Rating

I uploaded a grasshopper photo in the samples gallery for this camera. I was surprised to see it as sharp as the photos from my Digital SLRs, except some minor jpg artifacts in the blurred background. This photo was taken at full superbright Florida daylight, meaning small shutter speed and hight apperture value. This makes shake free images and long depth of field simple, even handheld. The camera was set to macro mode, with is a one-touch button and therefore quickly activated.

For professional photography I use a digital SLR, and I published books on Amazon with images from my digital SLRs. But those cameras are huge and heavy. This tiny samsung, in case logic strechy bag, is as small as a wallet. I used it for family trips, and to copy documents from pinboards. Much quicker than writing down, or searching for a copy machine. Press the macro button, click done. Press the view button, zoom button, to check the image sharpness, off, done. For family photography it’s fantastic. The skin tones come out natural. For long exposures just find a table, a fence post or use the ground, to hold the camera firmly with one hand, and press the shutter button with the other. Night shots of fireworks with 4 second exposure time are simple this way. Alkalines lasted 100 to 150 pics without flash. A 2GB SD holds nearly 500 pics at 8MP.

A small scary is, that the on button is not a slide, but a press for 2 seconds. The lens will zoom out, and if that happens inside a tight camera bag, will the lens mechnism survive this? Also, the camera switches on, whithout lens coming out, if pressing the play button. But it has a auto-off mode.

One weird effect happened, when the batteries were low, but still working witout flash. When activating the flash, the camera switched off without pulling the lens in! Well, switching it on and off again pulled the lens in. Anyway, makes sense to always have an extra set of fresh batteries.

Using Lightroom to pull shadows or squeeze highlights is pretty much not of much use. This camera optimizes the image already pretty much to the maximum possible. And the dynamic resolution is just not there for further such editing. Be it due to sensor or A/D or jpg noise.

I personally print from this camera 2 prints on one 4×6, so each print is 3×4″, which matches the aspect ratio of the sensor, and also at this small size pretty much all images, handheld or not, are sharp.

Following is a link to my book about Suntan adjustment in Lightroom and Photoshop. This of cause only works when using Digital SLRs:

Suntan: Skin Tone Color Adjustments in Lightroom and Photoshop

Rating

I have had other digital cameras before, but this one has digital image stabilization, and even helps you to properly take photos of people when there are more than one person in the photo. I am a teacher and delight in taking pictures of my students while they work, and it is just wonderful for that.

The only thing I don’t like is that the LCD turns black after it takes the picture and doesn’t show the photo just taken.

Rating

June 12, 2008 I bought this camera yesterday and I am really overjoyed with it. Before I bought this one and found the RIGHT CAMERA for me, I returned a Kodak Simple Share camera to the store. Why did I do this? Well, the Kodak took fantastic pictures, but, when you shoot a movie (video) it is saved in the MOV mode on the Kodak (Apple format, not Microsoft). So you have to download Quicktime to play a movie in the MOV mode on a Windows PC! Not fun. I wanted both a camera that is simple to just point and shoot for stills and also wanted the AVI video output so when I downloaded my video card on to my PC, I can instantly watch my movies! I found this perfect camera for me with this cute pink Samsung! On my first day I found that the basics of this camera were simple to learn. I used mostly the AUTO mode, and the camera does the work for me in any light! I took some stills in daylight and then inside both from faraway and also some closeups of flowers in my garden with the micro setting and later did an indoor and outdoor video. Everything came out just gorgeous and as soon as I loaded my computer with the videos, I watched them from my PC. Plot to place these on a DVD to watch on TV. So far this has been an simple camera to learn for just the basic features that I need. My favorite feature is the clear videos that are saved in the AVI mode, not in the MOV mode. This AVI mode plays perfectly in my computer the Vista Windows Media Player and saves fantastic to watch on a DVD on my TV. Note, that there are so many settings, I just use the AUTO and the DIC for low light and anti shake. By the way, it seems simple to use and does fantastic micro shots as well. This is my newest camera after updating my older HP camera from near 3 years ago with just a 5 pixels. Another fantastic feature I like is the FACE RECOGNITION. I took several pictures of friends and they came out just perfectly, NO RED-EYE and SKIN TONES were perfect. (With my ancient HP 5 pixel, the skin tones came out too red). My advice if you are looking for a excellent basic camera that takes fantastic stills and videos, this is the one for you!

Rating

I bought this camera two days before leaving on vacation, knowing I wanted something compact and simple to use. It was perfect! After 2 weeks of mountains and prairies, scenic overlooks and family visits, I plugged my camera into the computer and uploaded nearly 200 incredible pictures. It works well both inside and out, in bright sun or overcast. It’s small enough to carry in a purse or pocket, and so far appears pretty durable. Even my kids were able to take pictures without cutting off the people’s heads! I reckon this is an brilliant camera, especially when the sale price drops it below $100.