Towards using a smart camera: three weeks on

Paper Artist rendering of a sunset

I thought this was going to be simple:  learn how to use the Samsung Galaxy Camera's basic shooting modes and take a few good photos for sharing.
Of course it wasn't.  I found myself pondering how Samsung managed to produce such a great design and yet failed  to exploit its full potential.
Don't get me wrong, I love this camera because it allows me to shoot, edit and publish to the web in minutes rather than hours.
Unfortunately, Samsung's internal politics and timidity appear to have got in the way of this simple and powerful philosophy.
Let me count the faults:

Inadequate battery

The key to modern photography is to shoot lots and select.  Professional photographers now regularly take 3000 photos at a sporting event.  Why risk missing that perfect moment?  On my mobile phone I had become very used to this tactic and thought with the features of the Galaxy camera I would be able to continue.
Sadly the weak battery limits what is possible.  A solid two hour session using the x21 zoom and all the wonderful smart shooting modes will have you running through batteries like lollies on Halloween.  I now carry two fully charged bigger capacity spares. The only saving grace is that it takes only moments to change.  You learn fast to turn off  the wifi and strip out the SIM until you really need them.

Inadequate app space 

Simple effects with Photo Wizard

Brilliant colours of a city building in the late afternoon
sun are caught with precision.

No matter how big and fast the microSD storage card you buy, most of the in camera memory is already taken up by the native Samsung apps, Samsung choice of editing apps and InstaGram.  Many of Samsung apps are unnecessary frippery (I definitely don't need S-Planner,S-voice and S-suggest, Group Cast, Talkback, Gamehub, Mobile print.  These should have been dowload choices and not burnt into the precious camera flash memory.  The specs say 4Gb but the available space once you get rocking is somewhere between 300 and 400Mb.
If you try to load a file manager and anti-virus, you will find that the symbol warning insufficient memory for some functions starts to cut in. This means for example that Google+ can refuse to do its Instant Upload and loading supplementary packages becomes questionable.

Gotchas in popular available apps

Some of my favourite third party apps are incapable of using the full power of the Galaxy Camera.
For example the beautifully intuitive Snapseed now owned by Google cannot handle the full resolution sizes of the Galaxy Camera. It reduces them to 2304x1296 before allowing any editing. This reduces my jpg file from 3.52Mb down to 742.39kb. I would much prefer it if the resizing was done further downstream.
Thus time and again I am forced back onto the supplied Photo Wizard and Gallery.
Streamzoo cannot engage the Galaxy Camera's manual or the smart modes. These areas where the Galaxy Camera really shines and should be easily locked in to any one of the major editing and sharing apps.  
If Samsung wants this camera to succeed, it needs to cooperate with the app suppliers and make it the platform of choice for their work to. Just as in the DSLR world the competition between Adobe and a number of competitors have created some marvellous advances so to Samsung needs to develop its new camera.

Slow start-up and imprecise controls

Quick shots aren't that ease to squeeze off.  This shot fails
because it needed to be zoomed in and catching the kid
leaping into the wake moments later. 

I have missed several good shots already because the start-up time is so slow.  Keeping the camera on warm boot is infinitely better than trying to save battery by turning the camera completely off--but that comes with a penalty.
The zoom is touchy.  Over-zooming in or out is a constant dangers so I have found it can be better to rely on the size of a wide angle shot and then crop. And don't forget that on full zoom, even the best stabilizer has to fight hard to make up for your involuntary body movement.  A mono-pod is worth considering.
Likewise the two step focus and snap button is a little soft so I am getting a lot of unfocussed shots through my haste or no shot because I didn't push hard enough.  In theory the sound is supposed to indicate but if you are trying to take photos without disturbing the subjects, it is either off or very low.

So do I still recommend it?

You betcha!
Oliver Lang writing for the Digital Photography Review penetrated to the heart of how you should approach the Galaxy Camera--it is not a Smartphone, it is not a heavy-duty at any cost DSLR capable of magazine quality shooting--it is instead, the first of a new breed that allows reasonably good quality shooting, editing and fast sharing.
I am sure, like the Galaxy Note we will see a Galaxy Camera II in about a year that will have a better battery life, take advantage of Android 4.2 and be faster. Meanwhile, other hardware companies may see the opportunity and build their own versions of smart cameras that improve on the concept. Already Polaroid is promising an Android with interchangeable lenses.
In the meantime, I will learn to work within the limitations and run hard with the strengths.  As +Chase Jarvis puts it in his seminal work on mobile photography "the best camera is the one that's with you". The Galaxy Camera, is small enough and light enough to fit into my trouser pocket, it is nearly always with me and I delight that it is.