras, plus one interchangeable lens SLR, the Samsung SR-4000. The partnership with Schneider was short lived as by 2002, Samsung stopped using the name, and quickly pulled out of the film camera market, setting themselves up to move onto bigger and better things. Exactly how much influence Schneider-Kreuznach had on these lenses is unclear. Whether there is any German DNA in the makeup or manufacture of these lenses, or if these are simply just in house Samsung lenses with a fancy label is not clear.
The camera being reviewed here, the Samsung Evoca 70 Neo was an entry level point and shoot model, which when sold outside of North America was called the Samsung Vega 700. The camera featured a 6-element 35 – 70mm f/4.5 – 8.5 Schneider-Kreuznach Varioplan Auto Macro lens, programmed auto exposure, auto focus, an optional panoramic mode, a date back, an automatic macro mode, and a few other features. The shutter is surprisingly flexible considering the segment this camera was in, offering instant speeds from 1/3 to 1/400 and a manual bulb mode allowing for exposures from 0.5 seconds all the way up to 60 seconds. Many simple point and shoot cameras did not offer a bulb mode and sometimes were limited to no slower than 1/30.
The Samsung Evoca 70 Neo was not a high end camera, but Samsung did a good job of upscaling the camera with a metal-like matte finished plastic body that from a distance convincingly resembles metal and offers a good tactile feel. The body of the camera is attractive and clean with good ergonomics. Looking back on many of Samsung’s other consumer level point and shoot cameras, the Evoca 70 Neo is much more attractive to my eyes. Samsung wisely avoided the pitfalls of a strangely designed camera, as was common of other camera makers who wanted to be different.
The camera body is barely larger than a deck of cards and easily fits into a front shirt pocket. The body has squared off edges which give is more of a brick-like shape than typical point and shoot cameras of the era which were very curvy.
It has a large mode dial on top for choosing the camera’s most commonly used features, an ergonomically positioned shutter release, a moderately large LCD screen, four mode buttons, and a red power button. Like most cameras, it supports quick loading of film by extending the leader to a mark in the film compartment and closing the door.
Although the viewfinder is small, it has a Kepler style design which makes it extremely bright and easy to see all four corners, even while wearing prescription glasses. If you are not familiar with Kepler style viewfinders, they have a tendency to blur the image and introduce strange chromatic aberrations, especially near the edges. It doesn’t affect your ability to use the viewfinder, but it does look strange. Manual parallax correction lines show at the top of the viewfinder for use in Macro Mode which is automatically selected when the focus subject is detected closer than 3.28 feet. Two LEDs to the right of the rear eyepiece will light up to indicate that the camera has detected focus and when the flash will be used.
Loading film is modern and simple with a quick load feature. Simply extend the leader to the edge of the take up “drum” and close the door. A yellow sticker on the inside of the door gives a clue to how the leader should look when properly loaded.
For someone wanting a little more creative control, it offers a Bulb mode which can allow for shutter speeds as long as 60 seconds, a fill flash mode, a self-timer, and a clever Snapshot mode in which the camera sets itself to the widest zoom, fixes the focus for maximum depth of field between 5 – 20 feet, and captures a burst of three shots. This is useful both for group shots in which you want to take more than one shot in case someone has their eyes closed, or to give you enough time to capture different poses. I have no idea how popular this mode might have been, but considering many of the very gimmicky modes other cameras of the day had, this one at least sorta makes sense.
Speaking of gimmicks, the Samsung Evoca 70 Neo features both a cropped Panoramic mode in which a baffle cuts off the top and bottom of the frame to make an artificial 18mm x 36mm panoramic shot, and a Caption mode in which the data back feature can imprint messages such as “I Love You” and “Happy Birthday” into the exposure. If the Snap mode gets an honorable mention for being clever, the Caption mode is just downright silly. A strange oddity of this feature is that the camera imprints these messages using tiny LEDs inside of the pressure plate exactly like how a date back does, except this model does not have a date back. Since the technology required for that feature to work is already there, it seems strange that Samsung did not enable it on this model.
The Samsung Evoca 70 Neo adds up to a nicely designed camera with a faux premium look, an upscale lens, and just enough features to allow for a bit of flexibility in its operation. I was unable to find any advertisements of pricing information for the camera, but an earlier model with similar specs called the Samsung Evoca 70S sold in 1999 for $109.95, so it is likely that the Neo model from 2002 was likely around the same price.
The first time I shot the Samsung Evoca 70 Neo was a couple of years ago when my kids were younger. This wasn’t a camera I had intended on ever reviewing as it was pretty new and there wasn’t anything significantly important about it and historical info for Samsung cameras from the early 21st century is difficult to find. But as film point and shoot cameras continue to grow in popularity, I thought I should put something out there for this attractive, capable, and inexpensive model.
According to my records, I used Kodak Gold 200 film in this camera and looking at the images I got, I used it as a snapshot camera at the zoo and a couple car shows around my house. As I typically do, I tried to use this camera in a way that was consistent with how the target audience would have used it. I didn’t bother with any of the panoramic modes and I did not try the Caption Modes, although looking back, I wish I had.
The 6-element Schneider lens produced good looking results that are typical of zoom lenses of the era. Images are very sharp in the middle with some noticeable softness and vignetting in the corners. Like most simple zooms, vignetting and distortion is more visible near the wide end of the zoom.
None of these images are going to win any photographic awards, but that’s not the point. For anyone wanting a simple and easy to use camera, the Samsung Evoca 70 Neo more than delivers. But make no mistake, if you are looking for manual control over exposure, a faster lens, or a longer range of focal lengths, you’ll need to look elsewhere. This is a basic camera and should be treated as such.
I want to be clear, the Samsung Evoca 70 Neo is not a premium camera. If somehow this review makes the rounds on the Internet and people start driving the prices on these up, I apologize. This is a simple plastic point and shoot that is like hundreds of similar models out there. The lesson you should learn from this review is not that you should run right out and grab one, but that if you’re new to film photography and are put off by the high asking prices for desirable cameras like the Nikon 28Ti or the Contax TVs, get something like this. It is good looking, easy to use, and has a great lens that will make images that for most people will be indistinguishable from those made with prestige cameras.
The Samsung Evoca 70 Neo is a fine camera that can be picked up for a low price, and when you look at it like that, it is a wonderful camera and one you should be proud to own. I wish Samsung had continued to use Schneider lenses and had continued to make film cameras, because they definitely had a knack for it!
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